POLL: Help! Dilemma about a car I sold...

[WarSong]

Okay, here's the (long) story. I sold a car to a close family friend (I know that was a bad idea to start with :frown: ). It was my baby and he swore to take care of it. I sold it to him for $6,250 three weeks ago. This is under bluebook value. I sold it to him for so cheap because I wanted to get rid of it quick and of course I have to give a close family friend a deal (they expect that

). Car was in perfect condition inside and out. So a week ago Tuesday he calls me up all upset saying the car was stolen from his school the night before. He says he "must have lost the keys" and someone found them. So on Wednesday, the cops find the car... totally stripped. I had close to $4,000 worth of mods on it. Engine, tranny, seats, sunroof, bodykit, wheels, stereo, exhaust, header, windows, suspension, everything gone. So now he is asking about the receipts, and expecting me to hunt them down for him, so that he can make a claim to his insurance. He is already going to get more for the car than he paid me since I got less than bluebook. On top of that, with my receipts, he might be able to get $3K-$4K more. He will make out like a bandit for his irresponsibility. I feel like I should get some of that since it's my money that I spent on the car. Then again, I sold it to him as is, full well knowing how much the car was worth. See "My Rice" in my sig to see what it used to look like. It was a 1995 Integra GS-R. What should I do?

edit: title change

 

[Jzero]

How close a family friend, and do you care if he remains that way?

 

[notfred]

Give him whatever receipts you have, but you have no obligation to go out of your way to find old stuff that may be lsot of packed under 500lbs of papers in the garage or whatever.

If you thought the car was worth more, you should have sold it for more.

 

[Vic]

This is a textbook example of why you never sell a car to friends or family.

 

[BatmanNate]

This is why you don't rice your car.

 

[FoBoT]

you lost the receipts, they are no where to be found , too bad

 

[Ryan]

"Recieipts, what receipts. Hmm, the only once I have is for the tire balance that I done two weeks ago"

 

[Toasthead]

I say give him what you can, he will need the extra money to pay for his jacked up insurance now.

 

[Brutuskend]

Tell him you'll get them if he splits any profit he makes with you.

 

[CPA]

Just tell him it was equipped that way from the factory.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Jzero
How close a family friend, and do you care if he remains that way?

Yeah we need to know this.

I would be pissed if a "family friend" would make $3-4k profit for being an idiot.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: notfred
Give him whatever receipts you have, but you have no obligation to go out of your way to find old stuff that may be lsot of packed under 500lbs of papers in the garage or whatever.

If you thought the car was worth more, you should have sold it for more.

yeap. give him what receipts you can find. but dont spend hours looking for them.

if you thought the car was worth more then you should have sold it for more. stop whinning about it now.

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: notfred
Give him whatever receipts you have, but you have no obligation to go out of your way to find old stuff that may be lsot of packed under 500lbs of papers in the garage or whatever.

If you thought the car was worth more, you should have sold it for more.

yeap. give him what receipts you can find. but dont spend hours looking for them.

if you thought the car was worth more then you should have sold it for more. stop whinning about it now.

a.) It is vary rare that anyone can sell a modified car for much more (if not less) than the value of a stock car. The only way to get the full value that I know of, is through insurance.

b.) Sorry if this sounds like whining. I was just asking the communities opinion.

c.) That $3K-4K is straight out of my pocket. It's irritating that he gets it for losing the keys. (okay, maybe that does sound like whinning )

edit: typo

 

[grillmasterP]

Since you sold it to him "as-is" you are not obligated to give him the receipts.
But I would give him the receipts since the receipts are of no use to you anyways.
That way the insurance company is able to get a better estimate of what id would cost to replace the vehicle.
Basically the insurance $$$ is to allow him to purchase a comparable vehicle to the one that was stripped.
Those are your receipts - but if you keep them what value are they to you?
Talk to your friend about the situation.

If you think that he is scamming the insurance and doesn't deserve more money - tell him you can't find the receipts or threw them away.

 

[m2kewl]

Originally posted by: Vic
This is a textbook example of why you never sell a car to friends or family.

btw: nice car. not way over done. give him what you can find - if he still nags you, then tell him to fvck off!

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: Jzero
How close a family friend, and do you care if he remains that way?

Yeah we need to know this.

I would be pissed if a "family friend" would make $3-4k profit for being an idiot.

He is one of my nephew's good friend's. He is now also my neices' husband's brother. (My neices and nephews are about my same age). We party together every once inwhile.

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: m2kewl

Originally posted by: Vic
This is a textbook example of why you never sell a car to friends or family.

Yeah, I'm beginning to learn that life lesson now. This goes in the book with the life lesson I learned about not dating a girl from your workplace hehe I lead by example... of what not to do.

 

[LeStEr]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Tell him you'll get them if he splits any profit he makes with you.

That seems reasonable since you did give him a deal on the car.

 

[KC5AV]

I would say that you are under no obligation to produce the receipts. He paid for the car. He didn't pay for any modifications or extras. I feel that it would be dishonest to try and get more money from insurance. Insurance rates are already sky-high. There is no sense in jacking them up any more than they already are. It is your decision on what to do.

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: LeStEr

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Tell him you'll get them if he splits any profit he makes with you.

That seems reasonable since you did give him a deal on the car.

That's what I thought, too initially. Although the other anandtechers' opinions are making second guess this...

 

[Kemosabe1447]

Just give it up because you already sold him the car...

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: WarSong

Originally posted by: LeStEr

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Tell him you'll get them if he splits any profit he makes with you.

That seems reasonable since you did give him a deal on the car.

That's what I thought, too initially. Although the other anandtechers' opinions are making second guess this...

Got my vote too to split the difference.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: WarSong

Originally posted by: LeStEr

Originally posted by: Brutuskend
Tell him you'll get them if he splits any profit he makes with you.

That seems reasonable since you did give him a deal on the car.

That's what I thought, too initially. Although the other anandtechers' opinions are making second guess this...

That's a good idea and wouldn't risk severring your family friendship ties with him.

I would give him the facts that:
1) You sold him the car for LESS THAN blue book giving him a steal of a deal.
2) After he received possesion of the car and title, it's solely HIS responsibility.
3) You will try to look for the receipts but also suggest to him that you'll TEAR YOUR HOUSE APART if he agrees to split the profit with you. Then you gotta worry about him actually going through with that after you give him the receipts, that could get tricky.

 

[WarSong]

Originally posted by: KC5AV
I would say that you are under no obligation to produce the receipts. He paid for the car. He didn't pay for any modifications or extras. I feel that it would be dishonest to try and get more money from insurance. Insurance rates are already sky-high. There is no sense in jacking them up any more than they already are. It is your decision on what to do.

I thought about this, too. That's why I have the third option on the poll. He did not pay that much for the car. In fact, whatever they do give him, will be more than he paid for the car. I, on the other hand, did put that money into the car... so the money was spent.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I say to hell with him, sounds like he's scamming you. He lost the keys,life lesson learned. He prob had it stripped and is getting a cut of that as well.