Car bought in Feb, Air Con not working, where do we stand?

chim289

Hi, we purchased a used car from a dealer back in February. We took it (unsupervised) for an extensive test drive. We were out in it for about an hour or so, parked up, had a good old look around, checked everything worked ok. All good, so it seemed. We collected the car a few days later with 12mths MOT. There were a few bits that we asked to be done that the dealer claimed had been done or were unfixable. E.g. the drivers armrest wa loose, he said he's tried to fix it, explained how but that it was not possible. DP had a look when we got home and it was fixed within a few minutes (funnily enough the way the dealer claimed he had tried). We've had to spend a bit on it since buying it, for example the front brakes were knackered (these were one of the things we brought up at test drive). It had 12 months MOT, although this was done in house so unsure as to how legit it would have been. The parts for this car aren't cheap so to change the front discs & pads was over £100 (DP did them, and parts purchased at trade price). We were also told it had had a full service when the MOT was done. Upon checking the air filter looked as though it had been there for a very long time.

This is all just background to show you the kind of things we've had to do to the car since buying it and the kin of thing we would be potentially up against. (I also know this kind of thing isn't unusual from used car dealers. Every time I've bought a car from a dealer I have had to get on and do the things that I've asked the dealer to do before I collect the car).

Obviously being February it was quite cold. The car has full climate control and we found this to be working perfectly, unfortunately because of the temp outside we were unable to test the air con. Then the warmer weather came and we needed to use it. Unfortunately it wasn't working and we hoped that it would just need a regas. HAving regassed it ourselves it worked perfectly for a day then stopped working again. Took it to our local a/c specialists who tested the system. The condensor has a hole in it and the big pipe is badly corroded and has a massive hole. The cost of this is over £500 inc vat. The parts themselves are almost £300 if we were to get them at trade price, so the price they've quoted is actually pretty good. Now being a people carrier it needs the a/c working as it's a big space with a lot of glass. Our youngest is only 5 months so we really need it for her.

Our question is where do we stand wrt getting the dealer to stump up some money for this? Obviously with the time of year we bought the car there was no way of us testing whether the a/c worked or not and as soon as we needed to use it we found it was faulty. The corrosion on the pipe and condesor is so severe it has not happened in the few months that we have owned the car so this was clearly a fault while it was in possession of the dealer. We didn't get a warranty as I've had my fingers burnt by them a few times before when the car has had a fault. (head gasket that apparently wasn't covered and suspension on another car that apparently wasn't covered) So I wasn't about to waste my time and money getting one. Are we likely to get anything from the dealer? Where do we stand?

Strider590

I think you should take it to an MOT test station and get it checked over....... Clearly a dodgy car dealer, clearly didn't get a proper MOT (you'd never find out until its too late, so they don't care), clearly wasn't serviced and clearly the dealer did nothing to the car at all after buying from auction.

If you find faults that fail the MOT, have been on the car a while and should have been picked up, then you've got them by the balls (so to speak).

moonrakerz

Strider590 wrote: »

I think you should take it to an MOT test station and get it checked over.......

Pointless ! The MoT covers the state of the vehicle on the day it was tested - no more. It is NOT a guarantee that the vehicle is in good order for the next 12 months.

Don't bother trying to grab them by the nether regions, you are wasting your time.

rodenal

Agreed unfortunately you have little to go back to them about imo. As you say you took the car out on a drive and were happy with the condition minus a couple of points - you then accepted the car and accepted that these hadn't been resolve.

Bit of a like it or lump it situation really, you often find air con compressors coming up on the cheap on ebay etc - keep an eye out

bigjl

Most of those pipes are known to rust.

And the hole could easily have been caused by you in your normal day to day running.

A lot of people don't realise that brakes are only checked on efficiency and balance, id they pass they pass. But they could pass with only 2mm of pad material and discs on their last legs.

I never take a new MOT as a reason to consider a car spot-on.

Nothing to stop you asking the garage what they want to do about the current condition of the car.

More details on the car and price paid etc will give us a better chance to comment as if you paid top money you can expect a better condition vehicle but if you got it for near trade money then the condition would be reflected in the price.

Thing about it in the same way as buying meat the day before it goes off. It is cheaper than if you buy it just after it is put on the shelf.

s_b

just to add an mot can only advise if discs are worn and seeing as the motman cannot strip down to check the pads there would be no reason for the sales place to know the condition of the pads
obviously if you went to a real trader who goes to the bother of removing all wheels to make sure his sales cars are safe you might have a better overall feel good factor ,you go on to say you took a long unaccompanied test drive and i would be interested how this was covered for insurance purposes and did they just throw one of the two trade plates in a window for you?
as regards the jobs you had them do this was the basis of your contract as you had accepted all over faults because of the full inspection you carried out,if you check your paperwork you will most likely find you signed to this very effect
to summarise you aint got a leg to stand on and if unsure about major defects being missed on a s/h car purchase in future i strongly recommend you to open your wallet and have a full dekra inspection as the last one i saw done the man with the clipboard even noted there was used chewing gum in the ashtray

sorry....................

Tilt

Not sure what SB is on about because the thread is about the air con!

Under the SOGA (Sales Of Goods Act), a defect which occurs within the first 6 months of ownership is presumed to be present at the point of sale. If the car was advertised as having air con, then you would expect it to be working. As you are within the 6 month timescale, you should contact the seller and report the fault to him and mention the findings from the a/c specialist. The seller must have the opportunity to inspect and rectify. If he tells you to take a running jump, you then report the fault formally in writing to him requesting that he rectifies the problem within 14 days to aviod you taking the matter further.

Come back if and tell us how he responds.

chim289

Thanks very much tilt. I will get onto the dealer 1st thing tomorrow and see how we get on.

As you say, threads about the air con, not the rest of it, something that couldn't be tested on the test drive due to outside temperature at the time. The rest was for background history.

s_b

• The car has been to another place or repair and the original seller can use this to say the aircon obviously was maybe probably damaged while it was there and seeing as its june on monday the buyer should have made them aware of the aircon fault much sooner, plus they had it regassed and the regasser is breaking the law by filling a receiver that has a large hole in it
  
  
• me thinks too much emphasis is put on soga rather than standing back and seeing and reading all the facts

Tilt

s_b wrote: »

The car has been to another place or repair and the original seller can use this to say the aircon obviously was maybe probably damaged while it was there and seeing as its june on monday the buyer should have made them aware of the aircon fault much sooner, plus they had it regassed and the regasser is breaking the law by filling a receiver that has a large hole in it

The OP dosn't say that the a/c has been repaired? Maybe the OP could of reported it earlier but the fact remains that it seems obvious that it wans't working in the first place.

s_b wrote: »

me thinks too much emphasis is put on soga rather than standing back and seeing and reading all the facts

We are 'standing back' to see what response the OP gets and then decide whether to 'put the emphasis on SOGA' or not. The facts appear to speak for themselves judging by the background history the OP has provided.

pinkteapot

I didn't think SOGA applied to second hand cars?

Last one I bought had a three month warranty. After that I was on my own. If SOGA applies and you have six months, why do so many dealers do three month warranties?