Consumer Rights - Brand New Car

Terrysdelight

Hi

My great uncle (86 years old) has brought a brand new car. It has broken down 4 times between day 1 and day 7.

Uncle has been scared to drive it for fear of it breaking down. Dealership now have car to 'investigate' and gave him a hire car. We contacted consumer rights through our local council and they say he can ask for a repair, refund or another car. Told to send letter recorded delivery.

He's had a reply already stating not entitled to refund or another car but a repair only - saying consumer rights have wrongly advised us. They have discovered a 'manufacturing fault' which they say can be repaired foc under the warranty.

Will call Consumer Rights on Monday, but does anyone have any experience of this?

Uncle is terrified of getting stranded somewhere :-(

visidigi

The dealer has the choice of three, repair, replace, refund, and they can chose not to do an option if its deemed to be disproportionately expensive.

When you say it has 'broken down' has it done this the same way everytime or different?

paddyrg

Try the repair first, may fix it.

I suggest AA or RAC cover if he's scared to break down, they can get him started again.

Terrysdelight

visidigi wrote: »

The dealer has the choice of three, repair, replace, refund, and they can chose not to do an option if its deemed to be disproportionately expensive.

When you say it has 'broken down' has it done this the same way everytime or different?

Broken down same way each time - basically won't start - was found to be a fault in its security system.

Hermione_Granger

visidigi wrote: »

The dealer has the choice of three, repair, replace, refund.

This only applies once the consumer has accepted the car, and the SOGA gives them a "reasonable time" to inspect and test it to ensure that it is as described and free from faults.

As the first fault appeared within one day, I would agree with the OPs local council in that their is a right of rejection of the car, especially as the garage have admitted that there is a manufacturing fault.

(1)The buyer is deemed to have accepted the goods [F35subject to subsection (2) below—
(a)when he intimates to the seller that he has accepted them, or

(b)when the goods have been delivered to him and he does any act in relation to them which is inconsistent with the ownership of the seller.

(2)Where goods are delivered to the buyer, and he has not previously examined them, he is not deemed to have accepted them under subsection (1) above until he has had a reasonable opportunity of examining them for the purpose—

(a)of ascertaining whether they are in conformity with the contract

Terrysdelight

Thank you HG.

That seems to make sense to me.

arcon5

If he has only had it for 7 days tell him to formally reject the car under the Sales of Goods Act and ask them to a) collect it & b) make provisions to refund his money.

Do this in writing via registered post so you have evidence.

If they continue to refuse a refund, your next letter will be headed 'Letter Before Action'.

maninthestreet

What make and model of car is it?

visidigi

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

This only applies once the consumer has accepted the car, and the SOGA gives them a "reasonable time" to inspect and test it to ensure that it is as described and free from faults.

As the first fault appeared within one day, I would agree with the OPs local council in that their is a right of rejection of the car, especially as the garage have admitted that there is a manufacturing fault.

I didn't consider the option to reject the car on this occasion, my mistake. apologies.

[text removed by MSE Forum Team]

Hintza

In my view you will not be getting a new car.

With cars you need to give them the chance to fix it and since this is the first visit to the dealer it will only be reasonable to give the opportunity to do so (and a court would agree with me on this).

It is not as if cars are off the peg items (ie the dealer probably doesn't have the same in stock). Now if the fault persists and/or they take too long to fix it then you might have a case for rejecting the car.

So at this stage trying to reject the car is pointless give them a chance to rectify (and keep a careful note of what they say and how long they take in case you need to escalate it.)

arcon5

Hintza wrote: »

In my view you will not be getting a new car.

With cars you need to give them the chance to fix it and since this is the first visit to the dealer it will only be reasonable to give the opportunity to do so (and a court would agree with me on this).

It is not as if cars are off the peg items (ie the dealer probably doesn't have the same in stock). Now if the fault persists and/or they take too long to fix it then you might have a case for rejecting the car.

So at this stage trying to reject the car is pointless give them a chance to rectify (and keep a careful note of what they say and how long they take in case you need to escalate it.)

I disagree, a car experiencing this many problems in just 7 days doesn't really instill confidence.

And SoGA gives the buyer the right to reject goods within 'reasonable' time. I would say 7 days is well within what is reasonable so I doubt very much a judge would find in the retailers favour.

The law is on ops side.