Please urgent help with 'illegal' car sold by garage

Johno100

diesel_dog wrote: »

We can keep speculating and throwing in tuppence, then contradicting each other all day long but an update from the OP would be better

Including if any of the matters listed were subject to an advisory on the MOT?

vaio

Joe_Horner wrote: »

True, but a successful inverted appeal gives cast-iron grounds for a refund anyway. So having got the appeal, the stick to wave is Trading Standard / court.

By not involving VOSA, as you say, they just get to pass it off to the next unfortunate person who knows nothing about cars and thinks it looks "shiny with an almost full MOT". That's how the dodgy places get to stay in business.

Bottom line is that this sort of situation is exactly where people can make a small but real difference in stopping the cowboys for very little effort. If the MOT station and the dealer are linked, in a way that the test station has "an interest" in selling the car, then a single incorrect pass can be enough to shut the station down - meaning no more dodgy cars from that dealer.

Which is a good result for everyone (except the cowboys).

From societies pov I agree 100% but from the OP's pov they could well end up spending the next 12 months trying to enforce the "cast-iron grounds for a refund" through the court & bailiff systems (assuming the company concerned are still around and solvent when the enforcement time comes)

Of course, once the OP had their money back there is nothing to stop them involving VOSA who, if they could be bothered, could turn up at the garage and inspect the car so everyone's a winner

Joe_Horner

They could end up spending a lot of time anyway, and the dealer will know perfectly well that (a) there's a 28 day time limit on appeals (except for corrosion) and (b) it's MUCH harder to appeal if you've had any work done on the car. So all they have to do is string you along for a few weeks, during which you possibly can't use the car because of the faults.

In fact, they can go one further by convincing you to let them "try to repair", at which point work's been done and your appeal's out the window as far as VOSA are concerned.

vaio

yep, that's why I said

vaio wrote: »

....... refund me now or VOSA get involved.........

the last thing I'd be doing is letting them anywhere near the car until I had my money back

It does need sorting asap though

KTF

rigsby1967 wrote: »

The MOT was done at another place and was hit by something when daughter went to pick it up as ther was a dent in the car and the bonnet not sitting and staying down.

So she saw the dent and the bonnet not closing properly and just accepted it?

How old is your daughter?

mad_rich

Do keep us updated, rigsby1967.

I would be interested to see how this works out.

rigsby1967

Hi all, sorry for the late reply, i haven't managed to read all the relies but i will do. I wasn't up to replying yesterday as i was in tears over the situation with the car and we were at the garage for 4 hours .

I will cut a LOOOONG story short but i phoned my mechanic (who looks at my car) he told me 6 from the list that are immediate MOT fails and 2 things from the list that makes it dangerous to drive.


The bloke who sold the car was not at all fazed that i said I'd call trading standards and i DID call them while we were still there.
the garage owner was making coke and bull storys up which my daughter was telling him no way this is how it was, then he backed down looked at the car and realised it is really bad.
Just 2 photos were taken, one of the exhaused which is in half and held up by stringy stuff, the other was the full extent of the rusty front break disks.

My daughter is to speak to him again tonight to get her money back, he said yes yesterday minus £250.

Daughter is 19 thought she had a sensible head on her shoulders but obviously not.
Vosa is for the MOT is that right?

ILW

Rusty discs?

rigsby1967

ILW wrote: »

Rusty discs?

Rusty is the best way i could describe them from the picture to be honest. shame i havent got a pic to add on here. the other pic was of the exhaused that was actually in half and not joined, again if you get what i mean.

mad_rich

rigsby1967 wrote: »

Vosa is for the MOT is that right?

Yes. VOSA are the people in charge of the MoTs. If you're going to get them involved do it now. The longer you leave it, the more likely they are to take the view that faults may have occurred since the MoT.

Also, the sooner you get them involved, the sooner you can get the Trading Standards ball rolling (if appropriate). Again, the longer you leave it, the weaker your argument becomes.

Who has the car now? I hope you/ your daughter, and not the garage. And I hope you didn't accept their offer of a refund less £250.

What did Trading Standards say when you spoke to them?

Also, get your daughter to write down on paper as much as she can remember about the conversation she had with the garage when she initially bought the car, as well as subsequent conversations. As well as being good ammunition for the fight, it's important that you (and we!) know what the lay of the land is.

It's still possible that the car might pass a re-test, with all the faults being 'just legal'. It's also possible that the salesman did point out the faults to your daughter, along the lines of "We've just managed to get it through its MoT, but it'll need some attention in the near future, that's why its so cheap" but she chose not to hear it (!), and now she's annoyed and embarrassed. (Without knowing your daughter, this is pure speculation, and I hope you'll forgive me for suggesting it, but it does happen. It would be embarassing and expensive if that was the case...)