Second Hand Car - What are my rights??

kenai

Hi,

New to the forum but have been reading it for a number of months. Just wondered if anyone was able to give me any guidance on my rights re. the purchase of a second hand car.

The story so far:-

Picked up a car on Monday and paid the remaining balance (car cost £6k). Within a couple of hours smoke started billowing out of the front drivers door. I believed the cause of this was something to do with the Elec. window as when we viewed the car it didn't work and they had agreed to fix it before we picked it up. I did chek it when I collected the car and it did appear to be working normally. I quickly removed the fuses to the electric windows and eventually the smoke dissapated. If I hadn't done this I'm sure I'd have a smoldering wreck on my hands.

We immediately called the garage where we purchased the car from and within a few hours they did come and collect it and drop off a courtesy car. The car came with a 3 month warranty as standard. They set about arranging the repair.

In the meantime I said that I had doubts about their workmanship or doubts about the electrical system for the car and asked them to extend the warranty to 12 months so that we had some peace of mind. We had paid to have the car serviced by them prior to us picking it up and they had said they would fix or replace anything that they found to be faulty without us incurring further expense.

They have point blank refused to extend the warranty and told us to pick up 'our' car as it is now fixed. We have said that we no longer want the car and that we want a full refund. They have said that we can't have that either.

Clearly we are reluctant to have the car without some comfort that it isn't going to catch fire in 6 months and we feel that it was reasonable of us to ask for extended warranty (I think we could have asked for full refund right from the off) but I am not sure what the legal standpoint is.

Sorry for the long note but important you get all the facts. If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it. Or if you know where I could get some free legal advice that would be great too.

Thanks

PS - Thums down to Motorhouse at Cannock. Irrespective of the eventual outcome their aftersales customer service stinks

Gene_Hunt_2

kenai wrote: »

Hi,

New to the forum but have been reading it for a number of months. Just wondered if anyone was able to give me any guidance on my rights re. the purchase of a second hand car.

The story so far:-

Picked up a car on Monday and paid the remaining balance (car cost £6k). Within a couple of hours smoke started billowing out of the front drivers door. I believed the cause of this was something to do with the Elec. window as when we viewed the car it didn't work and they had agreed to fix it before we picked it up. I did chek it when I collected the car and it did appear to be working normally. I quickly removed the fuses to the electric windows and eventually the smoke dissapated. If I hadn't done this I'm sure I'd have a smoldering wreck on my hands.

We immediately called the garage where we purchased the car from and within a few hours they did come and collect it and drop off a courtesy car. The car came with a 3 month warranty as standard. They set about arranging the repair.

In the meantime I said that I had doubts about their workmanship or doubts about the electrical system for the car and asked them to extend the warranty to 12 months so that we had some peace of mind. We had paid to have the car serviced by them prior to us picking it up and they had said they would fix or replace anything that they found to be faulty without us incurring further expense.

They have point blank refused to extend the warranty and told us to pick up 'our' car as it is now fixed. We have said that we no longer want the car and that we want a full refund. They have said that we can't have that either.

Clearly we are reluctant to have the car without some comfort that it isn't going to catch fire in 6 months and we feel that it was reasonable of us to ask for extended warranty (I think we could have asked for full refund right from the off) but I am not sure what the legal standpoint is.

Sorry for the long note but important you get all the facts. If you have any advice I'd really appreciate it. Or if you know where I could get some free legal advice that would be great too.

Thanks

PS - Thums down to Motorhouse at Cannock. Irrespective of the eventual outcome their aftersales customer service stinks

You can think and ask what you like, getting it is another thing. The car had a fault the garage has fixed it so go and collect it.

kenai

Thanks, take it you think I'm being greedy then.

Not sure you had to quote my original lengthy post though!!

vaio

going wrong on day one is a sales of goods issue not warranty.

You might have been able to reject and refund when it went wrong but, unless there are further problems, you lost that right when you accepted a repair.

kenai

That's interesting then. We never actually said we wanted a repair. In fact, my wife told them to pick the car up as we no longer wanted it and they simply said they would pick it up and 'we'll take if from there'. So technically we never asked for a repair but at the same time we didn't pursue a refund as we were not aware that it may be an option.

Hintza

New posters have their posts quoted in full to stop the story changing over time...;)

As for your problem, you have a fault they have hopefully fixed it, pick up your car.

babybakey

weve had a similar problem paid for a car drove it home and the gear box locked on the way home several times. called garage and he refused to repair or refund , said we had to pay half as he didnt like that id bartered him down. weve gone through all the consumer direct advice ( might be worth you calling them for advice ) but even though he offered a repair when threatened with court hes returned it to us 2 times now unroadworthy with the same problem and 3 times now we have been in dangerous situations . weve started court proceedings against him now and hes still stating on the forms he wants another go at repairing it as hes now out of pocket. its riddiculous. if he had it fixed the first time ok we would have been happy.

if the garage your dealing with have repaired it to a satisfactory quality then you have no case for rejecting the car and requesting a refund unless it is of course within your cooling off period , not sure what this is but worth you calling consumer direct. be warned though if the retailer and you cant sort this out court is a way to go forward but its lengthy weve had no car or money since October now and its killing us financially coping with one car as my husbands got to use the car for work so my business is suffering as i cant work as much. the court wont take all that into consideration though.
i would be inclined to be glad the car is repaired ask for a full detailed report of whats been done on the car if you paid for a service you will have a stamp in your book if you dont querry it . the warranty you wont get extended and they dont have to unfortunately.
try not to fret if anything happened out of the 3mth period your often covered by the sales of goods act still upto 6yrs for reasonabe lengths of time for each thing. as long as its not wear and tear. but ask consumer direct as they know everything theyre attached to trading standards too so full of help.

good luck

Flyboy152

The only way to tell for sure is to get the AA/RAC (or someone similar) to inspect the car. This is of course something that you should have done prior to completing the contract. If they find anything that may give cause for concern, you might be able to use that as a reason for rejection. But I fear that your approach so far, may have diminished your chances of a satisfactory outcome.

Wig

The facts are that this car cost you 6K, Went wrong with a faulty window on day 1, and was repaired quickly.

1. As this is over £5K you don't want to fight this in court because losing could cost you thousands.
2. Used cars are expected to suffer from faults. The fault was not there when you picked the car up - at the point of sale.
3. A used car sold with a warranty can be reasonably expected to have a period of expected trouble free motoring.
4. Notwithstanding *point 2*, A used car which has a number of faults shortly after purchase and within warranty period can be rejected. However the case law making this so, the car really did have lots of faults including blue smoke, engine hesitation, water loss, worn brakes, faulty oil light, complete electrical failure, faulty seatbelts, broken distributor, was rejected after 7 weeks and 4,000miles. It was also a prestige model.

5. Your car had this fault before sale and repair was a condition of sale. Failure to satisfactorily repair on their part was a breach of contract. This could negate point 2 above.

6. IANAL and don't know if the subsequent repair to a supposedly satisfactory level now negates point 5.

Conclusion:
The risks of court action are too great to seriously consider rejection as a viable option. Pick up the car, check the windows thouroughly. If it has no more faults but you don't trust it anymore then selling it on/part-Exing to somone else would appear to be a better solution.

AFAIK you have no right to expect a greater warranty period just because you ask for it.

kenai

Thanks for the replies. I have taken some advice and have decided the best option is to pick it up but continue to push for some kind of gesture from them re. warranty. I have some comfort going forward as I am covered under sale of good/statutory rights so should things go wrong further down the line I will have options.

One of he biggest downers is that it has taken the gloss off the whole 'having a new car' feeling.

Flyboy152

I really do strongly recommend you have it inspected by an independent organisation. It is best to use the AA or RAC, as their independence and competency are rarely questioned.