Car problems

zoecx

Hi

Just a "potted" history of my situation -

I purchased a used car in June 2011 for £2400 plus a years warranty from a third party provider. Within 4 weeks we were told the gearbox was completely shot - a previous repair had apparently been attempted and this had been a bodge job. When the engineer went under the car to remove the gearbox for inspection the front suspension arm mount collapsed and hit him - a potentially lethal fault as the car could have collapsed when driven at any point!

Until this point we had been intending to use the warranty to cover repair costs (wouldn't have covered the complete cost as £100 claim limit) but were then advised by Consumer Direct that we should go back to the dealer under Sale of Goods Act so I wrote to them asking them to repair, replace or refund the vehicle. This was mid July. They replied to me eventually saying that they would repair the vehicle for me if I got it to them. As the garage is 1 1/2 away from where I live I replied that as the car had apparently been sold to me in a dangerous condition that it was up to them to recover it (would have cost me nearly £400 to transport it). After a couple of days they grudgingly agreed to this.

Consumer Direct advised me that I could claim against them for all costs incurred inc. a portion of my tax and insurance and the bill incurred at the garage that initially inspected it. The garage I purchased the car from refused so after yet more wrangling I paid the bill with the local garage as they wouldn't let the vehicle be collected until I did and they agreed to collect. This took an additional 10 days.

They have now had the car for nearly 3 weeks. They won't contact me with updates, they are rude and obstructive when I try and get information regarding when I can get the car back. They have refused to call their gearbox specialist for information and won't tell me how long the car will take to fix when they do get the gearbox back. I have now been without the car for 7 weeks - the whole of the summer holidays which with 4 children (1 disabled) and living in a small village with poor public transport has been a nightmare. We have had to cancel a family camping trip and my youngest son has been in hospital for a week during this time too.

I am losing sleep over the situation. Consumer Direct have told me that all I can do is take them to the Small Claims Court at my own expense and all Trading Standards will do is log my complaint. My children return to school next week and at present I can't get them there! We can't afford to buy another car of afford to pay for the cost of hiring another one. I paid for the car using Visa Debit so I have no recourse there either.

Does anyone have any suggestions as I am at the end of my tether.

Zoe

zoecx

**Update** Just rang Consumer Direct who say that there is no point advising me to do anything myself as it would just be recovering old ground and they have said that as a more than reasonable amount of time has elapsed without them fixing the car that they will now contact Northants Trading Standards on my behalf who will then liase with Notts Trading Standards to hopefully rectifty the situation. Crossing my fingers.

vax2002

Yes, a refund looks in order, but as with all crooks, they have your money..