Mother was mis-sold car - How to proceed?

spl89

spl89

spl89

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Sorry for long post.
Mother needed a new car and was looking around for a used Citroen C3. She went to see a few different ones but the best one seemed to be one with good mileage, aircon and diesel she saw on auto trader for sale at a nearby garage.

It was important that it was Diesel, had Air-con and decent mileage. It was a silver colour with no alloys but she wasn't bothered and would buy the alloys later. She went for a test drive of the car with her husband and everything seemed to be in order but they didn't use the aircon on the test since it was cold on the day and they asked which button it was to turn it on and were told by the garage rep.

They collected the car on Jan 24th.

There were a few tiny dints on car door and 2 around left mirror and had to be fixed from my mums pocket since the garage would've said you saw it and wouldn't take blame of course. It was £60 or something to fix, as was the rear brake-light which she noticed had a small crack you can only see when you open the boot.

They contacted Craig Davies of auto trader who pulled up the original advert and it had said the car comes with air con. The garage said that there's a disclaimer under the advert that says you need to check the specs of the car but they had already done that with the garage before they bought it.

The heater broke last Tuesday and she booked the car into the garage to be mended and was told a cable or spring must be broken, the garage apparently treat her coldly and said that it's been a week or 31 days she's had the car and they aren't liable for any costs or anything. She handed the car in for the heater fix last Thursday and was told later on they had to order a part and she wouldn't get the car until Monday or Tuesday. She still hasn't got it as of now.

Because of all the repairs she hasn't had the car for 2 of 5 weeks she's had it and needs to use the car everyday for her work.

She contacted citizens advice who told her to contact trading standards for being mis-sold something. She was led to believe there was aircon and now there's not.

She is going to write to the garage to ask them to sort the problem out of court or trading standards will go to court for her. She's also been told to write to the finance company.

TLDR; Mother mis-sold car and wants to know how to proceed against garage which sold her a car without aircon despite the garage originally confirming it had this as well as original auto trader advert.

Any advice anyone here can give for her? I'm a bit clueless about all this myself.
 
Are you confusing air con with the cars fitted hot/cold blower system? All cars will have hot air and the ability to use the fan to provide slightly cooler than air temperature air flow.

Air con acts like a fridge, cooling the air regardless of external temperature.

Apologies if you understand this, its just your post jumps around a little and its not clear what you think the problem is r.e air con

I don't see that you'll have a leg to stand on r.e it advertised as having air con bit not actually having any as you(/your mother) had amole opportunity to check and it could quite easily just have been an error.

If however the car had no hot air available through the vents this is a sign of something like the heater matrix being knackered and IMO would have been present at point of sale and therefore fixable by the selling garage free of charge.

Assuming it wasnt a banger bought for a few hundred quid that is
 
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Hi, the car isn't very old and wasn't that cheap either.

It's in the garage right now to be fixed for a broken heater but the button they claimed was for cold air/air con is just an air circulation button only.

Is there any detail I'm missing? or should find out?
 
Sounds like it doesn't.

They asked the salesman how to turn on the AC and were told it was a certain button. It sounds like he told them that the re-circ button was for AC when in fact the car doesnt have AC at all.

Sounds like mis-sold to me.
 
So they told her the recirc button was A/C?

The car was mis-sold plain and simple. However, it was a while ago and I am not sure of her rights, definitely should call CAB.
 
First establish whether there is aircon or not. If there isn't then put in writing that you reject the car on the basis that it was mis-sold. Point out that the advert stated it had aircon (include a copy) and also state that this point was checked with the salesman when viewing the car as it was a key requirement. Assert that they already have the car and you give them 14 days to respond with a refund.

However if you go this route you need to be prepared to live without a car for months and fight them in the courts. If it is a small company they may not pay the money even after a court win without further action.
 
I don't get why you'd stipulate a car with ac and then not test it? Ecen just to check it if needs regassing.

And is she really that hip or flush with cash7 she's going to go out and buy ab aftermarket set of alloy wheels? Er..

if it was me and I only demanded 3 things, diesel, low miles, ac you know what I'd check each of those things pretty studiously. Worse comes to the worse it has electric windows? Did she check if they work?
 
The lack of aircon, and the heater breaking are discrete issues.

If bought from a dealer/trader, any faults which appear in the first 6 months are down the the seller to prove they didn't exist at the time of sale. The week/31 days they've mentioned does not come into it, they need to get this fixed FoC (assuming your mum ends up keeping the car).

With regards the lack of A/C - firstly, do you have a copy of the original for sale advert which states it has A/C? This will help back up your claim of miss-selling.

Secondly, do what Hades has suggested, but be prepared for them to do everything they can to wriggle out of it.
 
We'll print out the original advert and use it for further evidence.

And no the car doesn't have A/C, only air circulation button and heater (which is currently broken).

They didn't check the A/C on the test drive because it was January and no need for it, didn't think to turn it on and check since it seemed so obvious that it had it considering the salesman in the car pointed it out, the garage confirmed it before viewing and the advert stated that the car had it.
 
Haggisman said:
If bought from a dealer/trader, any faults which appear in the first 6 months are down the the seller to prove they didn't exist at the time of sale.
Click to expand...

Just to confirm.

If you purchased a 18 year old car with 455k on the clock for £999, if the engine blew within 6 months the trader would have to prove that the fault didn't exist at the time?
 
spl89 said:
They didn't check the A/C on the test drive because it was January and no need for it, didn't think to turn it on and check since it seemed so obvious that it had it considering the salesman in the car pointed it out, the garage confirmed it before viewing and the advert stated that the car had it.
Click to expand...

Hindsight and all that, but sorry that is such a lame excuse for not checking out the air con.

With regards the other issues (dents and cracked light) did they not look over the rest of the car before buying it?

Can I ask what car it is? Did she not also get any sort of warranty with this car? What type of garage/trader did she buy it from?
 
Buy a Citroen and it breaks down. Crikey ever dealer who sold a Citroen would probably be in court by now.

I actually like Citroen's in strange way, however I like Alfa Romeo's too so I am use to spending out on silly issues, some expensive.

Not sure who is at fault for the lack of air-con, it was driven and tested.
 
pepsilol said:
Just to confirm.

If you purchased a 18 year old car with 455k on the clock for £999, if the engine blew within 6 months the trader would have to prove that the fault didn't exist at the time?
Click to expand...

Basically... yes :p

But you'd be very hard pressed to find a trader selling a car that old with that mileage for exactly that reason...

Besides, if you bought an 18 year old car with 455k on the clock for £999, you'd have to be stupid, or it would have to be something very special, considering you can get newer, lower mileage cars for half that ;)
 
Update for anyone who's interested.

Garage decided not to risk the claims court and offered to buy the car back from my mum for the full price she paid for it but not the costs they charged to fix the scratches/light etc.

She's since found another Citroen with better mileage and ACTUAL air con.

Thanks for the replies guys.
 
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