Yes, sorry for your experience.
You are not the first and certainly not the last.
Only advise I can give is always inspect a car with a mechanically experienced friend, even if you have to pay for their service. After all a car is the second most expensive thing you are ever likely to buy next to a house and it doesn't matter if it is a private sale or a Main Dealer, they are all capable of telling you black is white to do a deal.
One of my customers once paid for my time for an entire day going around dealers in a 30 mile radius and she didn't buy a single car, however she said she was very grateful and I had pointed out lots of things she would have missed.
We can all be caught, fifty years ago I trusted a private seller of a cheap Fiat 600 with suicide doors when he said the battery was flat, I towed the car home, sure enough after charging the battery and starting it up the bearings in the engine were rattling badly

.
Mind you if I had that car today it would be worth a fortune
