> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Bad car purchase a case of ‘buyer beware,’ judge rules
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/bad-car-purchase-a-case-of-buyer-beware-judge-rules/
- Published: 2002-08-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:36:44.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Business, Pico, #archive-import

*Judge rules contract holds man to his auto purchase*

Ajudge ruled Thursday that a Mar Vista man is stuck with a lemon after he bought a salvaged car from a local rental place.

Adrian John Yardley sued Pico Economy Rent-a-car, located at 2208 Pico Boulevard, in Santa Monica Small Claims Court for selling him a car he had been renting for three months. Yardley claimed the rent-a-car business should have told him the car had been totaled.

Richard Salazar, the business’ assistant manager, said he was not clear whether the company had disclosed the salvage title or not, but he said the shop had offered to fix the car or return Yardley’s money. Yardley refused the deal because Salazar would not throw in a free rental while the car was in the shop.

“And they did not offer to give me my money back,” he said. “That’s why I took the car back in the first place and I would have gladly accepted it.”

But Judge Pro Tem Peter Kunstler ruled Yardley was owed nothing. Kunstler noted that Yardley had signed a contract that stipulated he was buying the car “as is” and therefore had no claim.

“I think this is a case where there is a contract that has been signed saying this is an ‘as is’ deal with no warranty,” Kunstler said. “Even though they may have not disclosed it had a salvage title, I am just clear that you got the car under an agreement that you signed.”

Yardley said he spent $2,400 renting the vehicle. Then Salazar offered to sell him the vehicle because Pico Economy Rent-a-Car was in the process of replacing the vehicles in its fleet.

“I even told my boss we should sell it to him at an extremely low rate since he had been a longtime customer,” Salazar said. “But I do know that we sold it to him in ‘as is’ condition with no warranty.”

Shortly after buying the vehicle for $1,700, it broke down and required $600 in repairs. Yardley said his mechanic couldn’t understand why the car was having so many problems until the mechanic searched the car’s vehicle identification number and found it had been salvaged after an insurance company had totaled the vehicle.

“The mechanic said it was a mess,” Yardley said. “And after he did a search, he came back and said ‘no wonder.’”

But Kunstler said Yardley had been driving the car around for three months without having significant problems and had apparently been happy with the vehicle up to that point.

“Otherwise you wouldn’t have purchased the car in the first place,” he said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 10, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081002.pdf?ref=smdp.com)