urgent advice needed please re:car on finance

fishingcinema

hi all

I am posting on behalf of my brother and his partner.

He has just phoned me up in a bit of a pickle, basicaly they brought a vauxhall astra, automatic, 06 reg, 25,000 miles on finance from sparshats for £10,000 including a £500 waranty.

They have owned the car 3 days short of 90 days and the gearbox has gone.

Now it has been sent of to vauxhall who have quoted £900 for it to be repaired .

Sparshats are saying that the whole car baring the gearbox is covered by the waranty but NOT the gearbox.

I do not know the legals on cars from sparshats on finance but my brother seems to think the has 90days to return the car for a refund ????? is this true or is he getting over excited.

I read online that as the car is on finance and not legaly owned by my brother untill the last payment has been made to the finance company that they finance company should sort this, is this true??

What can they do can they return it??
Should the gearbox be covered by the waranty ??
any help and advice would be greatly appreciated

many thanks

Wig

What deposit/down payment did he make? If he returns the car he will lose this and all payments to date.

Dunno about the 90days, but he must have paperwork which tells him about any 90 days to return (and get what a full refund?) if he doesn't then he's talking rubbish.

He might have a 90 day warranty that doesn't mean a 90 day return policy.

I also doubt he has much luck on using SOGA because it is feasible that a car of that age could develop a gearbox problem.

fishingcinema

Wig wrote: »

What deposit/down payment did he make? If he returns the car he will lose this and all payments to date.

Dunno about the 90days, but he must have paperwork which tells him about any 90 days to return (and get what a full refund?) if he doesn't then he's talking rubbish.

He might have a 90 day warranty that doesn't mean a 90 day return policy.

I also doubt he has much luck on using SOGA because it is feasible that a car of that age could develop a gearbox problem.

Hi there

Thanks for your reply, its a bit complex, my brothers partners mum got the car in her name (mum) on finance for my brothers partner.

She has all the paperwork that they are going to collect and go over tommorow, he was not insistant on this 90 day thing just said that someone has said something to him about it and he was not sure if it were true and asked me to look about on the internet as he has no connection. i could not find anything on it.

I have given him consumer directs number and said maby its worth giving them a call along with the finace company,
many thanks again

Apricot

Im sure that under the Sale of Goods Act the car has to be fit for purpose & therefore the gearbox breaking after 90 days proves it is not. The garage cannot claim that this is wear and tear as there is no way the degree of wear and tear could have taken place within 90 days so the fault must have been there before the car was bought. Also, how many miles were done in these 90 days? It is reasonable to expect the dealer to repair or replace free of charge unless the dealer can prove there were no faults whatsoever with the car when it was bought. I think the limit for this is up to 6 months so they may be in luck.

Contact the dealer and the finance company and explain that it is not reasonable for there to be a fault on the car after this short amount of time.

Take a look at http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/c_secondhand_cars.pdf

Hope you manage to get this sorted x

gordikin

princessleah_ wrote: »

Im sure that under the Sale of Goods Act the car has to be fit for purpose & therefore the gearbox breaking after 90 days proves it is not. The garage cannot claim that this is wear and tear as there is no way the degree of wear and tear could have taken place within 90 days so the fault must have been there before the car was bought. Also, how many miles were done in these 90 days? It is reasonable to expect the dealer to repair or replace free of charge unless the dealer can prove there were no faults whatsoever with the car when it was bought. I think the limit for this is up to 6 months so they may be in luck.

Contact the dealer and the finance company and explain that it is not reasonable for there to be a fault on the car after this short amount of time.

Take a look at http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/c_secondhand_cars.pdf

Hope you manage to get this sorted x

But it's not a 90 day old car...it's 3+ years old?

Wig

princessleah_ wrote: »

Im sure that under the Sale of Goods Act the car has to be fit for purpose & therefore the gearbox breaking after 90 days proves it is not. The garage cannot claim that this is wear and tear as there is no way the degree of wear and tear could have taken place within 90 days so the fault must have been there before the car was bought. Also, how many miles were done in these 90 days? It is reasonable to expect the dealer to repair or replace free of charge unless the dealer can prove there were no faults whatsoever with the car when it was bought. I think the limit for this is up to 6 months so they may be in luck.

Contact the dealer and the finance company and explain that it is not reasonable for there to be a fault on the car after this short amount of time.

Take a look at http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/c_secondhand_cars.pdf

Hope you manage to get this sorted x

You may think that, however, you're wrong. When you buy a car second hand the sale of goods act only helps you if the problem with the car would not have been reasonable to have expected as "possible" for a car of that age/model and condition.

The buyer may have some luck using the case of Lutton v Saville Tractors Belfast Ltd, but even that is not a gaurantee, given that the car is not prestige, and the fault has occured at the end of a 90 day warranty period albeit inside the warranty period.

If I was buyer, I'd be looking in the scrap yards for a new gearbox.