Second hand car engine failure after 3 months
- Thread starter Linkex
- Start date
Associate
I would not accept this offer under any circumstances.
You implied that the purchase cost of the car was £2000-£2500. It is unreasonable for the dealer to expect you to then fork out another £1000 for a mechanical fault that could well have been present at the time of purchase! Haggisman stated at the start of the thread -
If I were you, I'd go an meet with the dealer. State that you are unhappy with their offer. Under the guides from the Office of Fair Trading and the Sale of Goods Act the dealer is required to repair, replace, or refund you for the car. That is their obligation and you will not accept anything less. If they still will not budge then I would thank them for their time and tell them you will now seek a legal recourse.
It may end up being a longer road to getting back on the road, but honestly, parasites like this feed off desperate customers who cannot afford the time and effort it takes to force them to do the right thing!
Soldato
Yeah I thought the same!
The offer is, sadly, as I expected if that is the offer. An opportunity for the dealer to at worst for him cover his costs, at best make a profit. I'd reject that offer, be clear in my expectancy and go legal if I didn't get satisfaction. This is based on what you have told us of course.
Have been mulling this over for a couple of days and I think I am going to take the risk and fight this. As such, I intend to offer them a choice of acceptable alternatives:
1/. Repair the car entirely at their cost, including an engine from a full service history car (As the original had this)
2/. Refund me the original purchase price and do what they want with the car. Frankly I'm hoping this is the option they take.
I believe this is reasonable given the SOGA (And the fact that they offered half tells me they know they won't win if it goes 'legal'. Thoughts?
The challenge I have is that the wife wants to 'settle' - pay the £500, take the car and hope. I'm close to convincing her to go my way, and to seal the deal, I need to show her some examples of other cars that we could buy if I succeed in extracting a refund. I've created a separate thread for recommendations at http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25534648, if you have any suggestions for similar but more reliable car to the Rover, please let me know.
1/. Repair the car entirely at their cost, including an engine from a full service history car (As the original had this)
2/. Refund me the original purchase price and do what they want with the car. Frankly I'm hoping this is the option they take.
I believe this is reasonable given the SOGA (And the fact that they offered half tells me they know they won't win if it goes 'legal'. Thoughts?
The challenge I have is that the wife wants to 'settle' - pay the £500, take the car and hope. I'm close to convincing her to go my way, and to seal the deal, I need to show her some examples of other cars that we could buy if I succeed in extracting a refund. I've created a separate thread for recommendations at http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=25534648, if you have any suggestions for similar but more reliable car to the Rover, please let me know.
Please don't listen to your wife
My sister recently went through a similar thing like this with a BMW 1 Series that was leaking oil, it broke down and the place she bought it from was trying to get £900 out of her. A well worded letter quoting SOGA and mentioning trading standards got them to sort it out.
Don
Fight it. Scum dealers like that one just feed off people who take the easy way out. They don't give a stuff about their customers or their legal obligations.
Take them to the small claims court. You will win.
Take them to the small claims court. You will win.
Associate
Also is it worth charging them for costs incurred due to lack of car if you end up taking them to court? (I have no idea if this is reasonable so would have to ask a legal expert but to me, especially as they're being difficult and dragging it out, this seems entirely reasonable and will make them think twice about trying it again with the next customer if just fixing it would have worked out cheaper for them)
He might win but then he's still got the problem of then getting them to pay. All the while being without a car and being even more out of pocket.
So having decided to forget about this over Christmas, I gave the dealer ship a call on the 2nd of Jan, then again this morning and finally got a call back. Informed them that I was not willing to accept their offer and that I expect them to resolve it at their cost. Their arguments were, basically:
The car is low value - I think their point was that its a lot of money for a low value car. I responded that its not really my problem
The car is low value - hinting at costs on each side if it went to court - I blanked this part as I don't want to get into that - yet.
For all they know, the car showed signs of failure which we ignored - that's up to them to prove, which they can't, because it didn't.
They then suggested I speak to trading standards to get advice. I can only assume this was an attempt at a bluff, so I advised them that I would do just that and speak to them again. Interestingly, you can't "talk to trading standard" from what I understand. You talk to the CAB, who refer you if you are making a complaint.
It seems to me that the next thing to do is to send the template letter that the CAB gave me. If that fails to get a result, its a complaint to trading standards and have the bank reverse the charges if possible.
The car is low value - I think their point was that its a lot of money for a low value car. I responded that its not really my problem
The car is low value - hinting at costs on each side if it went to court - I blanked this part as I don't want to get into that - yet.
For all they know, the car showed signs of failure which we ignored - that's up to them to prove, which they can't, because it didn't.
They then suggested I speak to trading standards to get advice. I can only assume this was an attempt at a bluff, so I advised them that I would do just that and speak to them again. Interestingly, you can't "talk to trading standard" from what I understand. You talk to the CAB, who refer you if you are making a complaint.
It seems to me that the next thing to do is to send the template letter that the CAB gave me. If that fails to get a result, its a complaint to trading standards and have the bank reverse the charges if possible.
Sadly I expected this to be the outcome, the motor trade has it's terrible reputation for good reason. Don't let them off the hook, it seems you have a good case based purely on your side of the story, so pursue through small claims if needs be.
Soldato
Did you pay anything on credit card at all? If so you may be able to get a section 75 refund?
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Soldato
People say it's less risk to buy from a trader than private seller, because you have recourse if something goes wrong.
Perhaps true, but the amount of crap you have to go through and extra money you have to pay to get this "recourse" is immense. Unless i was buying an expensive car from a main dealer, i'd happily buy all my future cars from decent private sellers, and save that extra 10-15% for if the car went wrong. What's the point in paying extra to buy a car from a trader, when the protection you paid for is so hard to use.
Perhaps true, but the amount of crap you have to go through and extra money you have to pay to get this "recourse" is immense. Unless i was buying an expensive car from a main dealer, i'd happily buy all my future cars from decent private sellers, and save that extra 10-15% for if the car went wrong. What's the point in paying extra to buy a car from a trader, when the protection you paid for is so hard to use.
The wheels of justice turn (very) slowly, but they do turn. Court this morning, judgement in my favour, full refund plus court costs, to be paid within 14 days*. Its been a trying experience, but a worthwhile one.
*Yes, I'm aware that if they don't pay up, I will need to go back to court for court orders/bailiffs and so on, so please don't spoil my high by reminding me of that
*Yes, I'm aware that if they don't pay up, I will need to go back to court for court orders/bailiffs and so on, so please don't spoil my high by reminding me of that
Soldato
The wheels of justice turn (very) slowly, but they do turn. Court this morning, judgement in my favour, full refund plus court costs, to be paid within 14 days*. Its been a trying experience, but a worthwhile one.
*Yes, I'm aware that if they don't pay up, I will need to go back to court for court orders/bailiffs and so on, so please don't spoil my high by reminding me of that
Winning!