Used Car - Warranty v Sale of Goods Act

kelcoll · 31 December 2013 at 3:40PM

I bought a Used car (2010 Renault Megane) from Charles Hurst Renault (Mallusk) on June 17th year for £7200. I received a 6 month warranty with it.

On Christmas eve I noticed that the heaters/blowers were becoming tempramental and not working all the time. Sometimes they kick in mid journey, sometimes they work from the beginning of the journey and sometimes not at all. I contacted the dealership yesterday and they asked me to bring the car in for a quick look which I did this morning.

The engineer had a very quick look without taking the car into the garage, noticed condensation on the inside rear windscreen and inside passenger window and said that their must be a water leakage inside the car. He checked inside the boot which was dry and inside the 2 storage compartments in the front footwells. The driver side was damp and the passenger side had about an inch of water in it. He said that sometimes the drains in the windscreen become blocked and this can cause a leakage and maybe affect the blower motor. He said he'd need to get the car checked in and depending on what needs done it could be a 4-5 hour job.

I went in to speak to the girl at the service reception who said the car is outside of warranty (by 2 weeks!) but that water ingress wouldn't have been covered by the warranty anyway. I said to her that after spending £7200 on a car I would expect it to last more than 6 months without developing a fault, that surely this should have been checked in the service the car received before I bought it. She replied that it wouldn't have been.

My question is, where do I stand? Should this be covered under the Sale of Goods Act and if so how should I go about arguing my case?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

kelcoll · 31 December 2013 at 3:43PM

I've just had a call from Charles Hurst to say that the receptionist has spoken to her manager and as a gesture of good will they'll repair the water leak free of charge but if the blower motor does need replaced it'll cost £387 which I'll have to pay.

She did however suggest calling Renault Customer Services and explaining what has happened as the car is only coming up on four years old and they might help meet some of the costs of the replacement motor!

Obviously they (Charles Hurst) agree that it shouldn't have gone at this stage in the cars life.