Advice on second hand purchase from dealer gone sour

Justintime

Justintime

Justintime

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2006
Posts
8,876
Location
Hoddesdon, London, UK
Heya, mate of mine bought a second hand automatic corolla from a dealer in December, 31st to be exact. Last two weeks hes noticed a bad gear slip going from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd, essentially sometimes the car slips on either change but is ok on downshifts. Transmission place said it needed a rebuild. Now when he bought the car, there was a misrepresentation issue and i told him to carry it back but he did'nt listen. This issue was that the car was advertised with long tax and MOT but checking the disc i noticed it expired two months previously! So he drove it home untaxed :o The advert also claimed 'warranty' but not the dealer says he never purchased one, though this NEVER came up in the dealings, he assumed it was in the price already(i was there). On the invoice it says sold as seen :( howeve is there any comeback from this since its less than 2 months since he got it? TIA :)
 
Legally i dont think there is any such thing as 'sold as seen' from a dealer , but two months down the line may be too late.
 
DreXeL said:
By law dealers have to provide a basic 3-month warranty.
Click to expand...

Not strictly too. Their legal obligations (if they're in business as a car dealer) is to supply a car that is of 'satisfactory quality', fit for purpose etc. Sale of Good Acts, Sale and Supply of Good and Services Act etc.
 
MarkDavis said:
Not strictly too. Their legal obligations (if they're in business as a car dealer) is to supply a car that is of 'satisfactory quality', fit for purpose etc. Sale of Good Acts, Sale and Supply of Good and Services Act etc.
Click to expand...

You are quite correct. There is no legal obligation to provide a warranty, BUT.. they must conform to the above legislation. Crucially, in the first 6 months the burden of proof is on the dealer to prove the fault was not present at the time of sale. In practice this is virtually impossible so most dealers elect to include a warranty to cover themselves.

After 6 months, the burden of proof swaps to the customer.
 
so in short, get back to the dealer, cite sale of goods act and explain there is no such thing as "sold as seen" from a trader

if they argue, get onto Citizens Advice, they will advise best on how to get Trading Standards or whoever involved.
 
I feel for your mate, some traders are such cowboys and it's so damn hard to get anything done about it.

I can only echo the points above, take in EVERYTHING that shows them in a bad light - the MOT, Warranty advertising etc. and then state that they are in breach of the the Supply of goods act due to selling a car that was not fit for it's purpose, nor correctly advertised.

If they don't back down then it's time for small claims...and that's where it gets interesting.
 
I was sure I read that they legally have to provide 3-months basic warranty :confused:

EDIT: NVM, I see what you mean now.
 
Last edited:
Justintime said:
Heya, mate of mine bought a second hand automatic corolla from a dealer in December, 31st to be exact. Last two weeks hes noticed a bad gear slip going from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd, essentially sometimes the car slips on either change but is ok on downshifts. Transmission place said it needed a rebuild. Now when he bought the car, there was a misrepresentation issue and i told him to carry it back but he did'nt listen. This issue was that the car was advertised with long tax and MOT but checking the disc i noticed it expired two months previously! So he drove it home untaxed :o The advert also claimed 'warranty' but not the dealer says he never purchased one, though this NEVER came up in the dealings, he assumed it was in the price already(i was there). On the invoice it says sold as seen :( howeve is there any comeback from this since its less than 2 months since he got it? TIA :)
Click to expand...

Favourite dealer trick that advertise it as "full warranty" and verbally confirm that but write "sold as seen" on the invoice. I've only bought from a dealer once and he did that to me but I didn't care because the price was an absolute bargain anyway.
 
Could be worse - I once bought a car from a dealer and it was only once I had driven it home that I saw written on the invoice 'sold as scrap to be towed away'. Boy, I miss that old Cav.
 
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