I screwed up!! Advice please?

1 Learn a lesson. There are inspection companies all across the country that for a few hundred dollars will tell you everything about the condition up to are the blinkers the same brightness. You have been lucky up til now but this could happen if you don't prevent.

2 Do you have anything in writing like the advertisement stating it is a solid car? Whether you pursue legal channels or not you can hold this over his head.

3 What are you really dealing with? Have a shop inspect the car now and find out. You can't talk to him intelligently without knowing exactly how far from its representation the car really is.

4 Go into this with a game plan. What do you think is fair? What are you willing to negotiate down to? What will you do if he ignores you? After all he has your money and now you are just an annoyance. Spill his name? Litigate? Contact future buyers with your tale? Talk to his car club buddies? Whats his reputation worth?

5 Keep your perspective. Its a car. Misrepresented yes. Unfixable no. Even if you just spend a bit more and enjoy it, you have a great story to tell about how you overcame this obstacle, learned from it, and maybe help keep someone else from making the same mistake. See #1. Good luck.