What sounds like a “family discount” doesn’t always turn out to be a bargain.

So what would you do if a family friend offered you a car at a great price, only for the sale to drag on for months while he kept driving it and adding miles?

Would you stick to the original deal? Or would you try to renegotiate given the updates?

In the following story, one car buyer finds himself in this predicament and just wants to back out.

Here’s what happened.

AITA for canceling a car purchase from a family friend.

I had been looking for a new car since my current car has been having issues with the ABS going out from time to time. To make it easier, I’ll give a timeline instead of jumbled words in a long paragraph:

September: My brother’s childhood friend of nearly 20 years told me he is selling his Toyota Camry SE 2023, and he can give me a family discount down to $22,500 since we are basically family.

We agreed on $22,500 for the car at 25K miles. He could not sell it to me yet because he still needed it to pay it off, so he said to give him 2 weeks.

The process was moving very slowly.

October: Within the 2 weeks, the friend paid off the car and requested a title.

Mid-October: He notified me that the title was delivered to his old address, so he can’t give me the car yet because of that.

Late October: He submits a new title request and apologizes for the delay. He said that he would get the new mileage and give me a new price since he has been driving it. He has moved to a new state as well, so all transactions will be through his parents.

Now, the details of the deal have changed, but the price hasn’t.

Early November: The friend tells me everything is ready to go and that the price is still $22,500, saying, “Despite the market value going up, it will stay $22,500.” He has driven an additional 2K miles (25K -> 27K miles) since the agreement to purchase.

I tried to negotiate the price down, but ended up offering $22,000 because of the extra miles.

He brought up how the market value went up since then, and that he won’t go below the original price.

I understand that this is an amazing deal, but I can’t help but feel like this is a little unfair since I passed on other dealership sales, he put on extra miles on the car, and there was a big delay in the purchase.

AITA?

Eek. It’s easy to see why he wants to back out.

Let’s check out what the people over at Reddit think he should do about this.

This person thinks he should think it over.

According to this reader, he’s in the wrong.

For this reader, the changes are not that big.

This is good advice.

He should think this through.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.