What recourse do I have when I buy a used car from a liar?

[Ryan R]

I bought a dirt track race car from someone for $3000.00. He told me it has a new engine and transmission, the carb and distributor has been rebuilt. I found out the distributor has NOT been rebuilt and the engine is running on 7 cylinders-I mistaked the poor low speed sound for an aggressive camshaft. I did a compression test and one of the cylinders is dead. Given the actual condition of this car and the truth of it's condition, not the lies the seller told me, I feel this car is worth $2,000 at most. What recourse do I have? I just have his phone number.

[Sage]

In short, none.

Unless you happen to live in one of the very small handful of states that provides limited recourse for used vehicle buyers, used vehicle transactions are made on an "as is" basis. Period.

The only exception would be if any sort of warranty or merchantability terms have been expressly written into the sales contract or bill of sale which would give you a reasonable basis to sue. If not, I'm afraid you're left without any remedy except to write-off the experience as an expensive life lesson.

Best of luck. I hope this helps.