Where do I stand with faulty used car purchase?

peawet08

I bought a Renault Scenic (54 plate, 30000 miles) from a dealer 6 weeks ago. The day after I bought it it had an oil leak where gearbox oil was dripping from the side of the reverse switch. This was fixed the day after without issue.
4 weeks later, and about 170 miles, my partner was driving the car with the kids in when the Windscreen wipers started, the doors started locking.unlocking, and the dash went made also stating it had an electrical fault. It also wouldn't turn off or start. all of this didn't happen continuously and I couldn't make the fault happen.
After the weekend I took it back to the dealers and left it with them.
2 Weeks after leaving it with them, they returned it to me stating that they THINK the fault is fixed. It had been with Renault for most of the two weeks who took time with it as it was an intermittent fault and they had the car for a few days before they even saw the fault happening. The problem was that they couldn't trigger it so never knew if it was fixed. In the end they decided that the one common componenmt to all the faults was the CPU so they changed thet.
Apparently Renault tested it for a day, then the dealer tested it for a day before telling me they "Think" it was sorted. I collected the car yesterday and last night I drove into town and the fault happened again!
The dealer has kept me up to date during the whole process and I have no reason to believe they are trying to cover/hide anything.

What I want to know though is where do I stand if I wanted to make the dealer take the car back? Can I claim that the car isn't fit for purpose?
I did buy the car using a credit card to offer me any protection a CC offers but is there anything I can use as weight for my arguement?

We actually like the car we bought and if we could be happy the fault was fixed, wouldn't have a problem. I just don't want to end up 4 months down the line, out of warranty with a potentially expensive fault on the car.

Any Advice?

newfoundglory

You have to provide the dealer with sufficient chance to put right anything that is wrong. If that proves to be impossible... then you should start to discuss returning the car for a full refund.

I wouldn't worry about it being "out of warranty"... you have had the problem since the day you first had it.

peawet08

I'm prepared to have them try to fix it but how long is reasonable? And how long would it have to go on for before the dealer can say I have had the car for too long to offer a refund?

I've actually done more miles going back and forth to the dealer than we have done for personal use.

Wig

I would try to video the problem when it occurs, to act as evidence and to show the dealer to help them fix it.

How much was the car? the small claims has a maximum of £5000

Legally with used cars you are on very thin ice. Your glimmer of hope is that it was sold with a warranty which in case law can help you to reject it, because the warranty implies a period of trouble free motoring.

Your other area of hope is that the fault has been identified during warranty so AFAIK they must fix it no matter what (this is why video evidence of the fault would be very useful - when you video it also get out the car and show the car and registration plate from the outside try to show todays date aswell on the video does the car have a date/time display or how about todays newspaper..... What they may end up doing is giving up and offering you another car / partial refund

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

peawet08 wrote: »

I'm prepared to have them try to fix it but how long is reasonable? And how long would it have to go on for before the dealer can say I have had the car for too long to offer a refund?

I've actually done more miles going back and forth to the dealer than we have done for personal use.

About 3 months according to the OFT at http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2010/95-10 and http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/know-your-rights/cars/