Advice re : Brand new car?

visidigi

I was going to add to my question ....I hope its not a BMW.

They are a nightmare when it comes to rejections - is it a new or one of the more established models?

Is your finance from BMW Financial Services or a third party? BMW main CS are absolutely useless - rarely do they achieve anything.

I think you might be best to go into the dealer and ask to speak to the dealer principle. Go in at that point and let him work down from there.

CynicalScotsman

Yeh, the car is financed through BMW FS. It is the new Z4 - so reasonably new model.

I am just kind of in a quandary at the moment, as I do love the car but Im not loving the fact that I now have a hire car for ?duration and also the fact the car had a fault from day 1.

I don't want to go in all guns blazing that I want to hand the car back to them but I do want to know what my rights are in this scenario because after testing the water with the sales manager - it seems as if rejecting car is not going to be an option from their point of view.

paddyrg

Is the same problem happening on all the z4's right now, or just yours? Any thoughts on the BMW forums?

vikingaero

Most dealerships will have a budget of a number of cars that they accept will be rejected. It could be a handful of cars for a small dealership to 20 for a larger one.

Of course they won't they you this and it would be in their financial interest to dissuade customers from rejection. If they are close to the budget for rejected cars then they may play hardball. Sometimes BMW UK will fund the rejected car if the problem is serious enough. A fuel pump is minor compared to an engine or gearbox although there is an inconvenience to the OP.

CynicalScotsman

There are references to it on the forums and apparently it is only affecting some Z4s. Discussed with dealer - apparently BMW have made some recognition of it but no need for formal recall as not damaging to car and only affecting some. The advice BMW have apparently given to dealers is that if customer complains of noise coming from fuel pump replace with different type of pump.

arcon5

Hintza wrote: »

You need to afford him the opportunity to fix the car, it is generally accepted that they get 3 attempts to do so.

After which you can reject.

Have a look in honestjohn he has an article on it and the procedure.

That's not really the case legally though. Op can reject goods within a reasonable time after having the goods. Only after this time must op afford them the right to repair. And 3 days is almost certainly still within this reasonable time. (Although the laws set to change to define this period as a fixed 28 days).


And no op, giving them the opportunity to repair it does not constitute acceptance, so if their repair fails you can still reject it.


Id I spent god knows how many many £Ks to buy a brand new car, I would certainly be very wary if a component like the fuel pump was faulty within 3 days. If we was talking about something like a tear in the tyre or something then perhaps this could be deemed so immaterial that it would be unreasonable to reject it, but that's not really the case here imo.

arcon5

vikingaero wrote: »

Most dealerships will have a budget of a number of cars that they accept will be rejected. It could be a handful of cars for a small dealership to 20 for a larger one.

Of course they won't they you this and it would be in their financial interest to dissuade customers from rejection. If they are close to the budget for rejected cars then they may play hardball. Sometimes BMW UK will fund the rejected car if the problem is serious enough. A fuel pump is minor compared to an engine or gearbox although there is an inconvenience to the OP.

Hmmm, i'd say the fuel pump was a component on par with the clutch. A sensor or a split in a hose may be minor, but not really a fuel pump.

arcon5

CynicalScotsman wrote: »

Yeh, the car is financed through BMW FS. It is the new Z4 - so reasonably new model.

I am just kind of in a quandary at the moment, as I do love the car but Im not loving the fact that I now have a hire car for ?duration and also the fact the car had a fault from day 1.

I don't want to go in all guns blazing that I want to hand the car back to them but I do want to know what my rights are in this scenario because after testing the water with the sales manager - it seems as if rejecting car is not going to be an option from their point of view.

Of course its not, they have sales targets to hit. It's not in their interest to make your life easy - doesn't affect your statutory rights though!

In fairness I guess, this could merely be a 1 in 10000 situation whereby a single component has failed and you could go the next 5 years problem free. Worth finding out if it can cause any consequential damage though.... such as to the injectors or something, somebody else may have more mechanical knowledge though that can advice.

How long will the repair take? If they say a couple of weeks i'd be a bit peeved, if they say a few days then fine.

But you've not acted in a way that would be deemed to have accepted the car, so if the repair fails then simply allowing them this opportunity doesn't affect this.

You may though have a fight on your hands - but the finance company are jointly liable also.

CynicalScotsman

Problem is the component is now on 'back order' after them telling me it could be got for the next day they now say BMW has released an improved component but it is 'back order'.

Asked them a timescale - none - and by 'back order' definition, apparently there is no timescale, it will come in when it comes in. Could be days, weeks or months.

Hintza

arcon5 wrote: »

That's not really the case legally though. Op can reject goods within a reasonable time after having the goods.

Appeal Court Case law (Bernstein v Palmerston Motors 1987) has held that the supplier must be given three chances to rectify the fault for which the goods are rejected and must have failed to do so.

But yes you could argue..........

For Clegg v Olle Andersson to apply to other cases, it must be proven that the fault existed on the date of sale and constituted a breach of the original purchase contract. Clegg v Olle Andersson cannot apply where a fault develops at some time after purchase. In those cases, it was thought that Bernstein v Palmerston Motors 1987 still applied and the dealer has to be given three clear chances to rectify the problem. (Case summary:- Yacht with overweight keel rejected after 6 months).

The OP's case though would not come under small claims so OP has to decide whether it is worth it.

My thoughts would be that if they replaced the fuel pump within a few days the OP woulkd not have a case and could be deemed frivalous.

In this instance however the fact the dealer can not source the part makes it more interesting and if the OP wants to fight it they need to take legal advice.