Car Dealers

[Yoshi]

Me little brother (who is a special needs adult) bought a car from a dealership 2 weeks ago.  Day before yesterday head gasket went.  When he phoned the garage yesterday they tried to tell him that he would have to pay for the repair (dealership gave a 3 month warranty on paper).

So now i have a nice afternoon of trying to get him a refund (i work in the trade sometimes) and thats going to be fun! lol

Just wanted a rant!

P.s. avoid Teville Motor Company in Worthing!

[crazymac]

It really does depend on the details of the warranty!

Read the small print carefully. Unfortunately many of these warranties are not worth the paper they are printed on!!

You may not have a leg to stand on unfortunately :'(

[Yoshi]

Am not worried about the warranty, i have the sale of goods act and the fact the car is not fit for purpose. 

Also the warranty depends from company to company, i.e. the warranties i offer when doing my bit are a proper warranty with a warranty company, not an in house one.

[barnhill4x4]

Its within 30 days, Sale of Goods act, Not fit for Purpose.

[kevinf]

this might  be of some help  usually these warranties cover mechanical breakdown only ie if the head gasket blown pressurising the coolant system etc over heating.what wouldnt be covered would be something leaking ie oil  possible water as well if it was just leaking from the joint and running down the block! as this would be classed as wear and tear and not sudden mechanical failure
obviously if they dont help you out theres alway trading standards!

[Llanigraham]

Write to the Dealer stating that as it is within the 30 days he wishes to reject the car and recieve a full and complete refund, within a specified but reasonable time (7 days). Failure to do so will result in proceedings to recover all debts.
Speak to Trading Standards urgently. Perhaps this dealer is "known" to them.
If the are members of a Trade Assoc report them

[Yoshi]

Well i got part way there without actually getting what i want, but i just couldnt stay in his office any longer cos he had BO worse than anything i have ever smelt!!!

He is going to repair the car for free under the warranty, but he wont refund.

Looked at Trading Standards website and my little bro can only be issued a refund under the law if he has not accepted the goods.  If he has accepted the goods (which he did when he picked up the motor) then he is entitled to repair or replacement (which ever is the cheapest).  However if the repair is chosed and is not completed in a reasonable time then a refund can be asked for.

So am going to report him to trading standards for his conduct and the state of his other cars, going to let me little bro have my standard car until his mum finishes paying off her car (which she is giving to him then as she will be getting a company car) and i will take the one that was bought and repaired and sell it on Ebay!

[TechnoTurkey]

Dont focus on 30 days, this means nothing and is not actually written into the law anywhere.  It is all down to reasonableness and in my opinion a reasonable person would expect a car to last longer that 2 weeks.  Unless it was £100 or somthing, then it is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[Yoshi]

Ok, well it didnt go well and we are now starting the processes you do before taking him to court.  He recieved the car on 26th Jan and announced it was ready for collection on the 17th March.

Went to collect it and it was smoking, mechanic said it was some crap in the exhaust and with a run out it would go.  Obviously i know nothing so i thought i would give him the benefit of the doubt.  Got 9 miles up the road and it was getting worse and not better so i called the RAC.  (Read mudrats thread for the fun of that one!)  Fella comes out, has a look and tbh its not a pretty sight.  Exhaust looks like it is being held on by putty and the lambda sensor is hanging out of its hole!

So we do some checks and the cooling system isnt pressurising so we are at a loss to what it is.  So he goes back to his van and gets the little device that sucks air from the reservoir and tells you if it has hydrocarbons in the water or not.  This thing went from blue to green within a few seconds.  RAC man says he has never seen the colour change so quickly in his life!

On top of that the front of his CD player and his cd's were missing from the vehicle  unfortunately my little brother doesnt know about stuff like removing items from a car before it goes in, as he is special needs he trusts everyone far too much.

Anyhow he suspects that it is water getting in the exhaust system through the head gasket or something like that - i am no mechanic and obviously have no idea what is what!

So the dealer now has a letter to refund us within 14 days or we will take him to court.  Although dont think he will, cos after searching online we find he has an unsatisfied county court claim from last year!  The good thing though is i found out yesterday that the mechanic my friend has employed at his garage is a registered police vehicle inspector or something like that.  He has heard me and me mate talking and offered to do a full examination of the vehicle and write a proper report for nowt for the court hearing (if it gets that far. i personally dont even think the fella will reply to the court papers as he is that much of a cowboy).

Anyhow, just thought i would keep you updated.

[thermidorthelobster]

Go for it.  Certainly sounds like it's not fit for purpose to me, accepted or not.  If you go through the Small Claims track at the county court, the max you really have to lose is another £100 or so.  Don't let the guy get away with it.

[Yoshi]

He wont win in court.  So not fussed about losing money there cos it wont happen!

But it really is a shed, i never actually got to see the car until i collected in on Wednesday morning and it really is bad!

[Chris Putt]

Get the dealer to give you a courtesy car as well, and ruin it.

We had a car written off by a mechanic at a garage when it was in having work done on it and ended up chasing them through the courts. Needess to say the courtesy car we got given by them (a 3 month old corsa) went back to them in a sorry state- It spent most of the two weeks we had it being driven on the rev limiter in every gear, doing Stage-starts and generally being driven with NO mechanical sympathy- It was returned to them with borderline legal front tyres, devoid of fuel and sounding like a bag of nails (we checked the oil when we picked it up- but weren't willing to top it up although it was already low).

Make sure you write everything down that has happened and does happen- make sure you you take them for every penny!

Chris