Car from garage, not as it seems, where do I stand

JamesM

JamesM

JamesM

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Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham
Posting this on behalf of my mum.

She bought a 2nd hand Peugeot 206 from an independent garage just over a month ago. They advised her that it had just passed the MOT with no advisories, was serviced, etc.

A week after owning the car she noticed that the front passenger seat was damp which turns out was because of water leaking into the car through the aerial when it rained.

She decided to get it checked out by an independent garage and it came back with a number of advisories including replacing bushes, needs a new clutch bearing assembly and some other bits.

She got some advice and had decided to return the car as it was 'not fit for use' however the garage is playing silly games, wants to check it out themselves by their own garage (who did the original MOT), won't just accept the car back and return the money, etc. This is been going on for weeks now and avoids phone calls.

Sadly she didn't pay by credit card as his card machine was apparently 'broken' at the time of payment.

Any suggestions or advice?
 
I don't believe that she can just return the car, the garage need to be given an opportunity to fix it.
 
The newest 206 must be what, 10 years old? Of course a 10 year old car will probably have bushings and bearings as an advisory as they are wear and tear items. Aerial leaking wouldn't fail an MOT.

Sorry but I can see why the garage is not interested, it's a cheap old car and because it has some small faults it's not 'fit for use'. Give me a break. Find me a 10 year old car that doesn't need some bushings, or a wheel bearing or a bit of squeaky/chattery clutch release bearing.
 
Did you check the MOT history yourself, to see if any of those faults were mentioned as advisories? If not, then they've not really done anything wrong. It's an old car (and one of the worst "old" cars you could buy, unfortunately) and these things happen. My advise would be to sell it on as these issues aren't likely to be in isolation.

The sort of garage that sells cheap old cars like this isn't likely to be very forthcoming in a dispute, unfortunately. Even legal action may not yield a satisfactory outcome.
 
As above - Legally you really need to try to resolve first. Demanding a refund after the car has apparently got a bit of a leak (in itself not a major issue for an older car, though should still be fixed) and because it has some wear and tear type items that will need replaced soon isn't really going to fly if you decide to go to small claims and the seller proves they have tried to be reasonable.

Not suggesting for a second they thought it was an immaculate car without any sort of fault, more likely "it's just an old car mate, it's got an MOT" is the type of thing they deal in. However on this occasion it doesn't really sound like they have done much wrong
 
Cheers for the replies. I'll be honest, my mum is doing my nut with this and I personally cannot see a problem but she's one of those who makes a mountain out of a mole hill about anything and everything.

Apparently the bushes were an MOT failure, not an advisory.

The MOT which came with the car was done a week or so before the car was handed over and there are no issues or advisories on it.
 
JamesM said:
The MOT which came with the car was done a week or so before the car was handed over and there are no issues or advisories on it.
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In which case report the MOT station, chalk it upto experience of buying an old Peugeot and move on.
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Very true.

My other half's 2012 Focus received two advisories. One for having a cover over the engine compartment, the other for having a cover on the underside. Both factory fitted and simply pull / push on and off :rolleyes:
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They're not allowed to remove them - which is why they may choose to make a note of it.
 
I think the average motorist tends to over estimate what an MOT actually covers. I also predict that many cars that are perfectly safe and serviceable would come out with a fair rap sheet if you took it to an independent garage in the context of "I bought this car and now I'm worried its got things wrong with it" as the cash register in their head will be ringing.
 
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