2 sides to every story. In his defence I have been in a situation (not with cars) where I was looking at court to recover a sum of money. It's additional outlay that can get more costly and you have no guarantee of being awarded a sum that would cover legal costs never mind recover the money. Then even when a favourable judgement is gained actually getting the cash from the other party can still be difficult.

He may well have decided to limit damage to his finances by not potentially losing more. As his claim was over £5k it wouldn't have been small claims.

Like I said though, 2 sides to a story. I don't know them and wasn't there so can't say who's the agreved party. These stories are about and if I was parting with my money I would want to know about it