A3 Quattro blown up on day of purchase...

[Mattbook]

This forum has been extremely useful in the past but today is my debut post...

Last night, I sold my beloved and cared for 06 A3 Quattro 2.0TDi 140. Its been in the family from new (was my mums) and is full service history etc (everything done by myself) and its never let me down.

About 3 hours after selling it (locally) the lad returns asking if I have a tow rope because the car's 'blow its ****'. I went to have a look and it's in a right sorry state. Almost over heated, no oil in it, oil dripping from the exhaust even. I suspect he's gone and blown the turbo up.

It's all signed and paid for, sold as seen and there was nothing wrong with it before he left. My question is... Where do you think I stand now? It's sat back on my drive, I've been paid for it. I'm pretty mad about what hes done to it as hes obviously thrashed the ******** off it showing off to his mate who came with him as I've never witnessed that much heat coming from the engine bay before...

Do I just pie him off? Sold as seen and it's never let me or my mum down before, it was a lovely car
After all the time, money and effort i've put into looking after it too.

 

[JimmyH]

what has the buyer requested that you do? has he asked for his money back?

 

[Nilz]

If he has paid for it and it was in good working order when you sold it, with FSH etc, as you say it has been sold as seen and signed and pid for there is not much more you can do im afraid, thats the difference between buying from a garage or privately.

I would suggest he comes and take is off your drive and gets it sorted.

 

[Mattbook]

He asked me to organise a local garage to pick it up and assess the damage but I don't want to be involved with it, hardly my fault is it. Has always been a great car to me and he's clearly just pushed it over its limits, it's almost 10 years old now hardly a new car to thrash about is it.

I've told him he needs to organise transportation for it as it's not my fault, it was sold as seen and we were both happy.

 

[Scottyg]

How did he pay you? There is new protection for private purchases but can't remember exactly what it covers buyer for. The reason I ask how he paid for it is his card or bank could put a stop on the funds claiming false selling. I am in no way inferring that you have done anything wrong, far from it. I'm just playings Devils Advocate guessing what he could be up too, particularly since it's still on your drive way.
I'd tow it out onto the road off your property and ask that he arranges to collect it from there so he doesn't inconvenience you any further.

 

[JimmyH]

keep us all updated.

 

[Mattbook]

He paid via bank transfer while we were signing over in the kitchen. Once i received the money he was on his way.

He came and picked it up on a low loader on Saturday anyway. I've been pretty impressed with his attitude/reaction to it all to be honest. Not at one point has he tried to pin it on me saying I've sold him a dud or what ever. He clearly knows it's his fault.

I was at first worried he Was going to start biting my head off but instead I have him on Facebook etc where he's been posting progress photos already, which is pretty good to see. I'm not giving him any money back and he hasn't asked for any.

Cheers for the tips anyway guys.

 

[wolfie138]

glad things turned out ok, i've heard of buyer horror stories over far less things!
you do kinda form an attachement to a car if it's been a good un, so i can totally sympathise about the feeling when the guy comes and drops its corpse on your drive :-(

 

[Mattbook]

Haha good way of describing it, I felt gutted when I had to get the tow rope out and tow it back to my house (it was near me when he blew it up as he came back to pick up his bank card).

As much as I was annoyed with him for thrashing it I do kinda have a good amount of respect for him just because of how he's been about it. No arguing, organising the transporter to come collect the day after, no blaming. I was thinking of maybe giving him £150 back or something, just because if I'd have got a new car (no matter how hard I drive it) and it blew up the same day I'd be pretty gutted

 

[Mattbook]

Though could this come back to me, as if I'm accepting liability?

 

[Tfsi gone]

Just make sure you've sent off the relevant sections of the V5 in case he blew the cars '****' out between speed cameras etc..!
Last thing you want is speeding fines coming your way

However that won't be happening at the moment...

 

[Scottyg]

You have know way of knowing how or what he did to blow the engine. For all you know he stuck a tuning box on it and kicked the backside out it! Better just leaving well alone.

 

[BlacknRed]

As above, I'd not get involved. Sold as seen, his fault his problem. Think he's got a bit of cheek turning up a few hours later with it personally

 

[Eigdoog]

Ask him what happened. Just say it in a joking way, then let us know

 

[Tfsi gone]

We know what happened. He thought he was in a TFSI and tried red lining it at 6500rpm....

 

[Vernam616]

Had a similar thing happen to a Leon FR TDi 150(pd vag lump), i owned a few years ago, bought from a dealer, it was 3 years old with 1 owner, full history etc. and had around 40k miles on it, only had it 4 weeks i was driving along, TBF i was giving it some but not really hard and bang, loads of black smoke and the dreaded chug chug chug, turbo oil seals gone and shat the contents of the sump along with throwing a conrod through the side of the block.

Dealer didn't want to know, ended up losing a f**kton of money on it after replacing the engine

 

[Terminator x]

Old thread but tell new owner to:

TX.

 

[Eigdoog]

Did anymore happen to this?

 

[matts1]

Glad the lad was sensible. I got tucked up royally years back, bought an older clio on behalf of a mate, was about £500 cheaper than the going rate but drove fine.

About an hour later it started making a right racket and turned out the bottom end was going, crank I think. Bloke had used some treatment to quieten it down, when the engine was warmed up and a couple of miles on it the treatment must have thinned and back came the noise!!

Cost £500 for a replacement engine, so we paid market value in the end, but by god was my face red explaining to my mate we'd bought him a dud, worse was stood showing his mum the car and pretending we just didn't fancy driving it any more that night when she asked to be taken for a spin.

I should have guessed at the seller, but hey ho, going back was going to be a waste, two young lads buy a car and turn up a few hours later claiming engine is broke on a private sale hahah.