Private motor sale disaster

Fergieman

Hi everyone,
I wander can anyone on here give me some advice before I talk to my solicitor or better still maybe someone has had the same experience as me.
I bought a second hand Vehicle 3 week ago. It was a private sale and the vehicle had been advertised on the net. The person selling it was fairly local. The vehical was immaculate for a 2001 and appeared to be well looked after. I got my mechanic to have a look over it and he gave it the thumbs up. It had just passed the NCT.
So a deal was done and I paid him cash.
A week later the vehicle had a major engine component fail which resulted in a repair bill to the tune of €700! This was painful to say the least but the repair shop assured me that it was just hard luck and there was no way the previous owner would have been able to mask any potential problem in order to get rid of it. So I let it go with the harm of the year!
However on Friday on my way home from work, in the middle of town, the transmission in the vehicle totally failed. Resulting in oil being dumped all over the road and me adding further to the friday evening congestion. I managed to limp down a side street but I then had to organise a flat bed truck to move my vehicle out of town. Great start to the weekend!
To make a long story short after a lot of phone calls and proffesional opinions my repair bill will be in the region of €2,500!
This is too much to bare. It is now sitting out the front of my house and I am driving a borrowed car. I cannot afford to shell out for this repair ANYTIME soon.
I would say something if this happened 9mts to a year down the line but I only have the damned thing 3weeks!
My question is, Given the short time frame what are my legal rights, if any, to pursue the previous owner in order to undertake part of the bill for repair?
I know I have a weak case given the fact that this was a private sale etc. etc. but I was told that the oil in the gearbox was in a poor state and probably didn't recieve the proper maintenance at the specified interval.
As I said before, if the money was smaller I would let this go but between everything we are talking over €3,000 in three weeks, thats crazy.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

martinr5232

What component went the first time and what has happened now for it to lose all the oil from the gearbox.

And also what is the make model and mileage.

Tom Young

Sorry no legal advice here. See forum charter and chat with your solicitor as you suggest you are going to do. Thanks, Tom