rejecting a car?

manhattan

hi,
i recently purchased a year old car from a main dealer and ever since the car was delivered to me i have had problems.

part of the deal was a set of free mats and when the vehicle was delivered the mats were missing. the dealer phoned and explained that they would be posted to me, 3 weeks later nothing.

after various phone calls to the sales guy, i got the usual excuses for not speaking, the funny one was "the fire alarm is going off,can you email me?"

so i emailed the faults and problems,and here is a quick list.

missing vehicle check paperwork
drivers door hinge dropped
chip on drivers door
seat belts dont retract properly,hang loose
gearbox/clutch/flywheel
mats missing.
all faults are from delivery,i purchased the car over the internet/phone from the manufactuers approved used car locator so i didnt see the car before it was delivered

the car is supposed to go through a major 100+ point check and reconditioning service on anything that needs doing.


he said he has passed details onto the service dept and they will phone, that diddnt happen so after various phone calls and calling the uk head office complaints dept who said they would contact the dealers which i dont think they did? i managed to get hold of the service manager who was the most helpful.
the car has a 30 day no questions exchange warranty, but there are no suitable cars and after all the problems and bad after sales service i now wish to reject the car.it seems to me that they are trying to stall the 30 day exchange thing as i am about 10 days away from the expiry date.



does anyone have any advice on this for me? shall i send the dealer and uk head office a special delivery letter explaining the problems and i intend to reject the vehicle?
thanks

DealDrivers_company_representative

Lets go through these one by one -

"missing vehicle check paperwork" - what piece of paper exactly is missing? Do you mean they told you that you'd receive a copy of their '100 point check'? Have you got the standard bill of sale/invoice for your records?

"drivers door hinge dropped" - did you point this out on delivery, or at what point did you highlight the problem to them? Has it happened whilst its beein in your ownership?

"chip on drivers door" - a year old car won't be in showroom condition, there will be chips from wear and tear from having done 5-10k miles on the roads (unless they promised the paintwork would be as showroom condition/'as new'?)

"seat belts dont retract properly,hang loose" - this is the one that does need looking into from a potential safety point of view and I'd concentrate on that aspect to get a response

"gearbox/clutch/flywheel" - what exactly is wrong with these?

"mats missing". Have you got anything in writing on your original sale document to say they'd give you a free set of mats?

manhattan

DealDrivers wrote:

Lets go through these one by one -

"missing vehicle check paperwork" - what piece of paper exactly is missing? Do you mean they told you that you'd receive a copy of their '100 point check'? Have you got the standard bill of sale/invoice for your records?

as stated in the welcome pack "all vehicles sold under the approved used car programme include" but these are missing vehicle provenance check certificate, vehicle mileage check cert, service history check cert,

DealDrivers wrote:

"drivers door hinge dropped" - did you point this out on delivery, or at what point did you highlight the problem to them? Has it happened whilst its beein in your ownership?

it was there from delivery pointed it out to the delivery guy, and also notified the sales guy asap.

DealDrivers wrote:

"chip on drivers door" - a year old car won't be in showroom condition, there will be chips from wear and tear from having done 5-10k miles on the roads (unless they promised the paintwork would be as showroom condition/'as new'?)

looks like someone has opened the door onto a wall with a paint chip on the door edge, i mentioned this to the delivery guy and sales guy asap.vehicle reconditioning service "Should the multi-point check highlight any irregularities within the vehicle, we'll undertake rectification works, ensuring that the car meets our meticulous standards before it reaches the forecourt."

DealDrivers wrote:

"seat belts dont retract properly,hang loose" - this is the one that does need looking into from a potential safety point of view and I'd concentrate on that aspect to get a response

seat belts faulty from delivery too

DealDrivers wrote:

"gearbox/clutch/flywheel" - what exactly is wrong with these?

on tick over the car vibrates throughout the whole car until the clutch is pressed it dissapears.after releasing the clutch it returns,as well as this there is gearbox whine.

DealDrivers wrote:

"mats missing". Have you got anything in writing on your original sale document to say they'd give you a free set of mats?

i have emails from the sales guy stating the mats

DealDrivers_company_representative

OK, if the dealer belongs to a motor group, contact the Group Customer Services Director and courtesy copy your communication to the dealer principal of the site you bought it from, asking for a response within 5 days.

Also copy the manufacturer's UK Customer Services office (details usually on the manuf'rs website).

Set your letter out clearly, with dates/times of correspondence relating to their written promises, and list clearly the documents that failed to appear as per the 'promises' as part of the service.

Focus on the safety belt issue as that will bring a response from a safety perspective.

The door problem will probably be put down to wear and tear as you bought a used car unseen, unfortunately.

The clutch problem sounds like it could be a number of things, ones that spring to mind here are an engine mounting problem, or a bearing in the gearbox problem, or the clutch plate itself...it could be a number of things. Without knowing what the car is and its mileage/service history its hard to judge - a visit to another dealer to ask them for a diagnosis might help.

Quinny_2

And when mailing,send EVERYTHING by recorded delivery.

This will cover your ***,as it needs a signature upon receipt.

Ken.

manhattan

thanks guys,
i have been to my local dealer who have said as the car was purchased with these faults from delivery , it is upto the dealer who sold me the vehicle to correct the problems which is understandable.

I was thinking about sending via special delivery, as it is next day and a signature is viewable online etc.

manhattan

DealDrivers wrote:

OK, if the dealer belongs to a motor group, contact the Group Customer Services Director and courtesy copy your communication to the dealer principal of the site you bought it from, asking for a response within 5 days.

Also copy the manufacturer's UK Customer Services office (details usually on the manuf'rs website).

sorry i am getting a bit confused.
do you mean send a copy of the letter to the dealer i purchased from and also the same letter to the uk head office?

plane_boy2000

I dont think that ou will have the right to reject the car, but I could be wrong - I thought that it only applied to new cars. In essence the car is used even though its only a year old.

Damage to door - not likley to get that fixed now - the reality is many people try it on after they have driven away. Not saying that you would, but I am sure that garages probably see it all the time.

Re the seatbelts being lose - how many miles has the car done? Always used to be sign of high mileage.

It may help if you could give us some more details regards make, model, mileage etc.

withabix

Which car maunfaturer and which dealer chain did you purchase from?

manhattan

audi approved used car from an audi main dealer.

the car has high miles for a year old, 38k (i do very low miles though) an i have only driven the car for about 200 miles in the 19 days i have owned it so the door problem was from delivery.

i have since found out after a bit of searching that it was used as a courtesty car by the dealer, and i was not told this before or after the sale.

manhattan

and the car is under warranty still for a few years.