I want to start off by saying there is nothing that I hate worse than a liar. Now let’s get into it.
My husband found this extremely bad ass custom car for sale on the wonderful book of faces marketplace. Amazing highly detailed paint job, with a blower motor in it, gorgeous interior, you get the picture. Husbands dream car for a good price.
We drive the 120 miles to go look at it and it’s even better in person, he’s smitten at first sight. They go for a test drive, when they get back it’s got a decent amount of smoke coming out of the exhaust, worse on one side than the other. Husband asks the guy what’s wrong with it? Guy swears it’s perfect nothing wrong with it. We don’t believe him it’s obvious something is messed up.
Husband told him I think it’s worth what your asking for it even if something is wrong with the engine, just lmk what’s wrong with it bc I was planning on driving it the 120 miles back to the house. Guy swears nothing is wrong. I swear it’s not gonna make it home we should rent a uhaul trailer to be safe. Husband says let’s see if it will make it, if it doesn’t then we will know for sure what broke.
At one point on the way home my husband pulls over onto the shoulder to tighten the hose clamp on upper radiator hose, it was slightly leaking, and the car is billowing so much thick white smoke out of the exhaust that someone pulls over and says they called the fire dept for us bc they thought the car was on fire.
Shockingly we make it home with the car, and it’s very obvious the engine has some serious issues. So we pull the engine and take it to a shop that we are familiar with and does fantastic work. Shop said that everything inside that engine was "carnage" and looked like someone rigged together bits and pieces to make it look ok but things were only finger tight on most of the bolts, there were no head gaskets, and it was a basic block that should not of had a blower on it, so 15k later we have an engine that is as bad ass as the rest of the car.
But here’s where I might be the asshole. We go to do the title work and they want a release of lein paper from the bank. We contact the bank that is on the title tell them what we need, no problem we will get it in the mail to you, but the guy you bought that car from has 3 other vehicles financed with us and they are all up for repo. Did you get that car from the address listed on the title? No.
And as I said I don’t like liars so I go back through my maps history and provide the bank with his current address. Knowing full well he will now have all of his cars repossessed. If he had been honest about the condition of the car I would not have given the bank his new address. My husband said he gets it but thought it was too much, my mother outright called me an asshole for doing it.
I just wish I could have seen his face the moment he realized they reposessed all his cars, and I hope he put it together that his lies to me is what allowed the bank to find the 3 vehicles. So AITA?
Edit for some clarity: we knew the engine had some serious issues, it was pretty obvious, and the car was still worth the asking price even if the engine was junk, moral of the story is just don’t lie then I won’t help karma find you.
Karma’s a bitch. NTA
NTA. Guy is slimy. You did the right thing.
It’s not even like you went and called the bank to “tell on him” — they asked you. Love me some good old fashioned karma
NTA. Not sure what you initially paid for the vehicle but he cost you an extra $15k by lying. If he hadn’t lied, you wouldn’t have done it per your admission. He’s facing the consequences of his actions imo
NTA.
N t a for telling them where the guy lived, but YTA for driving to buy a car if you don’t know how to even tell that the engine is Jerry rigged even once white smoke is coming out of it. How much could you fall in love with a car to see there were obvious problems and still buy it and try to drive it home?
Like I said car was worth asking price even if the engine was junk. And we thought it was probably just a blown head gasket. Not intentional rigging. We fully expected for it to not make it all the way home. Had a 30k custom paint job on it. Rebuilding the engine was small fries. It just pissed me off once I found out that the guy knew exactly what he had done to that car, he wasn’t clueless.
I hope u feel satisfied cus I do lol
Absolutely NTA. Scammers deserve karma.
First off, if smoke is coming out the exhaust, that is usually caused by one of 2 things.. bad seal on a head gasket, which means oil or antifreeze is going into the cylinder and burning, or you piston rings are shot, usually do to lack of oil, which means it’s burning oil.. neither one is cheap to fix.. So seeing smoke usually means run, because that engine is either majority damaged, or totalled. Only a scam artist or deceitful person would tell you that is normal.
If he does this kind of stuff, then there is a good chance that those other cars, that he would try selling them to people with those other people not knowing that the cars are up for repo.. So knowing how dishonest the guy is, I say good for you because you may have saved other people from his deceipt with those cars.. nta
My husband and I know cars, we expected a blown head gasket, not for there to literally be no head gasket. And like I said car was worth asking price even with a junk engine. I just don’t like liars.
I’d have told the guy you’re in touch with the bank about title work, and if he doesn’t cough up the 15k it cost to repair the engine you’d let them know where they can find his cars.
You had to pay $15K to fix the car. I say he deserves what the bank repo.
NTA If he tried to screw you over with one car, you know he’s doing it as well with others. Even if it wasn’t done out of revenge or malice, it was good to put a stop to another shady dealer.
NTA for telling the bank.
But you are TA because 90% of your post is not needed.