fun with the sale of goods act

act smiley · 8 Apr 2012 at 12:10

Right, so I bought a car yesterday from one of those little independent sales places. Quite a cheap car from about 150 miles away. The thing overheated on the way home. Now, I know Ive got to give them a chance to fix it but what about the cost of recovery? Im already pretty livid with them as they were supposed to have taxed it but forgot the post office would be shut, lied to me that it was all done. So as it would have cost 100 on the trains to go and come back again Ive got an 80 fine coming my way for sure. So needless to say I dont trust them and dont want to be stumping up lots of cash to get it towed up to them

act smiley · 8 Apr 2012 at 12:46

Am I right in thinking they have to be allowed first go at fixing it and theres no requirement for them to cover the cost of recovery? Should I try and convince them to cover some of the cost of repair at a garage local to me??

act smiley · 8 Apr 2012 at 12:56

Paid cash, £650. Just a cheap little hatchback, was meant to be the sensible option! Going to pop out and take another look at it.

act smiley · 10 Apr 2012 at 12:49

Rather predictable...
"Sold as seen"
Got him to agree to repairing the fault in the cooling system, but as it happened in roadworks and I didnt get the chance to pull over immediately theres obviously plenty of handwringing. He knows I'm not local and the recovery cost for it would be more than the cost of getting the work done...

Frankly part of me wants shot of them, part of me wants to cause them some hassle like theyve caused me regardless of the cost now

act smiley · 10 Apr 2012 at 13:22

Yep, told him as much. Problem was you could then hear the cogs whirring and he agreed to fix the cooling system, but not any resulting engine damage. This then means it would be prohibitively expensive to get it towed there and back for something cheap like a thermostat or radiator.
Half a mind to, anyway.

act smiley · 10 Apr 2012 at 13:37

Nope, would have seen it coming if it was. Was a Citroen

act smiley · 10 Apr 2012 at 18:59

I've not gone into the T&Cs, but I doubt they'd tow it all the way down here, just to tow it all the way back up there.

act smiley · 12 Apr 2012 at 00:37

I left the chap in no uncertain terms I wanted the whole thing sorting out.
When the guy asked did I pull over immediately, I gave the honest answer - pulled over at the first safe opportunity (Luton services) as it was in the roadworks on the M1 and it was getting dark.

Not called them back today, though - was pricing up how much it would be to get it back up there, looks like it would cost close to £200 to take it back to them.
Its a bit of an awkward car to find, so I'd rather have it fixed than cash back but I don't trust them as far as I can throw them now, to be honest, so I wouldn't be confident they'd fix anything properly rather than bodging - while I could fit new water pump, radiator & thermostat myself for half what it would cost to take it up to them.

Left a negative review on google so the first thing you find when searching for them on google maps is my 1* review, but it does feel a bit toothless.

act smiley · 12 Apr 2012 at 23:16

If I knew someone with a trailer, I wouldn't have said the whole reason its not that viable to take it back to them is because of cost, now would I?

The reason I went out of my way to get it is I need a left hand drive car and had a budget of a grand and wanted to get one on UK plates. At the time, there was a total of 3 cars I could find that met that description, the others were in Newcastle and Scotland.

Anyway, looks like either water pump or thermostat, and the expansion tank cap - the pipe coming out of the engine doesn't heat up anything like the rest of the system. So that part of its cheap, depends on whats happened to the engine, really.