faulty second hand vehicle. what can we do?

[unwashed potato!]

not having much luck. after another car failing and now having to go to small claims court to get it fixed under the supposed warrenty, my friend has bought a £600 car to keep them going for the time being.

it was bought sunday from someone who advertises himself as trade on gumtree. he listed the issues with the car (2 simple things like central locking not working 100% of time) and didn't notice anything wrong.

got home and had the family's mechanic friend take a look at it the next day and he says it needs a new clutch. apparently the biting point doesn't exist and it's incredibly easy to stall when on any sort of incline.

we spoke to the to the guy who sold the car via text and mentioned the issue with the clutch. he mentions impossilbe as it's recenlty had an MOT but as we understand this would never be found on an MOT. he then said it's impossible and is now not replying to texts.

what can we do? he has about 4 other vehicles currently on sale on gumtree so clearly a trader. What does this give us in terms of rights or are we screwed?

 

[[TW]Fox]

Its a 600 quid car, did you really expect it to be in perfect working order?

 

[unwashed potato!]

fox. Don't lose site on the value of money to some users. some people £600 is a lot to pay for a vehicle with a fault. I, like the buyer expected to buy a vehicle that had the faults we were told about, and then a reasonable amount of time before a new fault appears. I don't expect to buy a vehicle and on the route home have the wheels fall off, just as i don't expect to buy a vehicle i'm told has a good clutch to find it doesn't.

 

[snowdog]

As long as it doesn't slip to badly to the point of being bearly undrivable, a worn clutch is not an MOT point.

How did he not notice a slipping clutch during a test drive?

''easy to install on any sort of hill''? What? Also, no biting point? How does it drive then?

Anyhow, I believe traders can be made liable for selling a car with known problems, provided you can prove they knew about it and you weren't made aware of them, however, it's hard to prove these sorts of things, as he can simply claim your drive like a moron and rode the clutch after you bought it and worn the clutch out yourself.

What kind of car is it, for a subcompact car a cheap (complete) clutch set will only set you back about 70-80 ish, or only 40 ish if you just buy the plate (though I wouldn't recommend this), then pay for 3 hrs ish of work and you're usually all set and ready to go, if it's just the clutch and you have a 900 quid good car then what's the problem ?

just as i don't expect to buy a vehicle i'm told has a good clutch to find it doesn't.

Again, not test driven the car? Can you prove this? Did you get a receipt or sign papers for the car? If you can't prove this well enough I'm afraid you can't do much, your word against theirs. You can try requesting them to rectify the situation, but no guarantees...

 

[unwashed potato!]

How did he not notice a slipping clutch during a test drive?

I don't know. I said the same thing. I think she was nervous, too young to be buying a car she knows nothing about. I said the same thing as you guys. if you drove it it was obviously good enough, but tbh if the car had wobbled all over the place she'd still had been easily pressured into buying it. she's one of those girls.

''easy to install on any sort of hill''? What? Also, no biting point? How does it drive then?

i meant to say easy to stall on any sort of incline. even on a flat road taking off in first gear you have to give lots of gas and get the clutch right to the point of almost stalling and it eventually takes off.

 

[snowdog]

i meant to say easy to stall on any sort of incline. even on a flat road taking off in first gear you have to give lots of gas and get the clutch right to the point of almost stalling and it eventually takes off.

So the clutch works? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but if your clutch would be gone then your engine wouldn't stall, but the RPM would rocket upwards while not gaining speed.

Or do you mean it judders a lot when releasing the clutch pedal ? In which case likely the pressure plate isn't working correctly, or the pedal (main or slave clutch cilinder or leak), another possibility are bad engine mounts. Doesn't sound like the clutch disc is worn from your description though.

Or do you mean it doesn't bite until you almost completely released the pedal? In which case again it can mean problems with the pedal, or indeed a worn clutch disc (most likely). However, does it slip when in gear? If your rpm doesn't rise excessively compared to the speed (for example if you drive in 5th on motorway and floor it) then by all means the clutch disc is good enough to drive (for a while). A different perhaps better way to test this is to simply look how fast the rpm drops if you press the clutch while driving in gear, hit the throttle, and release the clutch. If they drop to slowly or not at all then disc is worn, if they drop quickly then it's more than fine. (though don't do this often, this obviously wears your disc quite badly, you're literally burning your clutch if you do it ).

 

[unwashed potato!]

well that's good to hear. i'll get better clarification from her tomorrow then show her what you've said. thanks

 

[p1RATE]

Your only real option is to fix the clutch. It's a consumable at the end of the day. It was a cheap car so a lot of the components you would expect to be near end of life.

If you didn't want a lemon you should have checked the car over properly before paying for it.

Even if you didn't want to fix it you probably haven't lost much at £600 as its probably worth somewhere near that in parts unless its a real ****.

 

[Akagi]

Its a 600 quid car, did you really expect it to be in perfect working order?

I sold my Polo for £400 and it was in perfect order aside from the heater not working on setting 1.

It even had a 15,000 mile old clutch, and a fair few other relatively new bits and bobs...

You can easily buy a perfectly fine car for £600 and you know it... You really come across like some clueless elitist weirdo sometimes, and other times you have good knowledge to offer... You confuse me...

 

[mike gunnz]

Did she pay cash or with a credit card? On the slim chance its the latter, ask the credit card company's resolution team to resolve it.

 

[Sone]

I sold my Polo for £400 and it was in perfect order aside from the heater not working on setting 1.

It even had a 15,000 mile old clutch, and a fair few other relatively new bits and bobs...

You can easily buy a perfectly fine car for £600 and you know it... You really come across like some clueless elitist weirdo sometimes, and other times you have good knowledge to offer... You confuse me...

I used to love my bangers, I've had perfect £350 cars where the aircon works with fsh etc. But buying like this you always take the risk, buyer beware and all that.

 

[bledd]

Pay the mechanic friend to look at the car before buying it.

A bad clutch would be obvious on a test drive.

Watch a video on YouTube of what to test / look out for when buying a new car. it's free to do it!

Loads of cheap 90s Japanese petrol cars around. Reliable and cheap to fix.

 

[[TW]Fox]

fox. Don't lose site on the value of money to some users

I'm not, however legally the less you pay for a vehicle the less comeback you generally have in the case of faults. The clutch is a wearing part and the car was £600 - it's probably difficult to see a case where its reasonable to expect no worn consumable parts on a car of this value.

It's nothing to do with the value of money to some users, it's to do with your reasonable expectations for the money paid.

 

[kaptainmarc]

if its just a stop gap. drive it until it fails completely surely it can't be that bad if it wasn't noted on the test drive

 

[Building Candy]

i meant to say easy to stall on any sort of incline. even on a flat road taking off in first gear you have to give lots of gas and get the clutch right to the point of almost stalling and it eventually takes off.

Sounds like the clutch is working fine, if the clutch was knackered it would be impossible to stall it.

 

[wingman]

Would £600 + insurance, VED, travelling to see the car etc. not added up to the cost of public transport for the duration of the small claims court procedure?

 

[Jono8]

Unfortunately a clutch is a consumable/wear and tear item so it is not unreasonable to expect that it might be fairly worn/near the end of its life.

Unless the trader lied and specifically told you that the clutch was like new or had years of life left, i don't think you have any real comeback.

It is up to you to check the wear on consumable parts and decided if you are happy with how they are or not (tyres, brakes, clutch etc).

If the rest of the car runs fine, just stump up for a new clutch and be done with it.

 

[Housey]

The mistake made is getting the mechanic to look at the car after buying it!

 

[Orionaut]

I have always said, You dont get a car for less than a grand (These days it is probably nearer £1500)

What I mean by that, is if you buy one for less than this you should expect to have to spend the balance making it good.

This doesn't mean that cheap cars are a bad deal, My current car (E36 coupe) is one of the best I have had. Cost me 300 (With Fresh MOT) Plus another 500 or so to deal with the issues.

But a sub 1500 car should always be regarded as a project. If you manage to get one that is genuinely problem free you will have been very very lucky!

Buying an old car for 600 quid and then complaining that is isn't as new is really picky.

Put a new clutch in if you have to, if that is all that is wrong you will still have had a good deal

 

[jonessa]

The mistake made is getting the mechanic to look at the car after buying it!

Sad to say I agree with this.

Also, very difficult to prove you didn't toast the clutch after buying it.

As others have said, it's a consumable.

I remember teaching an ex-girlfriend to drive - she burnt my clutch out in about 40 minutes.....