A woman in Chongqing regretted selling her car to a second-hand car dealer and decided to live in the car for 90 hours to prevent it from being taken away. This incident made headlines on Baidu’s hot search on December 25th.
According to reports from Cover News on December 24th, on December 16th, a woman surnamed Yi and her husband Mr. Lin approached Mr. Xia, who was engaged in the second-hand car business in Chongqing, to sell a Changan off-road vehicle. After negotiations, Mr. Xia agreed to purchase the car for 40,500 yuan.
However, before the transaction took place, Mr. Lin, Yi’s husband, had already mortgaged the car to a third-party company in exchange for a loan of 15,000 yuan.
After further negotiations, it was decided that Mr. Xia would first pay 25,500 yuan to Yi, and then pay the remaining 15,000 yuan to the third-party company.
On the same day, Mr. Xia paid the 15,000 yuan to the third-party company, and Yi received the remaining 25,500 yuan.
Following the signing of the contract and payment, Mr. Xia drove the car back to his dealership with the vehicle registration.
Unexpectedly, on December 19th, Yi messaged Mr. Xia claiming that her son was ill and needed to retrieve a medical insurance card left in the car. Mr. Xia provided the dealership’s address to Yi.
That night, Yi arrived at the dealership with the police, demanding to return the car. When her request was denied, she decided to move into the car and refused to come out.
Despite Mr. Xia’s attempts to negotiate with Yi, she insisted that if he wanted the car back, he should refund only 25,500 yuan and retrieve the 15,000 yuan paid to the third-party company separately. Mr. Xia argued that he had paid a total of 40,500 yuan to acquire the car.
While Yi stayed inside the car, Mr. Xia tried to persuade her to come out and discuss the matter peacefully, but she remained uncooperative, even damaging the car’s windshield.
From the night of December 19th until noon on December 23rd, Yi stayed in the car for nearly 90 hours, refusing all offers of food and drink from Mr. Xia.
Originally conducting business in second-hand cars and creating content for social media, Mr. Xia inadvertently became the central figure in this car drama, attracting a significant online following. Many netizens sympathized with Mr. Xia’s predicament.
In her defense, Yi claimed that she resorted to living in the car because Mr. Xia allegedly pocketed a rebate meant for car insurance. She argued that prior to the sale, her husband had paid Mr. Xia 1350 yuan for insurance, which should not have been collected by Mr. Xia.
Mr. Xia contended that the insurance matter was an internal conflict between Yi and her husband and had nothing to do with him. He believed that the real reason for Yi’s actions was the family dispute between her and her husband.
During Yi’s stay in the car, Mr. Xia attempted to contact Mr. Lin, but received no response.
On December 22nd, Mr. Xia sought police assistance. After negotiations on December 23rd, he decided to return the car to Yi. Yi refunded 30,000 yuan to Mr. Xia, and her husband, Mr. Lin, agreed to repay 9,000 yuan in three installments through a loan note, with the remaining 1,500 yuan covering the insurance cost.
Following the resolution, Yi drove the car back from the dealership to their home.
Legal experts weighed in on the dispute, with lawyer Zhang Jiangtao stating that the sale contract between Yi and Mr. Xia was legally valid, as the car had been delivered, and Yi’s unilateral decision to breach the contract should carry legal consequences.
Many online commenters criticized Yi’s behavior, with some highlighting a lack of regard for rules and proper conduct, while questioning the practices of the second-hand car dealer in handling a pledged vehicle.