Car Buying Nightmare - Help Needed

an-drewm

Hi All,

I am looking for advice and other people’s experiences.

In November I bought a 2nd hand car from a trader trading from home. It was offered with a 3 month warranty on the receipt. The car was fine when I test drove it and after handing over the money and going to see the car he pointed out a noise from the clutch and said he would sort it out under warranty.

After a week or so I filled it up with petrol and it started leaking badly. I contacted the dealer and after a lot of calls and messages it went back to him mid December. After a couple of days he called and said the noise was gear box and not clutch and he would get and fit a replacement. He did not repair any other faults. I collected the car and then started contacting him again after Xmas but got nothing. No replies to messages or texts so I contacted consumer direct and they advised writing letters which I did then after writing twice over a 3 week period I contacted consumer direct and sent a letter saying I would have to go to court. I tried calling again to resolve the problem and was told to do it my way (i.e. court) and slammed the phone down.

I booked the car in to a local garage last week to have a report/inspection carried out on the car as proof of the fault but when I took the car in today they said they could not carry out an inspection for a court it needs to be the AA or RAC.

To cut to the chase is this correct or could I get any garage to inspect then get a few quotes on their report?

Has anyone tried to take a dealer to court and what was the experience?

Is there any other general advice before I spend any more money or should I just cut my losses?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew.

Hintza

You need someone impartial. It coulld be argued any other garage had vested interest in the report.

Go to AA/RAC but it might be as well asking who would be acceptable.

an-drewm

Luckly trading standards have got involved and they advised that a garage on the good garage scheme should be fine as they are a member of a professional body.