Bad driving can ruin a clutch in short order. Slipping the clutch for extra acceleration, using it to hold position on an uphill grade, or even just resting the foot on the pedal in otherwise normal driving could easily take the clutch out in under a hundred miles if it was well worn at the start. Didn’t totally ruin it, but I once was smelling clutch strongly after backing a trailer up a 100’ or so uphill stretch.
Thanks everyone. That’s how I feel and from the online research I’ve done I agree that I’m not responsible.
I did fill out a generic bill of sale and we each got a copy stating that the car was being sold “as is”. It was 2k less than book value. The car had some cosmetic damage and a couple known issues. Hell, the check engine light was on during the test drive! No known clutch issues though. But it is a 136,000 mile 8 year old car… so things wear out.
On one hand I do feel bad about it, but it’s out of my hands now.
Maybe the husband shouldn’t have said “It’s not gonna blow up tomorrow, is it?” :smack: (Yes, he really did jokingly say that!)
Ah, then I wouldn’t be surprised if the buyer sues everyone who ever came in contact with the car (manufacturer, original dealer, distributor, etc.). (This is an in-joke for lawyers about a famous case, non-lawyers please ignore.)
caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. Basic legal principle which applies in all cases unless there’s something specific stopping it (like a contract or statute)
Yup.
As others have said, mine never have (I’ve had two go out on me) - it was just, “Okay, we’re done shifting for the day now.”
Yup.
Ouch.
Yeah, you buy a used car privately, you pays your money and you takes your chances. His responsibility was to have it checked by a licensed mechanic before agreeing to purchase it; it didn’t work out that way, and sometimes it just goes that way.
A new clutch isn’t the end of the world, anyway, and they are basically something that periodically needs replacing on manual transmission cars. Your buyer needs to start living in the real world. Oh, I was also going to say, this is why you don’t sell used cars to friends and family. 
Yeah - the one time I had a clutch go on me there was no warning. It just happened within seconds.
Outside of state law, people should draw up a simple document that states the “as-is” nature of the sale.
The people writing about clutches going out on them - did they slip, so the car couldn’t move off from rest or did they stop disengaging so you could not shift into a gear from rest?
I hope that these people haven’t been spending thousands of dollars at a transmission shop for a $40 clutch cable, but that’s sure what it sounds like.
I don’t think you owe them anything but I am curious, are we talking a $200 fix on a $10K sale or more like a $500 fix on a $2,000 sale. If closer to the former, you might wanna help the guy out, closer to the latter, prolly not worth the hit.
Could also be a clutch slave cylinder, too. The only time I’ve ever had a clutch go out on me, that was the problem.
When that happened to me, it was a case of a a a seal in the slave cylinder letting go.all the hydraulic fluid ran right out when I pushed on the clutch pedal.
It left me unable to shift into gear. To get the rest of the way home, every time I hit a light, I’d have to shut the car off, put it in first, and pull away with the starter. Then I had to rev-match up and down the gears the rest of the way. It made for a fun 500 mile drive.
After 35+ years of driving mostly stick cars I mostly agree with this. Clutches tend to give lots of notice that something is wrong. Christ, I drove a car almost 5k that had a bad clutch. (A 1994 Ford Tempo).
But…
I did have a couple of cars where this is completely not true. Everything was fine one day, and the clutch just disappeared the next. Gone! Vanished. No warning whatsoever. Clutches are mechanical things, and mechanical things can be unpredictable.
Happened to me once. In a garage downtown San Francisco 4:00 PM, rush hour. Snapped a clutch cable on a 1956 VW bug with a crash box. Had to put the car is 1st gear and start the engine, this was a 6 volt so I hoped the starter would hold out. I had to get across the city and drive 100 miles down the 101 when it was two lanes each way and the freeway ended at San Jose. Speed on the freeway was 0 to 40 mph most the time around 20+. And if I slowed too much and lugged the engine in 2nd gear I had to stop and restart again. Long drive home.
And people in Hell want ice water, but we don’t always get what we want.
He can feel any way he wants to. It’s still his problem and not yours.
Not meaning to pick on you, friend – you’re not the only one but this was an easy example to use: The above is too absolute and thus not correct. Clutches fail in different ways, some of which are gradual and some of which are sudden. They don’t always give notice, and overnight failures aren’t only from abuse. As to just what failed, and whether it was part of the clutch mechanism (e.g. clutch disc or pressure plate assembly) or part of the clutch operating system (e.g. cable or hydraulic cylinder), we don’t have any real information. Any pronouncements about it are pretty much shooting in the dark at this point.
One car had a clutch cable go - I think that was the one where I was stuck in second gear. I can’t remember the other one - I took it to the mechanic, he fixed some clutchy stuff (I’m not a complete ditz, it was just a long time ago and my brain is getting old).
Agreed. I allow for ubër car people who might notice subtle symptoms. But as a regular person not in tune with these things, my manual shift car losing it’s shift ability came as a complete surprise to me, at a particularly inconvenient moment of driving from Long Island to Vermont. Had to take the Connecticut ferry home while I waited for repairs…
In terms of legal, probably depends on what state you are in and the local Lemon law.
For future reference, if you r car is on it’s last legs, it helps to sell it “as is” and/or if particularly hesitant “for parts only”.
I recently bought a pickup truck for my 17yo son at an auction.
Got a great price, and he loved the truck, but it was just too much for him.
Dodge Ram, extended cab, long bed - parking was just impossible for a new driver, especially in the confines of his school parking lot. We had it a week, but decided to downsize.
I put it on Craigslist and had a buyer in 24 hours.
The buyer drove it, loved it, and paid cash well below KBB value.
Called me the next day, mad as hell. Seems they loaded all their worldly belongings in the truck and a trailer to move out of town. Somewhere on the road, the fuel pump died and of course, all the trouble and issues that go along with that.
He not only wanted his money back, but cash for the tow, hotel, meals, repair, etc.
I reminded him that I had owned the truck for 5 days, and knew no more about it than he did.
I also pointed out the “as-is” paragraph on his bill of sale, and told him that’s the way it is.
If my son had been more convincing, or a better parker, the truck would have stranded **him **instead.
These things happen.
Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.
I’m not an experienced used-car buyer, but a $2000 discount seems awful small for a car with that many problems. Still, I say not to feel responsible. As you say, the check engine light was on! That alone ought to make the “as-is” clause superfluous. How can an allegedly intelligent human being buy a car with the the check-engine light on, and then complain when something goes wrong?
Do lawyers have a term for when someone closes his eyes and asks to be sucker-punched? And pays you for the honor?
I sold a car that had the “check engine” light on. I knew why it was on (faulty oxygen sensor) and was very upfront about it when I sold it. The guy buying it for his son took my word for it.