Can You Return a Car?

Can You Return a Car To the Seller After You Buy It?

If you buy a car, you better know what you're getting.

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BY STEVE LEHTO

Buyers of bad cars often call me, asking if there might be some loophole they can climb through to get out of their purchase. Is it possible they can “undo” a purchase agreement? Sometimes, they wonder if perhaps they can argue that there was no binding agreement in the first place. At what point does the buyer of a car go from “shopping” to “owning” the car?

I’ve heard from buyers–or shoppers–who hoped they could back out of a deal because they had not furnished the down payment yet, even though they had signed a purchase agreement. Or, who hoped they could back out of a car purchase because their inspection revealed the car was defective–a few days after they took delivery and got the car home.

Some callers were dealing with car dealers and some were dealing with individuals. While the paperwork in these transactions was often different, the legal theories covering them remained the same. In any sales transaction which becomes legally binding on the parties, there comes a time when both parties agree to the underlying contract. The seller agrees to sell the buyer a car for a price; the buyer agrees to buy the car for that price.

In a private transaction, this often occurs at the end of some haggling and may conclude with the proverbial (but real) handshake. I hand you the keys, you hand me the money and I then sign the title to you and you drive off. That is a binding contract for the sale/purchase of the car.

If you get home and have the car inspected, it does not matter what you find. The car is yours.

Don’t get me wrong, you might be able to sue me for odometer fraud if I had rolled the odometer back, but that car is still yours. The frame is bent from a prior accident? The car is yours. Three gallons of bondo were used to fill a manhole-sized dent in the rear quarter? The car–and the bondo–are yours. These are all things you should have found before you agreed to buy the car. And, in fact, the law says that so long as you had the opportunity to inspect the goods you can’t complain about what you found later.

The purchase at a dealer is even more clear cut–and harder to unwind. Most dealers use purchase agreements that clearly contain language stating that the seller is agreeing to sell and you are agreeing to buy. The car is described and then language is included explaining everything. The price of the car, how it is being sold with no warranties and so on. Once both parties sign that document, the contract is enforceable.

This is the one that bothers people. If you bought a car as-is and it exploded as you were walking toward it while it was still on the lot but you had not even driven it yet, how could that be your fault? Well, it’s not your fault, but it is your car. Or, the pile of smoldering ash was your car, but you get the point.

Not to get all L.A. Law on you here (or whatever it is the kids are watching these day), but the courts will point out that there has to be a moment when the parties’ minds met, they became mutually obligated, and the contract formed. This clearly happened in the cubicle inside the dealership. You both signed a form stating they would deliver you good title and possession of a specific car in exchange for which you agreed to pay them some amount of money.

It is not an excuse that the vehicle was not paid off. Nor is it an excuse that you never got to drive the car. As I often have to explain to people, “Show me in the purchase agreement that you signed where it says that [any Hail Mary contingency you wish would help here] will excuse you from the obligations of the agreement.

There’s a reason no such thing written into your purchase agreement: It doesn’t exist.