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Just to keep this topic going, something similar happened to me last year.
I sold a Seat Alhambra via AutoTrader and thought I'd do the decent thing by booking it in for an MOT and some mini repairs. I tried to keep costs down by supplying an ABS brake sensor and secondhand rear windscreen wiper motor as I'd already priced it cheaply (in fact the cheapest) and put a year's road tax on it.
The garage broke my the supplied ABS sesnsor refitting it, and the fault with the rear wiper was the connections, so it took an extra two days. And they lost one of my new wheel trims. Finally got it back less than half an hour before a chap came to view...
Got a larger than expected garage bill too! Anyway, the chap arrived with family in tow - the car was for the chap's young daughter and despite me insiting, he didn't even drive the car.
The car was recently serviced, had a year's MOT, taxed, polished and looked lovely. I'd got three keys, full service history and it drove very well. I knocked even more money off (£200) as I liked the daughter and wanted her to have some money back for maintenance and fuel.
A week later the buyer rang and said he'd put it into a garage and they'd said it was a death trap! He'd been to Trading Standards and was going to get them to take me to court unless I forked out for the repairs. he was vague on the exact repairs, but seem to suggest it was to do with the fuel injectors = probably about £500 of work according to his garage. It was a death trap because his daughter was left unexpectedly stranded with her baby and couldn't restart the car...
I explained that I had had the car inspected and tested, and the only advisory was that one of the tyres was near the limit and worn unevenly - this was one of the reasons I didn't mind knocking money off for the sale. I suspected the air con system had a leak, but had topped it up myself.
In the end I maintained contact with the chap and offered to sell a few car bits and bobs on eBay to put towards the repair. Unfortunately the parts failed to sell (despite starting at 99p!) and I never got in touch with the chap again.
I've bought and sold lots of used cars and they've all had or developed faults soon after purchase - sometimes that's the reason a cheeky offer is accepted, as the seller knows the car's not 'retail' condition. I bought a Seat Ibiza 1.2 recently and it had an oil leak, mayonnaise on the filler cap, faulty O2 sensor, cracked light and scrapes. I even bought it in the dark. Then again, it was only £800, and I fixed all the faults myself for less than £100.
Most buyers are just to busy to continue the fight. I was diddled by a dealer that taxed a car and the cheque bounced, leaving me to pay again for the tax. I tried emailing him, visiting him and ringing him constantly, but there was always an excuse and it took up too much of my time in the end.
The lessons I should learn are that you should take along an expert or methodically go through a printed checklist to ensure you've not missed out checking something. I try and gen up on user forums on the likely issues with a particular car. Also, I ask to plug in my error code reader which gives me another source of info on the vehicle.
Lastly, I try and keep a decent fighting fund to lavish care and maintenance on a car, rather than buy up to the limit.
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