Out of warranty (just) fault.

eddr

Hi all,

A friend of mine bought a second hand car from a dealer, with a three month warranty. The car was 3 years old, and had gone through its first MOT without problem.

Approximately 2 weeks outside of the dealer's 3 month warranty period the car developed a significant fault, which my friend has had traced to a faulty injector. The total cost of finding and repairing this fault is around £400.

Is there any way to get some/all of this cost covered? What are his rights in terms of a just-out-of-warranty vehicle. I was under the impression that all goods must be 'fit for purpose' - something failing 2 weeks out of its warranty (or 3 months 2 weeks out of its manufacturer's warranty) does not seem to be very fit for purpose to me!

Cheers!

Strider590

I think your friend will find that while it makes for a nice fluffy pillow, used car warranties cover practically nothing that could ever go wrong.

Kilty_2

Strider590 wrote: »

I think your friend will find that while it makes for a nice fluffy pillow, used car warranties cover practically nothing that could ever go wrong.

+1. Especially if it was from the likes of Auto Protect who are utter scumbags.

I'd complain to the supplying dealer because 3 months isn't a long time for a major problem to occur in.

agrinnall

I don't think your friend will have much joy. The failed part is at least 3 years and 3 months old (possibly a lot longer if the car took a while to sell in the first place) and an argument that that's an unreasonable length of time for it to last would be unlikely to succeed unless you can prove that normally the part lasts a lot longer. And the warranty is finished so you can't expect it to pay up, if you wanted to be covered for more than 3 months then you should have taken out a longer warranty.

Tilt

The SOGA says that a defect with a used car which occurs within the first 6 months of ownership can be assumed present at the point of sale. A 3 month warranty is pretty irrelevant as a consiquence. A trader is not allowed (by law) to reduce a consumer's rights by offering a warranty and the simply referring the buyer to it when things go wrong. Contact the seller and give him the opportunity to inspect and rectify (which is his right under SOGA). You must do this before initiating repairs yourself.

asbokid

replacing an injector rail is a relatively easy job. depending on vehicle, a "reconditioned" rail should cost much less than £400... budget for £20-£50 from a used car spares. what car is it?