returning a used car seems very grey....

Lady_Alexiel

Hi,

Im concerned because i am very unhappy with a recent used car purchase and everything ive read up on it so far see. To be very grey as far as getting a guarentied outcome is concerned.

To explaine, last weekend whilst on holiday the crank shaft of my then current car went, ( we were on fast lane of the m5 at the time , all scarey stuff) with a quoted cost of £2,500 to repair (this being what i paid for the car when i bought it 2 years ago. We decided it would be better to scrap it and buy another car when we got home.

After looking around a number of dealers i booked a couple of test drives for the following day. (To give me chance to 'cool off' and have a propper think about each one, and the things i needed to still check, like making sure all gadgets, windows doors worked ect)

Anyway, the car i went for after the test drive was a 2003 ford fusion 3 1.6 engin with 95k miles on the clock for £2000. I was given a 12 month mot with no advisories and i paid a further £200 to extend the 3 month warrenty to a year, after all although the car was reasonable cared for with a recent cam belt change service stamps ect, there were a lot of miles on it and i wanted that extra bit of assurance. So concidering everything I figured it should be good for perhaps a year or two if i was good to it.

So i got the car, this is were my problems start. Ive had the car for 4 days now and in that time we have removed the air fresner that was in the car and found the car smells musty / damp with an almost chemical edge to it. This smell gives my partner a headach every time he gets in my car, we belive this smell to be the cause.

Ive been having problems with the car struggling and shuddering whilst in the correct gear. At first i thought it may he because i was driving a differnt car and had to get used to it driving differntly, but it cant be that if im having to still be in 2nd gear when at almost 30mph.

And the latest issue and the most concerning, is yesterday whilst on the a379 the car lost all engin power and came up with an eac fail. I almost had an accident because the car slowed so suddenly. Given my similair experince only a few days ago (all be it a differnt cause) you can imagin how not happy i am right now. None of these issues were evident in the test

Ive e-mailed the dealer last night with all of these concerns and plan to take the car to him later today when he opens. I know the car has a warrenty but to be honest i dont feel its unreasonable to expect a car even of this age and milage to ladt more than 3 days.

I want to reject the car and either exchange it for a different car or to just get my money back so i can go elswere. Id also like to either transfere the 12 month warrenty i bought or have a refund on that to as again ive only had it for a few days.

I no longer feel safe driving this car and feel if im having problems now its not a good sign.

Am i able to insist on a refund? I feel asking for an exchange for the same value is reasonable but he may not have anything suitable in stock. Am i going to be stuck with this expensive mistake? It doesnt really feel like the law is clear enough to give me any confidence here ><.

Any opinions or advice would be very gratfully recieved.

muckybutt

Under soga being as you have only had it for a few days then you are within your rights to reject the car and ask for a refund.

http://oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/sogahome/sogaexplained/

poppasmurf_bewdley

You HAVE to give the supplying dealer the opportunity to fix the car before you reject it.

On the other hand, if you tell the dealer you would like to swop the car for another he has in stock, there shouldn't really be a problem. The only problem may be swopping over the paid for warranty.

You really need to talk everything over with your dealer and see what he says. If there is still a problem after this, then come back on here and we'll see what further help can be offered.

vaio

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

You HAVE to give the supplying dealer the opportunity to fix the car before you reject it........

Didn't think that was the case in the short period before the punter had "accepted" the goods (in the legal sense)

poppasmurf_bewdley

You accept the car the moment you take delivery.

s_b

i never understand why people would send emails
the telephone was invented for just such problems
ie you get someone on the hook not on the end of a message
think about it

anyway
pappasmurth has the answer
see what soupplier says
and for the record the eac can go at anytime on these (throttle pedal by the way) its electronic rubbish but might have gone faulty due to a deep cleanse of the car in an attempt to kill the musty airconditioning system that really needs a smoke bomb to cure

see nothing really wrong with the car is there?
good cars they is too so long as you dont push them in to corners too hard

bit mieagy of course i wouldnt have touched it

vaio

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

You accept the car the moment you take delivery.

Not in the legal sense, have a read of http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54 particularly s35

Whilst you are there, s48 covers the right to reject/rescind and get a refund rather than having to allow a repair

s_b

vaio wrote: »

Not in the legal sense, have a read of http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54 particularly s35

the cars a high mileage banger
dealer is well within his rights to offer a repair on a simple fault
it could be argued the smell is part and parcel of this old stead
basically start playing i know my rights tickets on bangers and banging your drum will end in dealer telling customer to do one and looking forward to the court case

old cars are two way streets, dealer gave a 3 month inclusive warranty for things like throttle failure,you have to remember cars are washing machines with wheels

ifthis car came back to me and customer attitude right i would console and repair or swap within my stock a last resort if car a lemon would be a refund
i would expect customer to phone me though first as would any dealer
we always have our phones with us after all

vaio

Yep, the law does allow dealers the right to offer a repair but also allows buyers the right to reject the car & offer of repair and get a refund.

Most cases get solved amicably but the law is there as a back stop to deal with cases where people are being unreasonable and can be used by either party.

I think the only thing that either party can insist on is a refund, anything else is a matter for agreement.

Thus, if the car I just paid you £300 for throws a con rod out through the block 200m away from your premises I can ask you to repair but you can insist on giving a refund.

on the other foot, if you want to repair it I can insist on a refund

Lady_Alexiel

Thank you for all your replies so far.

I went to see the dealer today, hoping to have the outcome of either swapping the car or a refund.

Unfortunately it didn't go to well I started to explain the main issue (being the EAC failure) and as I was started to tell him his just wrote a number on a bit of paper and talking over me just said call these guys tomorrow to see if they can fix it.

I was then all a bit like "well the thing is..." and tried to tell him some of the other things I was concerned about and found myself talked over with him repeating what he had just said.

At this point I asked him are you not interested in hearing what your customer has to say so you are fully aware of my issue and deal with it appropriately?

the response was " I've been in this business 20 years love (yes I'm a girl) I don't have to do customer service, just take this and ring them tomorrow or you wont be entitled to get it fixed." the car is 10 years old you should expect this stuff.

Yes its 10 years old, id expect a year or two out of it seeing as its supposedly got a clean bill of health, with maybe a few wear and tear issue along the way, not to have the engine go funny on my 3 days after purchase.

It was at this point I attempted to explaine that I felt that as 3 days was a resonable time to inspect my purchase and that the car has been sold to me faulty I would like to reject the car. I was about to go on to say id be happy to exchange before seeking a refund but I got totally cut of and dismissed and told be i had no right to request such a thing and it as ring that number or nothing and were ever i had read or heard such a thing was wrong and against the law.

Id been fairly composed up until this point, and was refraining from using to much o what i read because i didn't ant to make it to confrontational. but at this point i told him id be ringing citizens advice tomorrow before i even consider ringing the number he gave me. and at this point I left to hear his shouting profanities out of the office and I was leaving.


I'm so seriously angry with this guy right now, it really didnt need to escallate this far at all. He could still have my money and a car to sell and I could have had a different one, he probably would have made more money out of me, because i would likely have paid extra or one o the slightly more expensive cars. But I really Feel I need to dig my heels and do what ever I can to the letter. How can businesses get away with being like this, it awful.

vaio

another fine advert for the british pre-loved car sales industry.

The legal route is getting a report on the car from an independent expert, rejecting the car and probably suing the dealer for your money, report & consequential costs. All a lot of hassle and a gamble

The second alternative is to do what he says, either it will be fixed and everybody lives happily ever after or you are letting yourself in for multiple trips to a bodge it back street garage who will try & fix it for nothing or try and extract more money from you.

The last alternative is make some placards/posters up and go park it outside his premises.

You can also put his name on here so google picks it up if anyone else does a search.

If you don't get it sorted amicably and it looks like it is getting dirty I'd also be inclined to take it for another MOT (Ford dealer are normally suitably strict & can do you the report as well) and also check the previous MOTs online to make sure there are no mileage "discrepancies". Might also be worth a HPI check if you haven't done one already. Anything untoward in these areas might well indicate criminal conduct which, as well as strengthening your case, might be of interest to VOSA and/or Trading Standards