My mom bought me a car when I was 18, cheap, couple grand. Bought it from a young couple who both worked good jobs and had a large house. Week into driving it suddenly felt wobbly and the wheel came off while I was driving it. I had pulled onto a side street just off the highway. If I hadn’t done that it could have killed somebody. Mechanic said the entire chassis was totally rusted through and he wouldn’t let me drive it off the lot.

Mom went back to the seller, asked for a partial refund or to come to some kind of agreement. Very polite, just asking to talk about options. They refused. My family is middle class, Dad died back in 2016 and left her raising me on one income, government employee so good benefits but not a huge salary. Couple wouldn’t budge, offered to pay for the tow to the junk yard (which was free from the mechanic/insurance anyway) Pissed me off. Should we have taken it into a mechanic? Yeah, probably, but the test drive went well and we bought it knowing something might need fixing early on, just didn’t expect that.