I recently bought a 2000 Civic Si, and the person who sold it to me had lowered it, then raised it back to stock height before selling it to me. The other day i was cruising down the road and the left front wheel became severely misaligned and caused the car to hop dangerously. Luckily i avoided the curb. When i looked at the wheel, it was facing in at about a 15 degree angle, while the other wheel was straight. It also had alot of negative camber. I tow it to the Honda Dealership, and its like 2000 to fix it, both control arms and the shock is shot. The warranty is voided because the suspension has been tampered with, and the reason it broke was because the owner before me had not reassembles the front suspension correctly. I'm about 1/2 second from completely beating the hell out of him, but i want to know what the best thing to do is. Should i look for aftermarket parts or should i replace it with OEM Handa parts. Is there anything i can do legally to get my money back or do i have to settle for giving the previous owner one hell of a beating. I was only going 35, lets say i was goin 80+, i could have been killed!

 

Beat the **** out of him if you're gonna do something, do it right so the person you sell it to doesn't come beat the **** out of you... Good idea dontcha think?

 

I would talk to him first and try to settle it. If that doesn't work out, tell him you'll take him to court and get as much out as possible. That might scare him and have him pay from the money he gave to you. Up grade to ITR suspension!

 

beat his ***

 

Yeah, i think im gonna threaten him with lawsuits, he sold me the car with like 20k miles left on the warranty. I hope we can settle it out of court, im not tryin to hire a lawyer. Right noww............lots of

 

And whats the deal with and ITR suspension, how much an dwhat will i gain from using it, will i need any other parts to go with it, other than the control arms and hardware?

 

I would go with the lawsuit threat and then have some buddies beat his a$$ so it doesnt come back to you. Fu* that guy.

 

Try to settle it in a professional manner. He SHOULD pay for the damage that was caused. It sucks with what happend. I would suggest trying to settle it with him....

I believe that when you buy a car, new or used, you have a certain amount of days to return it if anything happens. Check with the DMV. Good LucK!

 

I'm not trying to take up for the seller...

But in all honesty, he could have not known about the problems...and it could also be very well possible that he wasn't intentionally or knowingly covering up anything wrong with the car.

I've sold a lot of cars in my day...when you buy a used car, it's always expressed and/or implied that the car is sold 'as is'. Some people think that a used car (no matter how 'new' it is) should be perfect in any way, and anything that breaks in the FUTURE should be covered by the seller...heck no! I've had people come to me 4-5 months after I've sold them something, cuz something broke on a USED car, and they try to get ME to fix it...umm....no.

Bottom line, I wouldn't expect to get anywhere in court or threats...it's a used car, it's your responisiblity to get it checked out thoroughly. If it was something THAT serious with the suspension, even if it was an honest mistake by the seller, it would have come up during a thorough test drive.

Unless you can PROVE the seller knowingly sold you the car with a faulty suspension, I'd not even try to pursue it legally. Well, unless it's from a dealer...at which point it'd be their problem no matter what.

Oh, and also....I don't see WHAT in the world the guy could have done to bend both control arms and blow a shock that you WOULDN'T have seen during a test drive!

Are you SURE you didn't hit something? Metal doesn't just bend by itself over time for the heck of it. They were either bent when you bought it, or you bent them somehow..

 

you tell him, jonny boy!

 

try and talk to him first
but if he gives you any lip
beat his ***!!

jk, but if he doesnt care or what not
i would take him to court


[Modified by RoaringTurtle, 3:07 AM 10/4/2002]

 

Im going to have to aggree. 2000 Is alot for suspension work also. What exactly happened to the 'suspension'?

 

If the seller represented the vehicle as stock without notifying the buyer that the suspension had been modified, and the work was horribly done, then there is some legal recourse.

If the dealer knew the suspension had been modified, then either the buyer knew about it, or there's something incorrectly installed. If the seller did not notify the buyer of the suspension modifications then there is always recourse.

It is incumbent on the buyer to evaluate the car, but selling a vehicle you have modified incorrectly and misrepresented to the buyer as "stock and under warranty" is a problem that has some legal credence against the seller.

Shawn

 

go whine somewhere else. u bought "as is" hes not goin to do **** for u.

 

Funny you should mention '00 Si. I just put Si lower control arms, shock forks, and sway bar onto my '98 Civic hatchback. You can get all those parts, plus the shocks and upper control arms for around $250 at your average scrap yard. It takes about an hour (if you've never done it before) to put all those parts onto your car. I'm curious to know why it's going to cost the dealership $2K to repair your suspension?

 

beat his ***
then sue for endagerment

 

u wont win in court u bought the car already. he could just deny it and say you were the one who mess with the suspension. u can give it a try. u need hard evidence that the car was already bad when u bought it. and plus even if u do find evidence they say why u buy the car if it's bad?





[Modified by EGkwazhimoto, 8:06 PM 10/3/2002]

 

Silly lawsuit threats / silly lawsuits =

Go back to the seller first, and talk to him about it, figure out exactly what was done to the suspension... and tell us. Then tell us what the dealer said about what exactly happened to the suspension. If you're lucky, the seller will either A) offer to help you out on the repairs cause he feels guilty or B) help you fix it yourself.

If he doesn't, you don't have a leg to stand on in court. Private car sales are "as-is" unless he specifically mentioned any kind of warranty, so you won't get far.

Last thing: fix it yourself, I find it hard to believe the dealerships want 2000 bucks to fix the front suspension (unless it ruined your fender too... maybe). You can get the parts from a wrecking yard, and with a simple floor jack and some basic tools, you can replace whatever is broken in the front-end, then take it in and get an alignment, and you're golden.

 

You said the car was lowered..then he put it back to stock. Did he replace everything with stock parts? Or were there still some aftermarket suspension components? I'm just wondering...how the dealer knew the suspension was tampered with when it was put back to stock supposedly.

 

beet the **** outta him.
now that he is sceered of you, you can work something out.