My guess is that he bought some kind of head gasket sealant from halfords and poured it into the coolant which is why you didnt get the symptoms when you drove the car home. When it comes to private sales (especially where a ￡450 car is involved), always do your background reading. As you mentioned head gasket failure is common, so the coolant cap is something you should have checked before purchase. The gasket cannot suddenly go, its a gradual failure before complete failure so there would have been mayo on the cap when you bought it. Financially its not worth the repair, so you will be better off scrapping the car for cash and getting a refund on any road tax it has. In legal terms, nearly all cars are sold as seen so you wont be able to get your money back.
Well a head gasket can go at anytime and the K series engines are notorious for this but obviously it does seem too much of a coincidence. Unfortunately with a private sale there are only 2 legal liabilities encumbant upon the seller, the vehicle must be his to sell and it must be as 'described' at the time of sale. It drove fine at the time of sale so you have no come back in law. I would not buy a Rover 75 anyway but if i were to the only one i would consider is the one with the 2 litre BMW diesel engine.
￡450 for a Rover 75 is a good price, even for a none runner.
There's nothing you can do unless you specifically asked him about the condition of the head gasket.
It could well have been OK when he sold it. You drove it home without any problems didn't you?
i gather you bought the ROVER 75 1.8cc K-SERIES engine in which they love to blow their heads off ,to be honest for that price at ￡450 is way to cheep and would have sum indication of a major fault problem. the seller knew well their was something wrong with the car and is not gonna tell the buyer, false advertising is just a scam. now your left with a ￡600 repair bill. ￡60 cylinder-head skimmed , can only be done twice ,thats if it hasnt been allready done. head-gasket set RECOMENDED ebay "MLS K-SERIES KIT" ￡50 , ENGINE OIL ￡25 OIL FILTER ￡6 , COOLANT ￡10 ,CAMBELT-KIT ￡80..WATER-PUMP ￡40 THERMOSTAT ￡8 .......,labour ￡350 / ￡450.
You bought it privately, from a person who is not a dealer, which usually means sold as seen. I had problems with a motorcycle I had a few days after I bought it from the person, however, as I bought it privately I could do nothing. Didn't bother me however, as I like a challenge and it taught me something.
Private sale buyer beware. You have to pay. It could be coincidence as these engines are dreadful. I'd suggest you fix it up and sell it if you want a reliable drive.
All Rover 75's are faulty.
Heads can blow at any time.
Did you check under the oil cap BEFORE you bought it?
In a private sale if it's working when you drive it away that's all you can expect, especially for ￡450
You bought a car for that cheap, didn't get it checked out thoroughly, and you DIDN'T expect problems??? (It's also going to cost more than ￡300 to get it fixed!) Stop whining and deal with it.
private sale = no comebacks basically nothing you can do legally
but if you know the guys address and have a few large friends im sure he could be persuaded to give you a refund.
I bought a Rover 75 on Friday through a private sale for ￡450...drove the car home after picking my son up..picked the wife up from work and went shopping...came home and parked up for the night.
Saturday morning nipped out in the car and when only half a mile from home on the return journey the temp gauge shot into the red..Ploom of White smoke from the rear...car died.
After getting a tow home a friend checked it over and told me the head gasket had blown (common fault in Rovers) as the inside of the oil cap was like mayonnaise (oil & water mixture).
Now feeling gutted and really upset I contacted the seller to tell him what had happened and that it must of been faulty before I bought it and the reply I got was "was ok when I had it".
Now left with a ￡300/400 repair cost and no car...is there anything I can do legally to get my money back
