Advice needed - Bought a car thats RUBBISH

SaintlyLinda

Key Points of the story...

I bought a car (04 reg mini) from a local privately owned garage in March. The car came with 3 months warranty.

Within a few weeks the engine had broken down and required a complete new one.

This was done for me (FOC under warrenty of course.) and it took about 3 weeks.

In Late April the car broke down again - again fixed under warranty FOC. It took around a week and a half to fix.

The car has now broken down again and has been in the garage for almost 3 weeks now. It will be fixed FOC - even though its out of warranty.

I am now on my 4th curtesy car as they have ALL broke down in some way shape or form.

I have hinted to the garage in question that I am not happy with the car and would like my money back, as all it seems to have is problems. He has told me under no uncertain terms that he will not take the car back and give me my money back.

My question to you smart folks - Does anyone know if I actually have a case to geet my money back for the car if I went through small claims? (is that even the best way to go about it? ) Please consider that I am out of warranty - but strictly speaking the car has not been in my possession for longer that a few weeks at a time.

Id love to hear some informed comments on the situation.

Thank

verityboo

Can you give specific details of the faults that the car has had?

Have they been different faults each time, or is it the same fault each time which they have failed to fix??

katieh86

I would ask this question on here as well: http://www.mini2.com/forum/

They really know their stuff! x

Judas

I would say its unlikely given it is a 6 year old car but we need full details of age; price paid; terms of sale; mileage;faults; cause; repair times; courtesty car etc

Off hand I would say no as its a reasonably oldish car (in modern terms) and you have accepted repairs and had courtesy cars etc.

jimboban

Hi Linda,

I could be speaking out of turn but my understanding is that "as you're buying as a consumer", the Sale of Goods act should apply - therefore (some will say technically up to 6 years...but thats another story) you should be entitled to (effectively a warranty by any other name) expect the goods to work satisfactorily for at least 12 months - and for the first 6 months, the onus would be on the dealer to prove that any faults were NOT present at time of sale.

They are certainly entitled to repair rather than refund - you would need to demonstrate a repeated ability to fail to repair to push for a refund.

I hope this is pretty much accurate - I'm sure our more experienced/learned members will be able to confirm/correct any small inaccuracies

JB

adam.mt

Jimbo, yes you're correct; however, for second-hand goods the age, condition and price are also taken into account so the car being 6 years old probably means it's not reasonable to expect it to be 100% fault free for 12 months. (I've underlined 'probably' since it's open to debate based upon the exact specifics, eg. if you pay below 'market value' you can expect faults).

Hence, why others are requesting further details in order to assist with advice.

unholyangel

Garages have to provide a car that is of satisfactory quality. If the faults werent minor, then you could have a good chance at a refund.
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/buying-a-car/

4743hudsonj

jimboban wrote: »

They are certainly entitled to repair rather than refund - you would need to demonstrate a repeated ability to fail to repair to push for a refund.

Demonstrating that would do nothing, the have finite chances to repair providing they remain not of significant inconvenience.