Miss- sold my FD :(

dave-izzle · July 13, 2009, 06:07:40 PM

So, I\'ve had my FD for nearly 2 months now and have enjoyed every second of it. My car was advertised as having an apexi power fc, but it had no commander. Fair enough i thought and carried on. I added a de-cat pipe and cat back system with the hope of getting it mapped shortly after. I\'ve been taking it steady since adding these items of course for safety reasons

Anyway, the other day I went to look at the ECU, only to find it was a stock ECU , now a power FC! I was really ....ed off... Could I have done any damage to my engine? Could I just put the cat back on and run the blitz system sefely with the standard ECU? Do I have a case against the guy who sold me the car? I think he even showed me the recipt for the power FC... and lastly, does anyone have power fc going cheaply, for a 1996 fd?

m4drx · July 13, 2009, 06:16:10 PM

if you have the advert or it in wiritng you can take it to small claims court and win easily.

no damage will have been done. if anything the stock ecu is better as it lets you know when you might damage something and throws the car into limp home mode to save your engine. the apexi flashes a light.....

m4drx · July 13, 2009, 06:16:41 PM

please name and shame bud

Kevin · July 13, 2009, 06:31:19 PM

Bad luck mate, as above I wouldnt be too overally concerned about damage to the engine, especially if you\'ve taken it easy too.

Was it a private sale, i.e. sold as seen? If so I dont think you\'ve got much chance as with any sold as seen they view it as your responsibility to check before buying.

Was the guy you bought it off a reasonable type of guy? Any possibility that samething has happend to him, i.e. someone told him it had an FC when he bought it and never bothered checking? So he\'s just sold it onto you thinking the same?

Bad luck anyway mate. There\'s always something you have to pay out with these cars! Never ending money pit!

batman · July 13, 2009, 07:18:26 PM

Quote from: dave-izzle;625877So, I\'ve had my FD for nearly 2 months now and have enjoyed every second of it. My car was advertised as having an apexi power fc, but it had no commander. Fair enough i thought and carried on. I added a de-cat pipe and cat back system with the hope of getting it mapped shortly after. I\'ve been taking it steady since adding these items of course for safety reasons

who sold it to you

Aceman · July 13, 2009, 07:29:03 PM

Quote from: Kevin;625895Bad luck mate, as above I wouldnt be too overally concerned about damage to the engine, especially if you\'ve taken it easy too.

Was it a private sale, i.e. sold as seen? If so I dont think you\'ve got much chance as with any sold as seen they view it as your responsibility to check before buying.

"Sold as seen" rarely holds up in the small claims court - especially when a lie has been told about the item concerned.

If you can find the advert, or email conversation confirm it is being sold with a PFC, whack it into the small claims court (I think you can do it online these days). Won\'t cost you a penny and chances are you\'ll get a PFC from the seller.

Jit · July 13, 2009, 07:41:17 PM

im sorry but 2 months later i cant see how you\'ve got a leg to stand on. otherwise if i was unscrupulous, i could go and buy any car advertised with a pfc, swap it out for a stock ecu and then threaten the seller with court action left right and centre.

dave-izzle · July 13, 2009, 08:33:47 PM

Unfortunatly, the ad from piston heads has now gone

The guy claimed he purchased the car on a whim and never modified it himself..... Myself and \'trevtubby\' from here went to view it and he seemed a decent guy... usually the case in these sort of circumstances... will go check paper work now

skybusr34 · July 13, 2009, 09:00:49 PM

tbh i think you would be best just looking at this as part of the learning curve of rex ownership. . as previously said the other guy may have sold it to you unaware himself. i was sold a rex with a large street port. i sold it on saying it had large street port. but when the engine was taken apart it actually as on standard ports.

good luck with rex ownership dude.

batman · July 13, 2009, 10:22:57 PM

ive been advised in the past alot of people dont realise that you on your car insurance you sometimes get legal cover ...
they can get a solicitor to represent you

chrisJDM · July 13, 2009, 11:04:01 PM

thats really bad, im sure u have not done any damage, hopefuly you can find a power fc soon, keep an eye out in the for sale section and ebay

gandyRX · July 15, 2009, 08:39:49 PM

hey mate, get in contact with the guy and see what he says, if it cant be resolved that way tell him your going to take it to small claims court as youll not likley to come accross a cheap one, as for the sold as seen people seem to think that covers everything, in reality it covers very little espically if youve been lied to, youll only be able to win in court if youve got proof of that, get in contact with piston heads as theyll keep records of adverts, if you can get hold of it you should win hands down and the sold as seen will account for nothing if hes lied, if you cant however then they may try to push the fact that you should of throughly checked the car ie if he produced the paperwork for the fc then you should have actually checked the ecu, before going to court though try solving it first and only go as a last resort

redgti · July 15, 2009, 09:20:06 PM

I don\'t want to come over as negative now but, some of you guys seem to be missing the point that Jit made, it was over 2 months ago. If it was this easy to win then lots of people would be claiming things like this as soon as they buy a car. There is no way to prove it was or wasn\'t in the car. I don\'t think there is much that can be done, i\'m sorry to say.

I would have definately checked everything thata he said was on it before buying it though. It\'s all well and good everyone telling you when its done though. I think lesson learned and one everyone should learn from.

Timmy · July 15, 2009, 09:47:11 PM

There are obviously alot of people that know nothing about taking things to small claims court on here. 2 months is not a long time at all if you can get a copy of the ad you have a really good chance you could try the cab office for advise. Really his only argument he can make is that you have removed the ecu and you\'re making a false claim. Him saying he thought it had one is not a defence as he should have checked his ad was correct. At the end of the day small claims is just like any other court and with reasonable evidence will always side with the victim.

dave-izzle · July 16, 2009, 04:45:54 PM

Checked my paper work today, it turns out I don\'t have a receipt for the Power FC, contrary to what I originally thought. The car has however been to re-worx! The chap is called Lee Reid of southhampton, who purchased the car from as a fresh import from a garage called \'magnum motors\' on 23 - 09 - 2006 in Farnborogh, hampshire. Will email Pistonheads and see if I can retrieve the advert.