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Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - Alexander Tutt

Hey everyone I've just joined to seek out some advice from people on what to do.

I purchased a Toyota mr2 mk2 1991 rev 1 from a private seller over two months ago now.

At the time of purchase I had a look around and basic stuff. To my untrained eye it seemed to be sound. Unfortunately in my stupidity I didn't look well enough before I signed all the paperwork and played 1750 for it. Ive had to have the exhaust repaired costing 200 pounds. As well as dodgy lights fixed. Both front brakes turned out to be binding quite badly. However when I bought it they seemed fine. And I wasn't informed of any of the problems. Anyway I drew a line under it and took it to a specialist who informed me that the car is 'rotten' the sills have been botched together out of bubble wrap cardboard and had a fibreglass sill cover stuck on. As well as that, bushes are all on their way out, rust everywhere to the point where things have just fallen off! The list goes on. Heart breaking to be honest! And to top that off, between me and the specialist we had a dive into the online MOT history available and discovered that it had been clocked at some point in 2012. It was advertised as 107000 miles and was actually on 226000 miles in 2011 then suddenly dropped the next year... No mention about any other mileage at all!

I've since been trying to contact the guy who, prior to this, text me back straight away pretty much before. Now he is not answering his phone or replying to texts. I have his address so I could always drive there if needs be but I'm not sure if that's even a good idea?

I just want to know where i stand, what rights I have and what I can do.

Thanks in advance! Pretty heavy introduction!

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - RichardW

Private sale = caveat emptor = no come back. Unless you can prove the seller was lying - which might be possible in this case - if he's had it a long time, then chances are the bodges are recent and he knew about them. But unless you asked "Has it been clocked" or "have you bodged the sills" and he denied it; then you probably have no chance. Sorry to be bearer of bad news, but you'll need to chalk it up to experience - and check the MOT history before you put the cash down next time!

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - nellyjak

Sadly, it looks as though you have been well stuffed.

Unless you can prove he told deliberate untruths then it is "buyer beware" and up to you to satisfy yourself about what you are buying.

NEVER buy a car without doing the online MOT check.!..it would have immediately thrown up the mileage discrepancy (as you eventually found out)...that alone would have sounded very loud alarm bells.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - RobJP

Sorry to have to agree with the others, but yes, legally you've got virtually zero rights against a private seller.

Unless you can prove that they have told you a deliberate lie (and do note that that is completely different to concealing or failing to disclose the truth), then they've got no legal liability to you.

If it's that rotten, then you're probably looking at scrapping it. About all you can take from it is a lesson learnt for the future.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - gordonbennet

Buying a car that old involves very careful examination, not just the bodywork and mechanically but also looking into any history (much easier now with online MOT) if you haven't got the knowledge yourself then take someone who does, you are not the first one who got caught out with shiney paint over horrors and you won't be the last.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - Alexander Tutt

Yeah I guess I have been well stuffed indeed! Thing was I paid for an RAC history check on it and that came back all clear so I thought i was good! Ahh well

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - gordonbennet

Thing was I paid for an RAC history check on it and that came back all clear so I thought i was good! Ahh well

That might be worth checking up on, see the t's and c's if there's any avenue worth pursuing.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - SLO76
Private sale so no comeback what so ever.

This is sadly another example of living within your means. When shopping on a sub £2k budget like this you need to forget sports cars or prestige brands and keep it as simple as possible unless you've the skill to fix it yourself and the know how to spot what is wrong with it before buying.

Even thinking about buying a 26yr old sports car when you don't have the experience to really inspect it properly is unwise. I'm afraid you've lost your money but hopefully learned a valuable lesson in life.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - RT

I think the best the OP can do is to contact the seller, explain the situation and appeal to their better nature - but 99:1 they don't have a better nature.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - RobJP

I think the best the OP can do is to contact the seller, explain the situation and appeal to their better nature - but 99:1 they don't have a better nature.

They have already tried to contact the seller. Who is not answering texts or phone calls.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - RT

I think the best the OP can do is to contact the seller, explain the situation and appeal to their better nature - but 99:1 they don't have a better nature.

They have already tried to contact the seller. Who is not answering texts or phone calls.

I missed that - in which case, it's a painfull lesson, hopefully learnt from.

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - argybargy

Sorry to hear about this. I hope you do manage to catch up with the seller and get some form of redress.

I bought my first four cars privately, numbers one, two and three being very simple Ford Escorts which, even if they'd turned out to be suffering from terminal mechanical problems or serious rust, wouldn't have broken the bank to fix. The fourth was a slightly more complex Rover 216 which developed all manner of horrors within weeks of purchase, and which the private seller (who I'm sure was a dealer in disguise) wanted nothing further to do with.

Since then I've always bought from dealers, and found that if you select your sources carefully it's much harder to go wrong.

Yes, private sales can be cheaper, but when you're as bad at buying cars as I am, you have to take a slightly different view.

Edited by argybargy on 24/10/2017 at 18:15

Toyota MR2 Mk2 - Clocked/rotten car...am I entitled to money back? - Alexander Tutt

That's some really good advice. It's almost comforting to know someone has had the same experience as me!