Faulty used car - collected 5 hours ago!!

Equaliser123

dreamypuma wrote: »

Someone, please make this a sticky. We can now close down the forum.

Assumes, of course, that Consumer Direct always give good advice. I don't think they do.

nifferwilko

Update: I spoke to the dealer yesterday and they basically refused a refund. I’ve logged it with consumer direct so I’ll be keeping them updated as I go along, and I’ve also prepared a letter to the credit card company so there is something on file. I’m getting another MOT done on the car.
This is going to be a painful process I can tell, and I’m already feeling the stress of this – mainly for two reasons – one, I actually can’t afford to lose that amount of money and two, the men at the dealer are shouting down the phone at me, and I don’t really want them to know where I live (I put my work address when I wrote to them). They also contacted the garage where the car is at the moment and were shouting down the phone at the mechanic there, and telling him they were coming to get the car.
I know I’m in the right, but you know when you start to doubt yourself – any tips on how to deal with this.

*sigh* all I wanted was a little car to stick my ‘L’ plates on and drive around, and I can’t even do that, as I can’t afford another car until this is sorted

Equaliser123

I think you need to carefully document the fact that you are giving them the opportunity to put things right (with copy to your credit card issuer) and then bite the bullet and put things right.

Then issue a claim against them. I expect they are all mouth and no trousers and won't do anything with your address. Remember to issue the claim against your credit card provider as well. I suspect that, armed with the evidence which yuo have, your credit card provider will pay.

Yet again Consumer Direct prove to be useless. Purely having a claim "logged" is not going to help you or any other innocent consumer.

verityboo

What type of car is it and how old? Did someone test drive the car before you purchased it and how did they find the steering? Was it advertised as having power steering?

What parts are missing. If there were originally power steering components and they had been removed so a basic non asissted steering set up is left, under what ground would it fail an MOT?

dunclane

verityboo wrote: »

What type of car is it and how old? Did someone test drive the car before you purchased it and how did they find the steering? Was it advertised as having power steering?

What parts are missing. If there were originally power steering components and they had been removed so a basic non asissted steering set up is left, under what ground would it fail an MOT?

Unfortunately its not as simple as that, power steering is not just a case of sticking a pump in, it uses a different steering rack for a start.

balloo_2

Trading Standards came through for me when i bought an used car from the dealer and for the first 3 weeks it was more in the garage than on the road they said they repaired the fault with the throttle as it wouldn't idle, then they said they changed the starter motor this is just a fraction of the things it had to have done so one day after i had it back the starter motor which they said they changed wouldn't start the car and at the same time the car reverted back to not idling so if i had to brake the car cut out and i couldn't start it again phoned the dealer and told him to send someone out and he said "if you cant bring it back there is nothing i can do about it" and hung up. Good old Trading Standards within half an hour they phoned me back saying "we have spoken to Mr J___s and he remembered you phoning but you forgot to tell him where the car was. :rotfl:
Sorry to Jump in

bap98189

Did you test drive the car? Did it have power steering when you drove it?

Are you sure the power steering pump has actually been removed? That seems very strange. More likely is that the belt has broken or come off. That could easily have happened after you left the garage. It would cause the power steering to stop working, but is a simple job to fix. Takes about half an hour and the belt will be only a few quid.

[Deleted User]

Just to give the other side of this (you can get nightmares from both angles).., my OH is a mechanic.., very reliable.., doesn't leave things unfixed like a lot of garages in my experience.

We sold a car that he had totally reconditioned the engine in and used it as a recovery vehicle. It had to be reliable. The clutch had been replaced, it was serviced (all filters replaced etc) and before sale it was thoroughly checked electronically and mechanically - no faults were shown. We sold it on ebay as a reliable car (once the engine had been reconditioned it hadn't had any further problems even once) for about £1k.

Within a week the buyer was phoning saying the rear diff had gone. We offered to replace it. Heard nothing more. Then two weeks after that he phoned saying he'd been told the car wouldn't pass an MOT test (it had been MOT'd days before he'd collected it by a garage we always found to be reliable and honest) because the tyres were so worn (there were no cautions on the MOT at all, tyres were fine) and he'd had to spend more than he'd paid for the car to repair it because it needed so many repairs (the diff wasn't mentioned after the first phone call, it seems these were other things needing repair), he hadn't returned it to us because it dropped 5 litres of oil on the ground?????? On the way home from the garage where these multiple repairs were done he reported that he'd had to call the AA because a big end had gone. Now big ends don't just go.., u get a very noisy rattly engine beforehand. There was no sign of this when it was in our possession.

This guy was screaming down the phone at me so I tried to explain that the car had been serviced, checked, passed its MOT etc but eventually put the phone down on him. He then started to get nasty, texting that I was being a child because I wouldn't speak to him on the phone. I just couldn't reason with him.

I gave him the no. of VOSA if he wanted to question the MOT.., and said as far as I was concerned this had to be dealt with by solicitors as we had receipts that could prove we had done everything we said we had done (we have).

A month later, I haven't heard anything more. In the past we have gone over and above what we had to do if someone had a problem with a car we'd sold as we don't want to con anyone and want someone to walk away with a smile on their face (we tend to find once someone finds u do good work they refer u to others and come back themselves).., but this was a very unpleasant experience. The guy seemed very very honest before the sale.., said he worked for a charity etc.., but I can't explain all the faults he said he'd experienced given the car's condition, the mechanical experience of my OH and the recent MOT.

We probably won't sell any more cars because of this experience.

nifferwilko

deannatrois - I'm sorry you had a bad experience with a car you sold. There is no need for anyone to be rude, screaming down the phone or harrassing you with texts. I would say, if you haven't heard anything in over a month and you've got nothing from him in writing, then he was definately trying it on. I'd just like to point out that I'm not, and I just really really want a (safe) car I can drive - it doesn't need to be pretty, just not a death trap!

Update - things *may* be moving forward. Someone *might* be coming to collect the car on Monday or Tuesday. I have to ring the garage Monday lunchtime to arrange. We'll see.

Thank you everyone for all your comments, it really is helpful.