In Dispute With Dealer Over a Car Now Getting Legal! Advice Please!

TradePro

arcon5 wrote: »

You have a brand new clutch for sub £250. You are in a much better position than you was before. You should be celebrating not whining

In fairness, I think the OP is happy, it's Vaio who thinks the dealer should be punished further.

roddydogs

Didn't think clutches were covered in an warranty, even in a new car.

funkycoldribena

arcon5 wrote: »

The car didn't fail after 5 days and 200 miles.

The car failed after 8 years and 90000 miles!

So what! You expect someone to fork out nearly a grand 5 days after buying a car?
If you're a dealer selling cars this is the gamble you take,not the customers gamble,and if you dont like it then you're in the wrong business.

vaio

arcon5 wrote: »

You've missed the fundamental concept of SoGA, its about faulty goods not used goods suffering reasonable wear and tear. The law takes in to consideration description also.....

Nah, whilst SoG is about faulty goods it covers new and used goods and is clear that whilst the standard expected for used goods is obviously lower than for new the basic rules about reasonable durability, quality and fitness for purpose apply to both. I think the key word is reasonable.

arcon5 wrote: »

.....What if the car had done 150k miles and never had a clutch changed? Would you still think it reasonable for op to get it free? What if 5 days after purchase the spring snaps, who pays? Clutches these days are often replaced once or twice throughout the cars life. In most cars if a clutch does 100k miles you've done very very well indeed.....

Don't know, I paid £7.5k for my current car that had 140k on it when I bought it, if I'd got it from a dealer and the clutch had failed in the first week I'd certainly have expected the dealer to fix it. It's now got >220k on it and still on the original clutch.

arcon5 wrote: »

......Based on your last paragraph though, you've completely missed the point. Op hasn't bought a 200 mile/5day old car, he's bought a 90k/2500 day (ish) car

My last two paragraphs were really asking a question...."what is a reasonable time for a dealer to be responsible for major faults on a 90k miles and 8 years old used car costing £5k?"

Are you really saying 5 days?

vaio

arcon5 wrote: »

By the way op, with the result you got lucky, very lucky - in that they couldn't be bother to attend court where any semi-decent defence would have seen you packaging.

As for £250 recovery costs, you've got to be kidding?!!!
You should have called an independant recovery truck and had it towed back to your local garage. Usually costing £1.50-£2 per mile region.
It's not their fault you didn't mitigate your losses.
You have a brand new clutch for sub £250. You are in a much better position than you was before. You should be celebrating not whining

Ahh, the old "we would have won but it was too much trouble to go to court" defence.

I'd be surprised if a small car dealer in the right wouldn't spend a couple of hours on expenses at their local court to save a grand....hell, if the defence was that good it would be tossed at the case directions/mediation stage. More likely he realised he was on a loser and, as the first rejection letter didn't work he cut his losses before getting the court fees added.

As for the OP mitigating his costs...he got towed 200 miles for the £250 which is cheaper than the £1.50- £2 per mile you mentioned

pappadruid

If I could put down some background to this it may help with some of the debate this has created.

1. The car was advertised as being a 'stunning example'. It was also advertised as having less mileage on the clock than it actually did. Not a great deal, granted, but still a couple of K more. Misrepresentation Act anyone? Also came with 12 months MOT.

2. Arcon, we were 170 miles from home when the breakdown occurred so even using the lower of your recovery mileage figures £250 recovery charge is still a low quote.

3. I tried to contact the dealer the same day to arrange repairs to no avail. As it turned out he had shot off on a 4 week holiday, so I arranged recovery to a local garage. The car was given a 3 month warranty at the point of sale and it was the warranty company that authorised repairs at my local garage, with them agreeing to meet a percentage of the costs. Incidentally, the cost of repairs at the garage was £959. The same repair at a Honda dealer was £1600+!!

4. The dealer went on holiday without even dealing with the paperwork for the sale such as the V5, sending off the warranty policy paperwork and such like. The warranty company have been pulling their hair out with the dealer over this. Surely the dealer has a duty of care to deal with all paperwork regarding the sale immediately??!!

5. All correspondance has been through the dealers legal team in response to my original letter seeking recompense under SOGA. They knew right from the start I had a strong case as they initially offered me £350 without any resistance whatsoever. I refused, and they uppped their offer to meet the full cost of repairs. If a half decent legal team thought they could turn my case over easily would they cough up so easily?? I think they knew what would happen if it went to a small claims court.

6. I am happy with the result, so lets all be friends eh?!!!!

vaio

TradePro wrote: »

In fairness, I think the OP is happy, it's Vaio who thinks the dealer should be punished further.

Yep, OP is happy and I don't want the dealer punished, it's a discussion about SoG rights & responsibilities. Fulfilling your SoG responsibilities is not punishment, it's a normal business overhead

My view is that consequential costs are covered and that is backed up by the link I gave in the beginnig. http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file25486.pdf

arcon5

funkycoldribena wrote: »

So what! You expect someone to fork out nearly a grand 5 days after buying a car?
If you're a dealer selling cars this is the gamble you take,not the customers gamble,and if you dont like it then you're in the wrong business.

Quite simply, yes.

If you don't like the risks involved in buying an old, used car then its quite simple, don't buy old and run down goods, buy much newer or new

vaio

alternatively if you don't like the SoG responsibilities involved in selling pre-loved cars to consumers then limit your sales (and profits) by only selling to other traders.

fivetide

pappadruid wrote: »

If I could put down some background to this it may help with some of the debate this has created.

This is not unusual on here!

6. I am happy with the result, so lets all be friends eh?!!!!

This will be out of the ordinary though!




OP is quite happy, no one is getting punished for anything. not sure why there still needs to be a row?