Purchasing a car from a private seller. Nightmare.

318willrun said
When I sell (and I've sold a lot), it's this simple. Look all you want (you and your trusted friend), I'll provide ramps, creeper, and flashlight. Inspect it all, the good, bad, and ugly. I'll tell you the skinny of the story (which will include anything major wrong that I'm aware of), ask any questions.
But.... once I give you the title and you give me the cash, it's done. Both parties get signed bill of sales stating "As is, as seen".

LocuMob said
I feel your pain,but you made the choice to buy. Bob could say "consignment" and it wouldn't matter about the name on the title (I have no problem buying or selling with a name that isn't the sellers, never had an issue, the folks at the DMV don't know who they are)

Exactly this. Don't give me the money into don't want it. I'll tell you everything you'll need to fix but once the money is in my hand, the car is yours. Get a frame rail(s) off a good car, plenty for sale here, and fix it, and enjoy the sun drenched driving out bought it for, it's only money.

Right, absolutely, buyer beware and all that. But there’s a couple things that both of you included that didn’t happen

-the OP wasn’t told about the major things that are wrong with the car

-the title isn’t legally transferable. Can it be done? Sure, I've been on the receiving end of that too. But title skipping IS illegal. The problem is that there usually isn't enough documentation to prove what happened.

So yeah I get it, buyer beware, if it wasn't right you shouldn't have paid the guy. I’ve inspected cars I’ve bought and then found things later that I didn’t see. That’s the nature of buying used cars of this age. Being purposely mislead is something else, that's called fraud.

Bob here has been less than honest. Period. And if he says "consignment" he probably becomes a dealer operating without a license, which is also illegal. Could he argue that he didn't know about the damage? Sure. But if a guy that isn't all that mechanically inclined noticed the symptoms of the problem after only a day or two, Bob would have to be completely incompetent as a mechanic to not have noticed. Which in this case means he's either incompetent, or a dirtbag.