Car purchase woes

cortinadave

Last month I bought a Saab 9-3 from a dealer in Durham for £2k.. Long story short is - 02 plate 2.0 convertible, Full history and 93k miles.. for £2k. Drove the 160 odd miles down from my home in Fife with my mechanic mate who looked it over, looked all good, and they took it for an MOT There and then which it passed with no problems.

All was well until on the way home the oil light came on, the engine let out a clatter and seized. My mechanic told me the oil pump had likely gone and basically the engine was goosed.

As it was only an hour after sale I rang the garage and said I was rejecting the car under the sale of goods act and wanted a refund.. They refused and said I legally had to give them the opportunity to repair it.

Went back down and they gave me a courtesy car and arranged to pick up the saab and promised to have it repaired and back within a week to ten days. We are now a month further on- It's been really difficult to get hold of them - they dont reply to emails and when I call I usually get "can you ring back" "no ones here" etc

Finally got the workshop last week and was told they'd bought another car to get the engine from and that it was low miles etc - They said they'd be doing the engine swap on the monday, so i arranged to collect on sat of this week.

Phoned today to confirm, got the runaround again before a guy finally told me "the car we bought is an old R reg and its a different type of engine with different BHP so we're having real problems getting it to fit. You'll have to ring back on monday"

What do I do? Seems really unfair that its now over a month, I still dont have the car I bought and they're fitting a different engine from a much older model - Surely thats not acceptable?

Apart from anything else I'd bought the convertible to use on holiday through the summer, Thats now gone and I can see me being left with a convertible with a mismatched engine in october!

Guardsman

As a matter of interest what is the courtesy car they gave you.

shaun_from_Africa

Firstly, the garage staff were either misinformed or were simply lying to you as this:

They refused and said I legally had to give them the opportunity to repair it.

is incorrect.

Their option to repair only becomes relevent once you have accepted the goods, and this is not deemed to have occurred until you have had a reasonable time to examine the car.
If there is any problem or the car is not as described, you have the legal right to reject it up until you've accepted it.
(Sale of goods act section 35-2)

Even though you have now agreed to a repair, this has no bearing on your right of rejection and you are still legally entitled to inform the seller of your rejection of it and ask for a full refund.
(SOGA section 35-6)
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54

Write a recorded delivery letter to the dealer telling them that as permitted by law, you are rejecting the car and wish a full refund of all money paid for it.
If they then fail to refund you, you may have to consider legal action against them.

arcon5

^
this

Write to them to reject the vehicle. They can try to prove misuse or wear and tear, but the burden of proof is on them.