VIC we bought a faulty used car

[jente]

we bought a used car from a private seller 3 weeks ago. from the day after we bought it home it blew heaps of blue smoke upon startup, however it drove like a dream. we spent $300 having it detailed the next week and just had a mechanic look at it today who told us the motor needs pulling down. its going to cost us thousands. The seller assured us there was nothing wrong with it when we bought it, they had obviously warmed it up before we arrived. what comeback do we have. we have buckleys hope of getting any money back from these people. if we take them to court will they be ordered to pay some miserable weekly amount. we sold both our other cars intending to only have this one car. we live 45k from any towns and are now going to be carless. i have everything in facebook messages from the seller assuring me there was nothing wrong with it. ive already warned her its been blowing smoke since we bought it and she has denied any knowledge of the smoke.

 

[Jonathan Adcock]

The old term 'Caveat emptor' which can be roughly translated to "let the buyer beware" is probably most relevant here. As you are probably well aware, you should have had someone do an inspection on the car before you purchased.
You can certainly take (or threaten to take) the person to small claims court to ask for damages. Your only recourse appears to be through the small claims court/jurisdiction in the state where you purchased the vehicle - noting that even the threat of legal action may motivate the other party to try and negotiate compensation. As far as pursuing a legal claim (if that's what you want to do) you may have a claim for negligent misstatement resulting in economic loss. As with all actions in negligence, the plaintiff must establish a duty of care, breach of that duty, and causation of damage. For the duty to be made out, there must be some kind of ‘special relationship’ between the plaintiff and the defendant, based on an assumption of responsibility by the speaker and reasonable reliance by the recipient. Good luck.