Colleague at work bought a car from a private seller on Friday last week - 2003 BMW for £750. She needed car to get her 4 kids to school and her to work etc as previous car had conked out completely. Seemed nice old guy, had all service history etc.

Saturday morning a warning light came on for coolant so she went to a petrol station, bough some and put it in. Same thing happened again on Sunday and Monday. Took car to a garage yesterday and it seems cylinder head gasket has gone.

She has contacted the guy who says there was nothing wrong with the car when he sold it and won't entertain any sort of refund.

I know you have very little protection when buying from a private seller but I feel so sorry for her- she's only had the car 4 days, just wondered if anyone knew if she could do anything about getting at least half of her money back which would pay for the repair.

the first thign this person needs to do is get the car checked over by a skilled mechanic and one that is QUALIFIED becuase their evidence will need to stand up in court.

they need to go over the car top to bottom.

they need to state if the gasket was gone before or after the sale and if there were clear signs of the issue and the likelyhood the previous owner knew about it. they also need to state what it would cost to repair/replace the parts that are needing done, specifically on the items that should not have died within the space of time they took ownership if the car had been serviced etc regaulry

even with a private sale you sitll have 30 days, but you need to do the complaint asap and then gather the mechanics evidence within this time aswell.

if they still dont budge, thats when to take theto small claims court

contact the place that did all the servicing and see if they can shed any light on its history that may indicate a known problem.

the problem is that unless the buyer can prove the seller should ahve known about a possible fault by having professional mechanical knowledge or the previous history outlined by a garage then it is really buyer beware and suing will just waste time and effort for no result.

You can always try inputting any details that she has for phone numer address postcode ect into somewhere like autotrader to see if there are any other cars sold by the vendor of the duff BMW. If there is then that rather changes things away from a private sale to an undisclosed trade sale. have a look at the cheapo cars you see on the side of the road nearby if that is a thing where you live. Note the contact number and if you get the same number at least twice give it a ring and ask about "the car" and taek it from there

Thank you all, I'll let her know.

2003 BMW for £750 sounds like old banger to me.

Head gasket gone?

Not so sure, otherwise there will be other symptoms, more likely a leak in the coolant system which wouldn't be unusual on a 15yo car.

As suggested, the only hope is that the garage which serviced the car has record of head gasket problems (if it's the head gasket).

But to be honest, you can't expect more than a happy go lucky runaround for £750.

I did say to her I thought it could be a leak in the coolant system (I had that trouble with a Rover many years ago)

Easy to spot.

Look for blue or pink crystals around pipes, accordingly to whatever colour coolant that car uses.