Car bought dangerous to drive within days

jojo1984_3

Hi,

I bought a car through a private seller on wed 7th dec,and bought by paying cash.

All the papers were there for the car, and it had 2 previous MOT certificates and recent history of faults been repaired from a garage.

Once i got the car home, and a friend took a look at it, it came to light that serveral major faults were on the car when i bought it. The car had not had a oil change or refill for a long time, as it was really dry of oil, The front wheels were not screwed on properly leaving them to be loose, and the front brake pads were also not tight enough leaving the car to be open to brake failure. other small minors things were also on the list like pasenger side door didnt lock properly etc. and lights were not working.

Now i had a number of repairs done, and the car was in much better condition to when i bought it.

The sunday after i bought the car, i was driving to work, on the A1 motorway, and out of the blue the bonnet of the car suddenly blew up and crashed into my windscreen and landing on my car roof, causing the glass to come all over me from the sun roof. I quickly did and emergency stop and managed to get onto the hard shoulder. With help from a passer buy who was walking his dog at the time, and the highway agency came to offer me assisstance. :mad:

I have had an recovery company come and take the car, and they have the car with them until i find out my legal rights regarding requesting a refund sold me the private seller who obviously sold me a danergous and unroad worthy car.( the hatch on the bonnet was dodgy, all rusted etc)

I would like some advice on how and which way i should take action against the sellers of the car... known that they drove there kids round in this car is totally shocking, and to think they would pass it on to other drivers in this condition just sickens me.

Please get back in touch if there is procedures in place to help fight through civil court proceedings if the seller refuse's to refund me. I am still in a total state of shock, as it was only the second time i had actually drove the vechile on a major road, and just extermely lucky that i was driving early on a sunday morning, and not a monday morning as this would have caused a serious pile up.

Thank you for your advice,

HappyMJ

You don't have any rights. You must check everythig before buying the car and take the risk yourself.

BoGoF

What a work of fiction.......

Dog walkers on motorways......whatever next

Weird_Nev

And being as you checked the oil prior to the bonnet mishap, the only person to blame for that is you!
(not a renault clio was it?)

There's another thread on this forum section about how many rights you have......

jojo1984_3

there was a dog walk, as it was right next to a hotel actually, just near a service station also..

jojo1984_3

Yes it is a clio.. it was ok and the bonnet shut ok.. was all in tack up until the point of where the car was on the motorway and that incidient happened.

scooby75

Your only comeback is if it is not as he described it (or if it was not his to sell) - if he has said it has had work done and it has not, then that would be a misdescription. There is the offence of selling an unroadworthy vehicle (if it is unroadworthy), but that is a matter for enforcement authorities to take up against the seller if they wish to do so and would not normally involve a civil claim. Try contacting Consumer Direct for better help.

Weird_Nev

jojo1984 wrote: »

Yes it is a clio.. it was ok and the bonnet shut ok.. was all in tack up until the point of where the car was on the motorway and that incidient happened.

How did I know?
Clios are reknowned for their bonnet catches rusting out and failing....

When buying second hand you need to do your research! Did you even drive the car before handing over cash?

silkyuk9

ive started a thread regarding buying private cars, maybe worth a look at.

Its unfortuante, but why didnt you take your friend to the car sale rather trhan buying then letting your friend check the oil and lights etc. Did you not take the car for a run? if so was the lights on the dash on at that point?

Its all buyer beware in cases were cars are bought for a few hundred I dont suppose we think of getting AA or who ever to check it out, as 'whats the point' But in my thread regarding this if the car was worth a few thousand we proberly would take an experianced person to give the once over.

jojo1984_3

thank you, some decent advice scooby75. I do have the advert
gumtree.com tyne and wear section and the ad number was 92860241, you can still see the ad now. (sorry cant post a link)
and this is it.
Abviously you cant check the brake pads and disks like a garage other than just normal braking lik a did, and they seemed fine, just a little worn. Mileage was good on car, was 1 light out on front of car but that was a light on bumper and not main headlights, all other lights were fine wheln i checked, tyres had resonable tread etc, checking under the bonet, but being a girl was a little bit of a disadvantage, seemed clean and tidyish as a under bonet should look... traffic highwy agency told me that there was a law regarding unroadworthy cars etc and just wanted more advice.
thanks

pendulum

jojo1984 wrote: »

Yes it is a clio.. it was ok and the bonnet shut ok.. was all in tack up until the point of where the car was on the motorway and that incidient happened.

Trust me on this, as a Clio owner myself. The last person to use it didn't shut it correctly. If it's rusty the secondary latch doesn't work so it needs to be 100% shut properly.