[DudeWithaFiat]

I was once sold a lemon by, of all the people, a BHPian and, of all the cars, a 2006 Toyota Corolla. I had bought the car, paid slightly above market rate, without seeing the car for two reasons:

1) It was a BHPian in a respectable profession, with whom I had exchanged lots of messages over WhatsApp, though never met. I trusted the guy.
2) It was a Toyota.

The car was dropped to my place by his driver. AC was very weak from Day One of my ownership. The previous owner apparently didn't maintain the car very well. The car itself kept running, but niggles kept appearing (power windows, locks, wiper etc).

It wasn't a very enjoyable ownership and finally I decided to sell the car and posted the car in OLX.

1) One young guy had come to buy the car. I told him of the issues, who was okay to buy it, but didn't have the heart to sell it to him because he wouldn't have afforded fixing all the issues.

2) Then, I sold it to a colleague with a full disclosure of the history and issues. It was obviously sold at a price below the ongoing market price of a Corolla.

Originally Posted by raptor_diwan

What's considered a lemon to us may not necessarily be the same for others.

Completely agreed. My colleague who bought the car never bothered about the niggles. He just wanted a car that ran.

P.S:- As soon as a naive me realized that the BHPian was aware of all the issues of the car, I lost all respect for him. Realized that 'class' and 'character' is completely different from money, education and profession. It was a good life lesson.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

I was once sold a lemon by, of all the people, a BHPian and, of all the cars, a 2006 Toyota Corolla. I had bought the car, paid slightly above market rate, without seeing the car for two reasons:

The mistake that was made was not viewing the car. I bought my vRS unseen, Had I inspected it, I would not have bought it. Your gut feel also plays a part. Only time where one might buy unseen is

1: It is a rare item and you want it at all cost
2: You have an iron-clad warranty/return back policy to fall back on
3: You are in the trade and buy bulk fleets

[Dinesh_Malhotra]

I had a Ford Figo Diesel Titanium White 2010 Model. I loved the car as it was my first but, for the 5 years I owned it, something or the other inside it used to go wrong and the pathetic service from Ford then didn't help either. One day just decided to get rid of the pain, and sold it for just 2,16,000 on immediate basis. Sold it to a second hand car buyer so I had no feelings of dilemma of any sort.

[funkykar]

A troublesome model of car/bike by design shouldnt be called lemons. Lemons are the one off unit that is unusually troublesome for unexplainable reasons.

Being honest and being okay to get lesser than market value is the key here.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by funkykar

A troublesome model of car/bike by design shouldnt be called lemons. Lemons are the one off unit that is unusually troublesome for unexplainable reasons.

Another minimum requirement to be classified as a lemon: it should be <1 or 2 year old at the time of sale.

Most older cars will have some or the other issues. It's just that certain brands or cars will be more troublesome than the rest.

[raptor_diwan]

Originally Posted by DudeWithaFiat

I was once sold a lemon by, of all the people, a BHPian and, of all the cars, a 2006 Toyota Corolla. I had bought the car, paid slightly above market rate, without seeing the car. BHPian was aware of all the issues of the car, I lost all respect for him. Realized that 'class' and 'character' is completely different from money, education and profession. It was a good life lesson.

Really sad to see someone actually do this to a person who trusted them a lot. Buying a car without even inspecting it speaks volumes about the level of trust involved. Personally, I wouldn't even trust my own uncle to that extent. As you rightly pointed out, one's social status doesn't define their character.

[McLaren Rulez]

A lemon usually has the extra items in its maintenance record. Or there's a part that's actually broken. Both should be disclosed to the buyer and that's that.

[VwRabbit]

Lemons will come and go when dealing with vehicles, ideal thing to do is to disclose it to the buyer if it’s an issue that is evident else keep the Latin phrase in mind caveat emptor or ‘let the buyer beware’, this is the principle most used vehicle business owners live by .

[strelok]

Had a cursed TVS RTR 200. Oil leaks, starting troubles, engine running out of breath between 1.5k-2.5k RPM from day one. TVS never managed to fix the third one.

Sold it on a platform for 60% of the original price (47% of current) after 4 years with disclaimers about these issues. They had no hesitations as the bike was well maintained, without scratches and less KMs on odometer.

As expected, it was listed on their catalog as a pristine product shortly without any mentions of issues for 76% of the original price (60% of current).

[Vikram8891]

I sadly have had the experience of buying and then selling a lemon in the form of a CBR 600 F4i a few years back. The bike was with me less than 10 months. I had a plethora of issues with it and eventually decided to sell it off. There was a YouTuber in Hyderabad who showed interest. He asked me to simply start the bike on a whatsapp video call and show him if it runs. I did and he immediately made me a decent offer.

I was tempted to sell it off as is but eventually gave him the full history of issues. He dropped the price by about 35k but at least my conscience felt at ease.

Of course now I am extra careful when buying something which is second hand. Wonder if the previous owner had such thoughts when he was selling me the bike. Seems unlikely.

[mm_shen]

My uncle's Ecosport had a hard clutch lever. It was a diesel with a relatively harder clutch than a petrol. I never found it that hard, but he did. May be due to his age. The person who bought it from us test drove the car two times. He bargained hard, got the price down substantially. He paid, took delivery of the car. He had a Mahindra E-verito. It did not have a clutch! After about 10-15 days, he called my uncle complaining of leg pain and hard clutch when he went on a long trip. The gentleman that my uncle was enquired about the cost of clutch replacement and sent him back the amount.
I was furious, the person who bought it test drove the vehicle twice, bargained hard, brought down the price to his target, and bought it after he was fully satisfied. But my uncle, a man of principle, felt that the person who bought it should not feel cheated and gave him back the money for clutch replacement.

On the same topic, during the early 2000s, a family friend to us, sold the same uncle a Maruthi 800 full of problems without telling him about it. Mr. Asgar of SRS garage Peenya (The garage has closed down now), seeing the car's and my uncle's condition, took pity and told my uncle to leave the car with him for a few days. He replaced all the car parts which needed to be replaced. Most of the parts were bought from Delhi and scrap yards so that he doesn't charge us more. He made the car almost brand new for almost breakeven cost. My uncle ended up using the car for next 10 years and was a loyal customer of that Garage until it closed down. What a great soul Mr. Asgar was! Seeing the car restored and working fine, the same family friend who sold us the car, wanted it back. My uncle politely refused and kept it. May be that is why, he paid the money for clutch replacement.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by MadinMumbai

Lemons are a part of life. If you are unfortunate enough to get one it can be quite frustrating. Often these are discussed here and invariably the advise is to sell the lemon and move on.

I can't help ponder the moral dilemma - when you sell a lemon doesn't the buyer get the short end of the stick?

Not getting into what is a lemon etc - but as a general matter, I think the practical solution in such cases is to sell it to a dealer. He will pay you commensurate to the issues based on their expert assessment of the service history. Be honest to all their inquiry of course. How he pitches it onward is his outlook. You can move on with your decision.

If you’re combining it with a new car purchase, perhaps just sell it to the new car showroom’s exchange / used car division. Don’t be stuck on a specific price I guess since you know it’s a lemon so selling to these used car divisions should be a straightforward process in that case.

[nimbus1]

I won't consider this as an ethical dilemma. To begin with, anyone purchasing a secondhand car should and is prepared for some expenditures on the vehicle. If the Vehicle keeps on breaking down after purchase, too bad as nothing can be done. I expect the buyer to do a thorough check before buying and not come back to me later on.

Next and the guilt free option will be to sell it to the likes of True Value, Spinney etc. and be done with it. Once done you have no business with the car or any heartaches thereafter from the buyer.

Third option donate the car, free or charge if you feel so.

[svsantosh]

Cars aside... This thread is applicable to any business transaction.

It is a product of 2 things - What you are made of? and What circumstance are you in?

If you are made of steel and can take losses : Declare upfront, Discount or Donate as Junk

The other side (where this whole thread arises) - Who cannot handle losses (for any reason under the sky), will cultivate a devil may care attitude and press on, say a prayer and go to sleep that night.

[indian21r]

I would tell the status of the car on the date of the sale. I Never hide any info. It did result in selling at a lower price point.

Just because I got the short end of the stick, I cannot let someone else also take the fall.