for vehicles, most states have "lemon laws" and had op acted the way got described they would have not only had to give the money back but pay legal fees after having to go to court. even at a prestigious dealership, if you sign and then it won't start to leave the lot, is a lemon. that's not the same as someone accidentally damaging their purchase within minutes of buying line you described. like yeah if they had crashed it two seconds after buying, OK.

you can take it off your insurance plan if you don't drive it, and maybe they had been trying to sell it, but nobody was buying until this point

Not all of us own chop shops, BigDawg.

It's called **** Your Life. They aren't meant to always be funny.

the buyer can rescind

Money in hand implies the title was signed over. Even if it was not, cash in hand makes it very hard to rescind, especially without a good reason -- and "car is 'as is' and I do not like it" is not a good reason.

No. The buyer cannot rescind after the contract has been fully performed by both parties. Once the car and title is handed over and the seller has the money, the contract is done. The buyer is shit out of luck, as used cars from private sellers don't come with warranties.

Having morals isn't a bad thing. It sucks that this happened but generally, two people and a used car sold as is is just what it is. I can't think of one person buying a car who a few grand who's gonna hire a lawyer. It's a fuel pump. Easy, cheap fix. OP should have offered them a few hundred off to get it fixed and been done with it.

there are lemon laws in most states thar would've required OP to give a refund for the car since it didn't start