Do I have a claim in small claims court for my car?

marty1787

I bought a second had car in september 2013 from a car dealer for £2500. The car developed many serious faults after a 3 months and the dealer refused to fix them saying that he only had to give a 3 month warranty and his warranty would not cover these repairs anyway. Some of the faults were faulty engine management system, excessive exhaust fumes and fuel consumption, faulty glow plugs and the car leaked and let water in.

I know full well that under the sale of goods act the dealer does not have a leg to stand on so I had an inspection and quote for repairs carried out by vauxhall main dealers. They quoted £2300 to fix the car and I intended to use this as evidence in court of the faults.
As the dealer was refusing to fix the car and the repair bill was almost the cost of the car, and this car was unsafe with the exhaust fumes entering the cabin, I bought another car and wrote to the dealer, rejecting the car and gave them until the first of february to respond or I would take legal action. The dealer may have the right to offer a replacement vehicle but as he was refusing to do anything about it I thought getting another car and then taking legal action on this car was the best route to take.

The dealer ignored me for several weeks but as the car had been sat outside my house for a few weeks unused I decided to give it a run to keep charge in the battery as at some point this car will need to be moved as my insurance and tax was running out on it and I had nowhere to sorn it.
I started the car and it ran bad, really bad. It was smoking exhaust fumes everywhere and stalling trying to drive it. I started to panic. I thought the dealer was no going to get back to me and if I did nothing about this car I would be left with the bill to remove it and take it to the scrapyard on a low loader. I was worried about my financial burden on this car increasing which I could not afford as I have to pay for a second car. I took the bad desicion to sell the car to webuyanycar.com (limped all the way there). Due to the cars condition I got offered £800 which I accepted.

Just before the 1st of February deadline the dealer got back to me after taking legal advice to find it was in his interest to refund me for the car. However I have sold it.

As I gave the dealer until the 1st of February to respond but in this time i disposed of the vehicle can I still claim for my losses or will a judge chuck the claim out of court?

If I cannot claim for the money I lost on this car, can I still claim for the consequential loss of the extra cost of the second car and the cost to insure and tax the car while waiting for the dealers response?

lookingoverIT

I'm not a judge, nor legally trained in the slightest, but I probably wouldn't entertain this.

The dealer contacted you within your deadline but you had already sold it on, so incurred the loss of your own causing. I guess at the point of rejecting the goods, it could be argued it was not yours to sell?

Quentin

Your LBA cannot now be used over the claim (as you thwarted the defendant by selling the car prior to the deadline you allowed before starting your legal action).

spacey2012

The dealer has met the legal obligations under the SOGA, which is offering a refund on the car.
As you took it upon yourself to sell the car, you can neither except the offer of a refund or produce the car to back up any of your claims.

A main dealer will find a similar list of expensive repairs on any second hand car.

I think the term here is "jumping the gun"

marty1787

Thank you very much for the replies. Not the answer I wanted but at least I now know my position

NVRAM

Even if he did decide to pay you the money back... you sold the car what did you expect to happen if you sold the car on?

arcon5

Sorry but I have to agree with others. You gave the dealer a deadline to offer a remedy, the dealer met this deadline offering a full refund but you had disposed of the vehicle. I don't think you would win this one in court tbh.