Borrowing a car can save a lot of money, but it can also create a mess when something goes wrong.

In this story, after his own car broke down, a young man borrowed an older vehicle from his uncle to get through the winter. The arrangement worked well at first, but before long he started noticing problems with the battery and charging system.

His family replaced the battery and even took care of a worn tire, but the charging issue never really went away.

Eventually, the car stopped working again and sat unused for weeks while he shared a vehicle with his sister and got around without much trouble. So, at that point, he was already thinking about returning the car.

But then, his uncle fixed the problem and handed him a €300 bill for the repairs.

Now there’s questions over who should actually be responsible for paying it.

Let’s check out the full scoop below.

AITA for thinking that I shouldn’t need to pay 300€ to fix a borrowed car?

My (early 20s) car broke down last September. “My” car is in my dad’s name, and he pays for the insurance and most of my car repair stuff.

There was so much stuff going on at the time, so me and my dad decided to fix my car next spring.

So, around this time. We were thinking of buying a cheap car for the winter, so I could get to work easier, but then my uncle offered to lend one of his older cars to me.

My uncle was in the room when we were talking about fixing the car during spring, so I think there was some kind of mutual understanding that I would only lend the car till now.

The car had a few problems already.

The car my uncle lent me was, at the time broken, but he had the repair parts already, so someone just had to fix it. Our family friend is a mechanic, so he fixed it, and I got the car for the winter. This was in late November.

In December, I noticed that the car’s battery didn’t charger properly, and the car’s battery died a couple of times too.

I bought a new battery for the car, but my dad reimbursed me for it later. One  of the car’s tires was also very worn, so my dad bought a “new” old tire for the car for cheap.

After the battery change, the car still didn’t charge properly. We thought it might be just the cold weather. But then 3 weeks ago, the car’s battery died again. After the battery died the car was just at my uncle’s driveway, till last weekend when he fixed it.

Lately, he hasn’t been driving the car.

For the last 3 weeks I haven’t really needed the car, and I have been able to share a car with my sister. Or I have been able to walk due to the nice weather. So I was thinking of just giving my uncle the car back.

Last weekend, when he fixed it, he told me it cost 300€ and asked me to pay it back.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to pay the full 300€ ,because at the end of the day its his car. Also, I was kinda ready to give the car back.

Now, he’s confused about what to do.

If the car had broke down for something I did then yes, that would be something I would have to pay for. But the battery charger was most likely already breaking down or broken when I started using the car, and it would have had to be fixed any way.

I feel like I could give him something as a thank you for lending the car, but he didn’t ask for anything when he offered the car.

When I talked to my dad about this, he kinda agreed that maybe I shouldn’t have to pay the full price, and he said that he would talk to my uncle.

AITA?

Yikes! It’s easy to see both sides of this, but he may have a point.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an IT department who keeps receiving tickets for a company that was previously spun off.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about it.

These are actually very valid questions.

According to this comment, the person driving the car is responsible.

This reader thinks he’s in the wrong.

This person sees the problem.

This is one of those situations where it really depends on what everyone thought the arrangement was from the beginning.

The uncle did a nice thing by lending out the car, but it also sounds like this was an older vehicle with existing issues before it ever ended up in someone else’s driveway.

But, the point is that nobody ever talked about repairs.

And that’s usually where these situations fall apart, because one person assumes repairs come with ownership while the other assumes repairs come with use. Without that conversation, it’s easy to see how both sides ended up frustrated.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about someone who asked their neighbor to move their fence off their property, then learned the neighbor was trying to claim their land as theirs instead.