Reject a faulty second-hand car?

vaio

If it is a piston failed then they are waiting for a suitable second hand engine to become available, are they giving you (or paying for) a replacement car whilst they twiddle their thumbs?

Have you rejected it and asked for your money back?

unholyangel

fatbadger2 wrote: »

By debit card, does that make a difference ???

cheers

It would have been better if it was credit card (as that makes the credit card jointly liable with the retailer) but with debit card, you can try to action a chargeback under VISA/Mastercards own policy. You can read more about it here on MSE by following this link: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

It may not be successful but at least it gives you another possible avenue of recourse and you never know until you try. You should really put your complaints in writing to the garage first and give them a chance to resolve it, but if you're approaching the 120 day limit (for making a chargeback under their policy) then you might want to do that at the same time as writing the letter.


You speak about an independent report......have you read up on the SOGA at all? Would I be correct in saying you purchased the car 4 weeks ago? You need to write to them making it clear you are rejecting the car under the SoGA as not of satisfactory quality/not fit for purpose.

wealdroam

unholyangel wrote: »

You can read more about it here on MSE by following this link: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

The debit card chargeback information used to be in with the Section 75 stuff, but has now been moved to a separate document...
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback

unholyangel

wealdroam wrote: »

The debit card chargeback information used to be in with the Section 75 stuff, but has now been moved to a separate document...
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback

Thanks. Not been on much the past few months so I just assumed it was in the same place :X Whoops

fatbadger2

vaio wrote: »

If it is a piston failed then they are waiting for a suitable second hand engine to become available, are they giving you (or paying for) a replacement car whilst they twiddle their thumbs?

Have you rejected it and asked for your money back?

I still have my old car, so have re-insured it, tax, etc.
I would like to reject but a solicitor has advised that if I do then then I am responsible for proving that the fault was there when I bought it - not easy or cheap, therefore not sensible (anyone disagree?)

fatbadger2

unholyangel wrote: »

You need to write to them making it clear you are rejecting the car under the SoGA as not of satisfactory quality/not fit for purpose.

As above - rejectin g the car puts the onus on me to prove it was faulty. I can imagine this being very difficult and expensive

unholyangel

fatbadger2 wrote: »

As above - rejectin g the car puts the onus on me to prove it was faulty. I can imagine this being very difficult and expensive

I dont know if it is different with second hand goods, although I cant remember reading anything to say that it is different, but with SoGA.....if the fault occurs in the first 6 months after purchase, the burden of proof is on the retailer. Once 6 months pass, then the burden of proof reverses and the onus is on the consumer.

The first thing to look at is if that is the "fault" is expected of a car that age, with that many miles. For example you couldn't reject it because it needs something that has an approximate life span of 100k miles and the car has done 80k+ miles. I'm not that good with mechanics so I have no idea what the average lifespan of an engine is. Although personally if the car looked as if it had been taken care of, it had a full service history etc.......I wouldnt expect the engine to go at 150k miles.

fatbadger2

unholyangel wrote: »

.....if the fault occurs in the first 6 months after purchase, the burden of proof is on the retailer. Once 6 months pass, then the burden of proof reverses and the onus is on the consumer.

Spoke to trading standards and a solicitor (tel only) they both say the burden of prove changes to the buyer if you reject.

If the garage say, "we think you broke it/it was fine when we sold it" then yes, the proof is on them - but not if I reject it. Which is a big problem

unholyangel

fatbadger2 wrote: »

Spoke to trading standards and a solicitor (tel only) they both say the burden of prove changes to the buyer if you reject.

If the garage say, "we think you broke it/it was fine when we sold it" then yes, the proof is on them - but not if I reject it. Which is a big problem

Any friends who are mechanically minded who would be willing to take a look? The problem being there is that the dealer has the car.

What are you looking to achieve? A full refund? Or would you be happy with a repair if the price was reduced accordingly?

mattyprice4004

CKhalvashi wrote: »

4 years old, 160,000 miles

Was this an ex-fleet car by any chance? I certainly wouldn't buy a car that one of my lot has driven for 3 years, even if they are kept in an immaculate condition.

If it was the 1.9 TDi, it could well be a turbo problem, which will be a £1200 job (says he who caused some serious damage to one of our Octavias, 2 days before it was due to go in for repair). I can't remember the exact amount, but I know it came to something like this.

Apart from that, the engines last forever, so you should have 200k+ of trouble free motoring from it after it's done.

CK

1. The fault was a piston failure, as detailed in the other thread.

2. They quite clearly don't last forever, a car should never need a piston IMO. My 2002 Rover has more than 160k on the clock and hasn't needed anything of note replacing engine-wise.