where do we stand??car purchase

myrtleturtle

wondered if anyone can help us understand what our current postition is with a car purchase we made from a small dealer on 5th nov.
we bought a secondhand clio for £995(paid cash) advertised as good condition
was bought as a first car for our son( learner driver) and dealer knew this
before letting him loose to much ,we booked it in with our local garage for a full service( he was busy so had to wait til following tues so we gave son a few lessons in the mean time)
when service was done ,chap took rear wheels off and breaks fell off , he also discovered a crack in the sump and the gear box oil was over full and on checking further he found a part had been put in backwards.
he is also sure the car has been in an accident which was not mentioned when we bought the car.
so what should have been a straight forward service has now turned out more expensive plus he says there will be a couple of other quite expensive jobs that will need doing quite soon.
we have paid for him to repair otherwise it was unroadworthy and would of had to leave it there. (we realise now this was probs wrong way but it had no rear breaks)

we have rung the garage but the owner wasn't there but OH spoke to another sales rep.worryingly he is stating that all there cars under £1000 are sold for parts.(ringing again monday when owner is suppposed to be in)
this was not stated in advert or told to us when we purchased it
and none of the cars under £1000 on his website are advertised as such.
we have had another look at our reciept and he has put sold as seen/sold for parts on there.

what path should we go down , are we covered by soga and what sort of result should we aim for ( ideally we would like to return the car for full refund + costs of repairs)

thanks:)

paulsad

I doubt you'll get much joy with sold as seen/sold for parts on the invoice you got with it.

motorguy

myrtleturtle wrote: »

wondered if anyone can help us understand what our current postition is with a car purchase we made from a small dealer on 5th nov.
we bought a secondhand clio for £995(paid cash) advertised as good condition
was bought as a first car for our son( learner driver) and dealer knew this
before letting him loose to much ,we booked it in with our local garage for a full service( he was busy so had to wait til following tues so we gave son a few lessons in the mean time)
when service was done ,chap took rear wheels off and breaks fell off , he also discovered a crack in the sump and the gear box oil was over full and on checking further he found a part had been put in backwards.
he is also sure the car has been in an accident which was not mentioned when we bought the car.
so what should have been a straight forward service has now turned out more expensive plus he says there will be a couple of other quite expensive jobs that will need doing quite soon.
we have paid for him to repair otherwise it was unroadworthy and would of had to leave it there. (we realise now this was probs wrong way but it had no rear breaks)

we have rung the garage but the owner wasn't there but OH spoke to another sales rep.worryingly he is stating that all there cars under £1000 are sold for parts.(ringing again monday when owner is suppposed to be in)
this was not stated in advert or told to us when we purchased it
and none of the cars under £1000 on his website are advertised as such.
we have had another look at our reciept and he has put sold as seen/sold for parts on there.

what path should we go down , are we covered by soga and what sort of result should we aim for ( ideally we would like to return the car for full refund + costs of repairs)

thanks:)

As hes put 'sold as seen / sold for parts' then i think you've foregone your SOGA rights.

If you handed ANY £995 car to a mechanic he will be able to get about a fortnights work out of it. You need to repair what *needs* done, and then budget a certain amount each month for ongoing repairs.

The sump can be welded / repaired, the excess oil easily removed from the gearbox and the brakes could have been a corroded / broken clip. It sounds like your mechanic is deliberately trying to put the fear of god into you, so that he can make £££'s.

Also, just because a car has been in an accident it doesnt mean its not roadworthly. Most cars of that age have had panels painted for various reasons at some point.

Noone is going to give you (or expect) a warranty on something at that price and no doubt age.

With respect, if you are clueless about what to look for in a sub £1000 car, then the trick is to bring a mechanic BEFORE you buy the car not AFTER you've bought it

forgotmyname

Sold for parts would have set alarm bells ringing to me. While to some £1000 is not a lot of money for a car
you should expect something usable, Repairs & breakdowns are a big risk in that price range.

If the receipt states that i doubt you can do much with regard to claiming any money back. A call to the trading
standards may be worthwhile but i wouldnt waste too much time on it.

Lesson learnt.

colino

You are in banger territory and you are playing your garage (who presumeably wants work) against the trader. The Trader though, unless he confirmed you are in the trade, cannot take away your rights in a retail sale by saying "sold as seen" or whatever. Its a no-no and they (should) know it.

motorguy

colino wrote: »

You are in banger territory and you are playing your garage (who presumeably wants work) against the trader. The Trader though, unless he confirmed you are in the trade, cannot take away your rights in a retail sale by saying "sold as seen" or whatever. Its a no-no and they (should) know it.

The 'sold for parts' is the problem. The O/P has effectively signed for that, therefore there is no real chance of comeback on the dealer.

vaio

Sold as seen/for parts can't be used buy the dealer as way of getting away from SOG when selling a car to a consumer.

Having said that, the level of quality and durability to be expected on a £1k car is not as high as it would be on newer car. We don't have exact details of the faults but none of them seems to have prevented use of the car as they were discovered by a mechanic who also got the job of repairing them all apparently without reference to the seller.

I'd say rejection/refund is out as the faults are gone, getting paid for the repairs is out as you didn't give the seller chance to do them, no requirement on dealer to disclose accident history unless asked.

Your only remaining option might be if some of the upcoming 'expensive faults' are serious enough and imminent enough to make the car drop below the level of quality required but I think you are going to struggle

myrtleturtle

thanks everyone for your replies
all very helpful so as i said thanks
the garage we use is very good never does un nessesary work ,as a result hes always very busy.
seems our problem is the sold for parts on reciept, regardless of the fact it was not advertised as such or sold to us as such.on the reciept its scrunch up under the sold as seen so not immediately noticeable but as you say that won't matter.
we are deff not trade ,it was suppose to be our sons first car and £1000 is deff alot of money to us let alone the extra on top.

whats annoying is that if we'd been told/sold it as sold for parts that would have been ok but at no point during the sale was this mentioned and deff not in the advert.

thanks

Wig

My 2p

It's arguable -as they did not advertise it as such and did not mention to you when you bought it, and they only wrote it on the reciept which was folded- that they have pulled a fast one on you, a dishonest act designed to trick you. So it is arguable that your SOGA rights are still intact.

As you have taken possession and serviced the car and repaired the car you have lost the right to reject (assuming you ever had that right).

So all that remains is the right to a repair, refund or replacement assuming that there was a fault which made it unroadworthy at time of sale or a fault which was present at the time of sale that the seller should have known about and that fault made the car unsatisfactory, which depends on it's age and condition and description.

Had you not repaired the brakes, you could have asked the garage for a free repair. But as you have now repaired them I don't think you have any chance of getting them to refund the cost of repairs.

Regarding the cracked sump, it doesn't make it unroadworthy, not something they necessarily knew about, but it was likely there at the time of sale, however could have happened after sale. So it is possible you might get this one under SOGA assuming it hasn't been repaired yet.

Regarding the ongoing forthcoming jobs that will need doing soon, you won't be eligible for those repairs under SOGA either because they are probably faults to be expected on a car of that age.

I think it might be a good idea to report their underhand practices to trading standards but as to getting any money out of them - forget it and learn a lesson. It's not worth the hassle just to chase them over the cracked sump.

motorguy

myrtleturtle wrote: »

thanks everyone for your replies
all very helpful so as i said thanks
the garage we use is very good never does un nessesary work ,as a result hes always very busy.
seems our problem is the sold for parts on reciept, regardless of the fact it was not advertised as such or sold to us as such.on the reciept its scrunch up under the sold as seen so not immediately noticeable but as you say that won't matter.
we are deff not trade ,it was suppose to be our sons first car and £1000 is deff alot of money to us let alone the extra on top.

whats annoying is that if we'd been told/sold it as sold for parts that would have been ok but at no point during the sale was this mentioned and deff not in the advert.

thanks

Do you still have a copy of the advert? Also how much was the car in the advert for?

I do think the crux is 'sold for parts', but if you have a copy of the advert and it was advertised at say, £1095 and no mention of selling for parts then you *might* have some comeback, but it would be a long hard struggle.

Also, you have had the faults repaired. You MUST give the dealer the opportunity to examine the car / rectify the faults under SOGA, which you havent done.

I would say find a cheap mechanic and only do what needs done as you go along.

It must feel disheartening as its your sons first car and no doubt a big step for both you and your son, but to be honest i've not seen in anything you've said anything that makes me think this car has terminal problems.

Best of luck with the car.

Hammyman

Find yourself another garage. It is nigh on impossible to overfill a gearbox. If the brakes were that bad you'd have noticed in the test drive and if the sump was cracked, there'd be the warning light on or a pool of oil on the floor under the engine where the vehicle had been parked overnight - was there? In addition, there's not that many things on a car that can be put in backwards.

I hope you've not got the work done yet.