Stuart writes:

A few months ago my inexperienced son bought a car at a used car lot.
The car was trouble from the start. Last week the head gasket blew,
making the car a total loss.

The used car lot had financed the sale themselves.

Will non payment of the $900 balance owed screw up his credit
rating?

Boy that sucks. :-\ Sorry to hear of the experience.

Yes, very likely non payment will get reported somewhere. However it
is a pain in the butt to collect these things and the possibility of
having to go into collections and repo not being something they'll be
excited about since the car is dead might give you a bargaining chip
to see if you can get the dealer to do something for ya toward the
vehicle. Legally, once you walk off that lot and take posession, that
thing is your problem, but a reasonable seller doesn't want ****ed off
customers storming around telling everyone on the internet they sold
him a piece of poo. So, at least engage them in the dialog about
"Look, y'all sold me a piece of crap, you took advantage of an
inexperienced purchaser, and now the car doesn't even run."

If they take a pain in the ass tone about it, maybe shop it by your
local media's "troubleshooter" or consumer advocate type reporter and
see if it's anything they want to get involved in. No business
owner wants a big spotlight shown on their iffy sales practices.

Good luck and be sure to post how it turns out.

--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/