Second-hand Car Rights

chocoblock

My daughter bought a car from a dealer for £2,490 just over 3 months ago. Being an estate car she found it heavy and slow to drive around town so 2 weeks ago she sold it privately for £1,900. Yesterday the man she had sold it to came to the door asking for his money back. He said he had had a diagnostic check done on it, as there was a light on the dashboard which remained on all the time. He showed us a list of faults which had been highlighted on the check. He said he had been told "the cost for repairs could be about £2,500 and that really the car was not roadworthy".

We will give the man his money back as we feel so bad about this. We have contacted the dealer as it is only just over 3 months since it was originally bought it from him. We hoped he might agree to look over the car and come to some amicable agreement. He wasn't interested at all. My husband spoke to him, or tried to, but could hardly get a word in as he certainly had a gift of the gab. He refused to take any responsibility for it at all.

Can anyone offer any advice?

isplumm

Yes ... don't give the man his money back - it is buyer beware for 2nd hand private car sales.

Mark

AndysDad

Was the light on the dashboard 'ON' when he bought the car?,if not then I would say to him, bad luck,if it was 'on' then he could have backed out of the deal,so the onus was on him.As far as I know if you purchase a car privately there is no comeback as opposed to buying a car from a dealer.I would advise contact trading standards to see if the dealer has a past record of problems.

chocoblock

Thanks for the replies. The light on the dash came on intermittently and my daughter mentioned this to him.

He had a good look round the car before he bought it and we let him have it for less than we were asking.

The only problem about not giving him his money back is that he knows where we live and we are worried about any repercussions.

adonis

The buyer would know where you live anyway as it would be on the registration document, as long as you have not lied to him like saying it has a new battery when it hasn't for instance then there is nothing he can do once he has given you the money and taken the car.

If he says anything threatening to you then get the police involved,
he sounds like a muppet, don't give him his money back.

forgotmyname

He knows where you live, You know where he lives.

How long did the buyer have the car for? Used it for a trip and now returning it? Cheaper than hiring a car?

chocoblock

He had the car for 2 weeks. We had no idea there all those faults. If we had known, we could have taken it back to the dealer previously, as it would have still been under warranty (3 months).

He said he had paid to have diagnostic check done. Are these diagnostic checks reliable? Do they tend to bring up every little fault? I can't believe it when he came with a list of faults.

Thanks for all your comments/replies. It has given us confidence to face him with some facts.

McKneff

Tell him to take a long walk off a short pier. If he starts mouthing off, just call (or make out that you are calling) the police.

MisterMotivated

I understand your concern about possible repercussions, but I wouldn't be giving him his money back. He had his chance to inspect the car and it was (apparently) okay when he bought it, and your daughter made him aware of the light coming on intermittently, so he already knows there's something wrong with it (he'd be silly to buy in the hope that the light never comes on again).

Were the list of faults he showed you all obtained from a computer diagnostics check (eg hooking car up to a computer/code reader), or were some of them issues the mechanic found during an inspection? If the latter, then I'd say he has no comeback on those as he had the opportunity to check the car out for himself when buying it (or bring a competent mechanic/friend with him to check it). If the former, as said above, he was made aware of an intermittent fault (it's not unreasonable to assume your daughter genuinely didn't know what the fault was unless she had it checked herself) and he would have reduced his offer to take into account the risk.

You also don't know how many of those faults were causing the warning light to come on at the time your daughter owned it. Some very erratic/careless driving might have caused at least some of the faults found during the check.

Do you have a copy of the list of faults?

chocoblock

no he didn't leave us the list. We did reduce the car from £2300 to £1900 though.

You-kip

Secondhand private car rights don't exist.