Purchased car 2nd hand with full mot but.........

stef240377

Anyone have any suggestions or help/advice where to go from here? I appreciate i have no recourse from the seller of the car as it was 'sold as spares/reapirs' despite having all the mot/service history etc, but would there be any point in contacting trading standards or other appropriate organisations? Would this be taken seriously?

Where in that comment did i say i wanted my money back? It was other posters that had mentioned about refunds or payments towards repairs. I asked if there was any point in contacting TS to make them aware of the situation with the garage handing out dodgy mots for cash incentives or passing cars which have previous advisories they failed to pick up on this time for which there is no proof of repairs. I would rather have an avenue for complaint and know i could sleep at night having reduced the risk to members of the public either those unaware their cars have passed an mot with failures or other pedestrians/road users who have been involved in an accident due to an unroadworthy vehicle.

stef240377

salubrious wrote: »

If the garage you have the car at now had your best interests at heart they wouldn't have touched it, and they should know that too.

But then again. they are getting a few hundred pound job aren't they...

Probably not what you want to hear.

The garage rang detailing the faults with the car and said outright it wouldnt have passed an mot. My husband took the call and told them to make the car safe and usable asap as we have to get our daughter to work and have no other forms of transport available. They were happy to have detailed all work to persue a claim/complaint. Being niave and not having had to deal with anything like this before i didnt know the can of worms i were opening.

fivetide

stef240377 wrote: »

Anyone have any suggestions or help/advice where to go from here? I appreciate i have no recourse from the seller of the car as it was 'sold as spares/reapirs' despite having all the mot/service history etc, but would there be any point in contacting trading standards or other appropriate organisations? Would this be taken seriously?

.

Have another look.

It has been noted several times that is not possible for a trader to infringe your statutory rights by putting that on a reciept. It means nothing in law and is actually illegal for them to do so. TS might be interested.

Under SOGA you might have been able to go back and ask them to put the faults right but to do so, you need to give them that chance. As it happens you've had it fixed so that is a get out for them.

On the plus side, it wasn't that much (£300) and they are wear and tear parts (older BMWs for example eat suspension wishbones like mad) so you should now have a car that won't need anything doing for a while assuming it all hangs together.

good luck.

colino

As you've repaired it, don't waste another second of time or scrap of energy talking to VOSA, Trading Standards or Citizens Advice Consumers Service. None will do anything for you as there is no evidence and most are toothless muppets anyway. Enjoy the car, though you might want to hand the case to Dom on the Telly. If nothing else, it's funny to hear him helping so many conshooomers.

Joe_Horner

stef240377 wrote: »

Anyone have any suggestions or help/advice where to go from here?[...]

I asked if there was any point in contacting TS to make them aware of the situation with the garage handing out dodgy mots for cash incentives or passing cars which have previous advisories they failed to pick up on this time for which there is no proof of repairs. I would rather have an avenue for complaint and know i could sleep at night having reduced the risk to members of the public either those unaware their cars have passed an mot with failures or other pedestrians/road users who have been involved in an accident due to an unroadworthy vehicle.

If only more people thought like that the dodgy dealers would have a much harder time!

Call VOSA on 0300 123 9000 and explain the situation - mentioning that you have a detailed list of the (repaired) faults and that, even though you understand they won't be able to take direct action because repairs have been done you thought they should be aware.

You can do similar with Trading Standards (look up their number for the area that the dealer operates in). Again, it's unlikely they'll be able to take direct action in this case but it'll put the dealer on their radar for the future.

These organisations are not toothless, but they can't do their job as long as 90% of the people getting stung never let them know. When they do take action they often end up either removing someone's livelihood or even sending them to prison, so they generally need far more than one complaint (which could have been a genuine isolated mistake) to get things moving.

jase1

spacey2012 wrote: »

They were bad cars to start with.
They can not be compared to things built by BMW, they were built in China by someone who gets a cup of rice a day with a gun in their back.

Actually that's nonsense -- they were built in Austria.

They weren't the best cars in the world by any means, but the engines/gearboxes were Mitsubishi-derived and pretty solid (and, ironically, is the basis for the petrol engines in the BMW Mini!). The rest of the car, not so much.

The same factory that built the PT Cruiser now builds Mercedes Benz and BMW Mini models:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Steyr

mattyprice4004

Well if the repairs are around £300 and the car was around £500, you've got a working car for less than £1k. Not too bad, just don't go for something with ridiculously low mileage for that reason alone.

It's probably rotten underneath, and doing that little mileage will mean everything that moves will be needing replacement or repair at some point - bearings etc don't like to be sat.

Around 100k would be middle-mileage for a 2000 car. Yours has barely moved and I think that's going to bite you in the future.

OddballJamie

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

Well if the repairs are around £300 and the car was around £500, you've got a working car for less than £1k. Not too bad, just don't go for something with ridiculously low mileage for that reason alone.

It's probably rotten underneath, and doing that little mileage will mean everything that moves will be needing replacement or repair at some point - bearings etc don't like to be sat.

Around 100k would be middle-mileage for a 2000 car. Yours has barely moved and I think that's going to bite you in the future.

I think the car cost a bit more than that. It was listed on Ebay at £1250.

Norman_Castle

Anyone have any suggestions or help/advice where to go from here? I appreciate i have no recourse from the seller of the car as it was 'sold as spares/reapirs' despite having all the mot/service history etc, but would there be any point in contacting trading standards or other appropriate organisations? Would this be taken seriously?

Have you contacted the seller?. Traders are not allowed to remove your rights by claiming "sold as seen, spares or repair".

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_cars_and_other_vehicles_e/consumer_problems_with_the_car_you_bought_e/the_car_you_bought_is_not_roadworthy.htm

Did you buy the car to use on the road?

If the car is being sold for spares or repair, it's not an offence if it's unroadworthy. It is the seller’s responsibility to make you fully aware that the car you're buying isn't for use on the road.
If you buy a car that's not for use on the road, the seller should ask you to sign an agreement saying this. Other signs that a car is not for use on the road include:

• a sign on the car and information in the advert saying the car was not roadworthy and was being sold for "spares or repair"
• the seller will not let you drive the car away from the premises
• the seller will not give you an MOT certificate or tax disc.

If you did not buy the car to use on the road, you cannot take any action against the seller for selling you an unroadworthy car.

pothole50

Would this be taken seriously by trading standards no, you need to prove that at the time of the test the tester passed the car as roadworthy knowing it was not and also takes backhanders for a pass, the seller sold this in good faith as being roadworthy knowing it was not and since purchasing the car you have not driven it, down a pothole, up a kerb causing the suspension to snap.