Michigan law on private sale on used car?

Question

i purchased a car about 3 weeks ago, and now the car doesn't work supposedly the engine on the car had seized up, and now i may need a new engine? does anybody know what i can do? if i could get my money back or get the owner to repair/fix the car? and i did not sign a as-is agreement with the owner

Answer 1

You don't have to have a signed "as is" statement. All private used car sales are "as is". The seller owes you nothing. It is the buyer's responsibility to determine the condition of a car before buying it.

Answer 2

All car are sold "as-is" unless the seller stipulates something different.  Nope nothing you can do but fix the car or sell it or trade it or whatever you want with the car, it's yours.

Answer 3

Just to clarify, the majority of answers you are getting to your question are correct.  When you purchase a vehicle from a private party, unless you have something in writing to the contrary, you are assumed to have purchased the vehicle "as is", unless (like one of your previous answerers indicated), you can prove fraud.  One long shot idea is to see if you can figure out if the previous owner had the vehicle serviced at licensed repair facility.  If you can talk them into providing you with copies of any service work that was done (being the vehicles new owner) you might have a chance of proving fraud.  If you can come up with a recent service invoice diagnosing major engine problems, you might have a legal case.  Certainly one for small claims court.

With all the (much deserved) bad rap that car dealers get, people do not realize that a licensed dealer actually has much more legal responsibility for the vehicles they sell than a private party does.  The reason that dealerships started using "as is" statements is that the law assumes expertise on the part of the dealership...  meaning the "we didn't know the engine was about to blow up" defense doesn't generally work in court for a Michigan dealer.  When a customer signs  a dealer's "as is" statement he is essentially saying "if the car blows up, the dealer warned me and isn't liable".

Sorry about the bad news in your answers but I hope this helps,

Mark H.

Answer 4

Sorry friend !!!   Not much you can do !  You don't have to sign an (as is) You would have to prove the seller knew of a problem and didn't tell you.  Hard to prove,since you drove it 3 weeks. I hate it that this happened to you, but when you buy used car, thats a chance you take.  Good luck !

Answer 5

Sales of used cars are assumed to be as-is unless a warranty is expressly provided.  

You would have to pay for the repairs yourself.  The only way you could get the old owner to pay is if you can prove fraud, meaning that he knew there were problems and told you that there weren't any.  This is almost impossible to do in practice, as the burden of proof is on you.