Car Sold To Me With BLACK STICKER On Dash

Red_Shirt

Please can someone help me,

In Jan 2010 I passed my driving test and 1 week later went out to purchase my first car, a Fiat Punto 2003, the salesman said the vehicle was his Daughters vehicle as she was expecting Twins so needed a bigger car. I signed up for finance that was arranged through the garage and for which I am still paying.

In Jan 2011, the MOT became due. I took it to a different garage and it passed, but the man said that the exhaust had a slight hairline crack and i'd have to get it changed. This repair was carried out.

In Jan 2012, again the MOT was due. I took it to the garage and this time it failed due to high emissions. An auto electrician pointed the fault at the catalytic converter. A new replacement was fitted to lower the emissions, emissions were lower but not sufficient to pass. The auto electricians computer was showing the ECU as being at fault.

After realising the ECU appeared not to be the origional they tried to re-programme it. They could not do this as the engine light did not appear. The ECU was reconnected again and they could not understand why there was no light coming up on the dash. Looking closer there is a black sticker on the dash covering the light, I have been informed that taking the dash off to place a sticker over it is not a simple job.

Now this all came to light last week, (1st week in Feb) so I emailed the man that sold me the car and basically he has replied that the vehilce was his Nephews Wifes, he knew nothing of the sticker and he does'nt work like that. Also his Nephew or his Wife know nothing of this sticker, the Logbook shows me that his Nephews Wife owned the vehicle since July 2004. The vehicle is on a 53 plate.

The Auto electrician said that it had passed MOT last year 2011 as the hairline crack would have dragged air into the exhaust and thats why it brought the emissions down.

This vehicle is classed as being not roadworthy due to not having a valid MOT and I wonder if it ever was in a roadworthy condition when sold to me, since, I've been driving around in it, with my children aswell!!

It is on finance done through the Car Salesman can I get a refund? Is there something in the Comsumer Credit Act?

Sgt_Pepper_2

So you've had the car for 2 years?

Delivery_Driver

You aren't going to get anywhere with this.Best to move on and forget about it.

colino

After two years you would be wasting effort doing anything with the seller, the car hasn't been unroadworthy, just now exceeds an arbitrary emission level, but curious why your current repairer was so stumped and reached a dead end just because the (presumeably still working) MIL was taped over. Perhaps diagnostics is not their forte and someone else should be on the job.

marlot

No chance after 2 years

s_b

I've been driving around in it, with my children aswell!!

oh dear
i really think i need to get out of this job

Red_Shirt

Yes i have had the car for 2 years. I am a 25year old woman and dont know alot about cars, I guess when you have children and are incharge of a machine that you dont know alot about (under the bonet, etc) something like this comes along, as a mother you do think the worst.
Just a simple 'Nothing can be done' would have been enough. That is why I asked for help.
Thanks though.

mikey72

Never trust a used car salesman.
Especially one selling his "daughter" car.

But I'm afraid after two years, you could never prove anything.

n3il_2

Red_Shirt wrote: »

Yes i have had the car for 2 years. I am a 25year old woman and dont know alot about cars, I guess when you have children and are incharge of a machine that you dont know alot about (under the bonet, etc) something like this comes along, as a mother you do think the worst.
Just a simple 'Nothing can be done' would have been enough. That is why I asked for help.
Thanks though.

Thats the thing I've noticed on this forum from reading through the posts (I'm new here too) there's a lot of idiots that feel the need to lecture you rather then help ya.

agrinnall

n3il wrote: »

Thats the thing I've noticed on this forum from reading through the posts (I'm new here too) there's a lot of idiots that feel the need to lecture you rather then help ya.

But the 2 years is relevant in this case. Nobody is lecturing, and nobody is saying the OP should have known about it before this (after all, it passed the MoT last year), but after owning the car for this length of time there is simply no chance of being able to prove that the seller did something wrong. There are two things to be learned from this: don't use that dealer again, and if you don't know about cars and you're buying one that is more than a couple of years old then get it independently inspected.

pendulum

Red_Shirt wrote: »

I've been driving around in it, with my children aswell!!

This isn't a safety related fault, but it sounds like you'd have put your children at risk if it had been (I'd not normally say this, but you wanna play the "think of the children card", so right back at you!). These lights come on at ignition and then go out - as a driver you're supposed to be checking that they do so correctly, so you should have spotted this straight away.