Used car woes

[weirdfish]

Not for me, but my nephew has just phoned and is getting grief from the garage he and his partner bought a car from last November, came with a 12 warranty, and more or less from day one had a problem, the garage have had it back on several occasions to try and rectify it, but it still has the problem, now they are fed up with being mucked about, and not having a car that is reliable and trustworthy.
They have been supplied with a loan car most of the time, but it's not the same, is it, anyway, the salesman from the garage phoned him up and basically said, we can't find anything wrong with the car, ( although they have had it in on several occasions, and even changed the ecu ), so we want the loan car back, and if you don't return it we will report it stolen, some salesman.
I basically told my nephew to take the car back and give them 3 choices, fix the car, fully refund all monies paid, or tell them you will get the car fixed via a main dealer and present them with the bill.
Is this about right, before he seeks legal help, ( I would accompany him to the garage myself, but he is 200 miles away from me ).
Thanx.

[X5Sport]

Needs to contact Trading Standards in his local area.  It comes under the Sales of Goods Act.

Which! have these tips about your rights.

If the fault occurred within 6 months then the onus is on the Retailer to prove everything was fine at the point of sale, beyond that it's down to your nephew.  If I'm reading your above correctly, the fault occurred very quickly and as that's less than 6 months it should be straightforward.

[weirdfish]

Yes, it happened well within 6 months of purchase, I will see how he's doing and let him know that trading standards are an option, Thanx.

[Denis O]

Good luck with whichever way you choose. Trading Standards will likely as not absolve themselves of responsibility and move you onto Consumer Direct.

CD will give you lots of advice and then stand back whilst you try and get the dealer to do something. The dealer will ignore you and you will be forced to go to small claims court having paid for a full diagnosis by a main dealer.

You will start proceedings and the dealer will immediately switch the hearing to his local court.

You will then swap "lies" for a while and eventually the court will offer you arbitration before going to court. My knowledge dies at this point because it was clear in my case that the SCC has no teeth and let's be fair, even if you get the judgement the dealer will still tell you to piss off.

You are on a hiding to nothing with toothless quangos who will send you batshit in the process.

Oh, and the dealer in my case, shut down his showroom and did a runner never to be seen again leaving me to spend £3k on a new engine  >:(

Good luck.

[Rusty]

Hope that your nephew has some luck with the dealership, sometimes the threat of proceedings can focus the deler, else it may be a battle as Dennis found out (I got the impression he was a little bitter after reading his post above )
Keep us informed won't you. 

[weirdfish]

[quote="Denis O"]
Good luck with whichever way you choose. Trading Standards will likely as not absolve themselves of responsibility and move you onto Consumer Direct.

CD will give you lots of advice and then stand back whilst you try and get the dealer to do something. The dealer will ignore you and you will be forced to go to small claims court having paid for a full diagnosis by a main dealer.

You will start proceedings and the dealer will immediately switch the hearing to his local court.

You will then swap "lies" for a while and eventually the court will offer you arbitration before going to court. My knowledge dies at this point because it was clear in my case that the SCC has no teeth and let's be fair, even if you get the judgement the dealer will still tell you to piss off.

You are on a hiding to nothing with toothless quangos who will send you batshit in the process.

Oh, and the dealer in my case, shut down his showroom and did a runner never to be seen again leaving me to spend £3k on a new engine  >:(

Good luck.
[/quote]

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience, I am hoping that my nephew can sort it out before it goes any further, he has since spoke to the garage owner and has had a better response from him, he is picking the car up tommorrow with a covering letter stating that it is 100% roadworthy, along with a print out of all visits and any parts replaced, they have also agreed that should the car require any further work then it will be returned under warranty.

[dirtymonkey29]

Was it bought on finance?

[weirdfish]

No, bought with cash and a P/X.

[dirtymonkey29]

Shame, finance company would also be liable

[weirdfish]

Sometimes you are better off buying via finance, or even credit card, ( I think ), but you always think of the interest rate and how you are going to get bent over and, ( you know what I mean ), I can't find a smiley to suit, 

[Denis O]

[quote="Rusty Nail"]
(I got the impression he was a little bitter after reading his post above
[/quote]

Just a little, Rusty. I have yet to find a dealer that I would say takes total responsibility for what he's doing. They will all squirm to a lesser or greater degree.

The example I gave is the worst but even the most recent X5 purchase was not without some minor problems. Mileage quoted in ad 58k, actual mileage 59.5k; why even bother. Tyres quoted as all good. 2 were and 2 were around 3mm. Surely good is above average which is car tyres is 4mm so in my view 5mm or 6mm would be good.

You know when a car dealer is lying....his lips are moving.

[X5Sport]

[quote="Denis O"]
[quote="Rusty Nail"]
(I got the impression he was a little bitter after reading his post above
[/quote]
I have yet to find a dealer that I would say takes total responsibility for what he's doing. They will all squirm to a lesser or greater degree.
[/quote]
All too often it's the latter unfortunately! 

[Rusty]

[quote="X5Sport"]
[quote="Denis O"]
[quote="Rusty Nail"]
(I got the impression he was a little bitter after reading his post above
[/quote]
I have yet to find a dealer that I would say takes total responsibility for what he's doing. They will all squirm to a lesser or greater degree.
[/quote]
All too often it's the latter unfortunately! 
[/quote]
I think the same is pretty much true of anyone or organisation where money is involved. All out for a quick easy buck.
I can't imagine how pi$$ed you must have been Dennis with your issues. Just a shame you couldn't arrange for a visit one dark night :-X

Cars can be expensive things to fix, but that certainly doesn't give thieving bar-steward dealers the right to exploit hard working customers. At the end of the day, legally they need to sell a car which is fit for purpose.

Good luck with the new arrangement.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

[weirdfish]

Thought I would update this thread, nephew has since been told by the garage that they want nothing more to do with the car and that he will now have to contact the warranty company to try and get something done.
Strange thing is, they have had the car back to try and sort it out, so they know there is a problem, now, because they either can't sort it out, or it's going to cost them money, they are washing their hands of all responsibility.
They even come up with the story about the garage is in new ownership now, and they only bought the trading name, and nothing else, my nephew said you could actually see their noses growing as they spoke.
I have told him to seek clarification on this from either CAB/trading standards, or a solicitor.
I think the biggest problem the garage is seeing is that there is an engine management light on, and this is probably worrying them, they even told him that it had been to the main dealers, ( vauxhall ), and the couldnt find anything wrong, again, long nose syndrome.
Any thoughts.

[X5Sport]

Defo Trading Standards now!!  With the Engine Mgmt light being on that's an automatic MOT fail (since January) and they are looking at money.  If the fault occurred within a couple of days then they have to either fix or give him his money back.

If the firm has changed hands then lets see the appropriate company papers as lodged with HMRC (for VAT etc) and Companies House......I bet nothing has changed.....