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There is nothing to "take back". Since the car has been sold and re-titled, they would have to sell the car back to you and then you would have to re-title it back into your name.
Legally, your buyer is the owner of the car. You cannot take it back and "unwind" the transaction at the DMV.
If you were to now purchase the car, that would be considered a new transaction by the DMV, subject to all the new fees.
This is 100% correct. I would add that if it was me, I would offer the current owner of the car the original price less 2X the transaction fees. That way the knucklehead buyer would pay for the redundant transactions, and the original owner would be back where he started, financially.
I'd check the car over closely though. The knucklehead buyer may have damaged something, and that's why they want to sell it back.
This is the reason I always trade in cars instead of selling them myself.
I don't want to have the dude turning up at my door saying "hey man, that car YOU sold me won't start. Give me my money back."
That's one way to do business, but realize you are paying something (perhaps more than you think) to the dealer for this convenience.
The financial advantage to a trade-in is that in most states anyway, you only pay sales tax on the difference between trade-in price and purchase price.
Of course a perfectly usable retort to "hey man, that car YOU sold me won't start. Give me my money back." is "Pound sand, beat it or I'll call the cops!"
A lot of off topic responses here. OP is not asking whether he has to take the car back (in fact, he states clearly that he understands that he is not required to). He has stated that he IS going to take the car back, because it sounds like he is a really nice person to deal with. Kudos to the OP.
As far as the OP's question- it is possible that the state has a procedure in place to deal with this type of situation. It may be worth a call to the DMV. I know that our state, NJ, has a procedure in place for getting your sales tax refunded if a car is returned to a dealer, so your state may have something like that for the buyer.
Unfortunately I can't imagine a scenario where you won't have to go back to the DMV yourself though to re-register the car in your name.
The last car I sold was my wife's '03 Accord EX- 6 cyl. It had about 80K on the speedo. The main reason I wanted to unload it was that of the problems that those models had with the transmission. It turned out that I sold it to a young woman who I vaguely knew. She and her husband both liked it and I even made them an offer that I know none of you would. They agreed on the asking price. Because I did like them, I cut the price $500 and told her that she HAD to take free music lessons with me as she was just learning the organ. They were happy and I have given her about 6 music lessons for free and helping her get a better church job. Well, the last time I talked to her, she was worried about her car making it back into town as she thought the car had a transmission problem. So far, she hasn't called back about the new job or the car. The car was purchased in Dec. of '13 so it has been 2 and a half years since I sold it to her. I do hope that it isn't going bad and maybe something else ( I gave her the whole service records which included a new timing belt). So, while I do not feel badly about it, I do not want her to have problems with it. Other cars I have sold on CL, I didn't know any of the buyers. Probably is a good rule not to sell to anyone you know.
I sold a car to someone one week ago for $3000 , they did test drive and also had it check with the mechanic etc and all was fine
Buyer paid me the money, Title is transferred and also they got new registration
Since yesterday, the car wont start and got some issues
I know, legally I am not obliged to take the car back but I wanted to ask if I take the car back and return them the $3000, what happens to money spent in DMV by other party(in title and registrations)
Also, do I need to go to DMV again and spend money to get a new title in my name since now the title is in buyers name ?
Is there any specific period within which DMV would re-adjust everything to how it was a week ago (i,.e., registration, title in my name) without me spending any money?
You wouldn't be taking it back, you'd be buying it back from them if everything has already been transferred and you'd most likely have to pay taxes and licencing fees on it as well.
I would treat it like you're buying a used car.
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Now as other's have mentioned it's a horrible idea taking the car back. This has nothing to do with being nice, especially if you somehow feel guilty, you shouldn't. Old cars can have problems, and cheap cars (under 5k) can have problems and that's on the buyer.
The car could have been abused by the buyers, or used in a crime or...who knows.
I sold a car to someone one week ago for $3000 , they did test drive and also had it check with the mechanic etc and all was fine
Buyer paid me the money, Title is transferred and also they got new registration
Since yesterday, the car wont start and got some issues
I know, legally I am not obliged to take the car back but I wanted to ask if I take the car back and return them the $3000, what happens to money spent in DMV by other party(in title and registrations)
Also, do I need to go to DMV again and spend money to get a new title in my name since now the title is in buyers name ?
Is there any specific period within which DMV would re-adjust everything to how it was a week ago (i,.e., registration, title in my name) without me spending any money?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit
Legally, your buyer is the owner of the car. You cannot take it back and "unwind" the transaction at the DMV.
If you were to now purchase the car, that would be considered a new transaction by the DMV, subject to all the new fees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Checkered24
You would have to buy the car back, and incur the DMV fees again to transfer title back to yourself.
You should feel no obligation at all to buy the car back. The new owner needs to get fixed whatever has gone bad since they bought it.
what these guys said. the DMV doesnt care if you buy and sell your car over and over again, they just want their piece of the transaction. that means title and registration fees each time the title is transferred.
my question to you though is, why are you considering buying back the car? i would do it for family or friends, but no one else.
Either OP is naive or very generous person. I'll default to the latter for now. It is good karma but keep in mind you do NOT have any obligation to take back the car. Generally all transactions are AS-IS
You sold the other person the car. You said it was checked by the mechanic, and every thing was fine? Whose mechanic yours or theirs? You say it was fine. Now it won't start and "has some issues". What are the issues, did the alternator go and now the battery is dead and it won't start. Or did they get a bad load of gas and now the injectors all have to be replaced.
I don't know why you would consider taking the car back. What repairs are necessary and what's the cost?
In any event they agreed to buy the car from you, as far as you know it was ok at the time you sold it. If you were to take it back at the very least they used it for a week you should deduct that and the cost of motor vehicle fees from any refund. Although how do you know what they did to to car, as I said a bad load of gas or maybe they ran it low on oil? I had a stepson bought a perfectly good Chevy nova (when they were corollas in disguise) NEVER checked the oil on it. (I couldn't tell him ANYTHING) and seized the engine about a month or so after he bought it. He'd purchased it from a friend of his mother and mine, we didn't even think of blaming our friend. Or asking for a refund.
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