Bought a car that turned out to be faulty at Dealer

hrishi

Hi


I purchased an Audi A5 2.0T Quattro 58 reg car on the 13/06/2013 at £13,800 from dealer and i reported that the car was using excessive oil on the 18th June.



Dealer asked me to bring the car on the 21/06/2013 for a repair, but he was unable to find the cause the issue. Dealer asked me to leave the car on the 8th July for further diagnostics. They then told me that they will need to book the car in with Audi for a repair.


I requested for a full refund on the 18th July and the dealer responded about the right to repair the fault. I agreed with him that I am not agreeing for any repair but for him to find be able to establish the cause of the fault.

Car went to Audi and they diagnosis was that the car was using 5 times more than the tolerated level of oil and that the piston and piston rings need changing. Dealer took the car on the 29th August. I chase the dealer several times by phone to request for their action plan and time for resolution. Dealer then reply on the 11th September that the car is in the process of repair and explains that there is a batch of 2.0T engines that have signs of excessive oil consumption and the piston rings are at fault and the reason why he went to Audi is to get goodwill assistance. I explained that at this stage I would like to personally go to Audi and ask them to consider the goodwill and that I would rather Audi carry out the repair. I told the dealer that I never asked him to start the repair on the vehicle as I needed to consider all my options. He said that he will give me the car back unrepaired. I refused to take the car as I was still looking for full refund or a replacement car. The dealer refused and threatened to charge me £20/day if I don’t take the vehicle from his premises. I had no choice than to take the car, but I kept in the garage and did not use it. I had to make alternative arrangement for my transport.



I contacted Audi headoffice and explained the situation and they agreed for a goodwill assistance of 70% on the parts only. This was still quite high as they the labour charges are considerable in this kind of job. I re contacted the dealer and told him requested him for the contribution on the repair if done by Audi. The dealer came back and responded that he was fully capable to do the repair and that he can contribute the remaining 30% of the parts and the labour charges which is around £3,500 will have to be covered by me. He then said that if he will be carrying the repair I will have to pay for his time earlier when he started the repair which will be £1200 plus VAT. This amount was not justifiable as when he took the car he never agreed with me that he will be carrying out the repair and the terms and conditions of that repair.

Dealer still insists that this is not a fault and they are only improving the oil consumption and that he it is not his responsibility to repair the car.


I went through the bank claiming under section 75 of the consumer credit act, but the bank has not been very helpful as they said there is no clear breach of contact. I agreed with the dealer to bring down the cost of the charges down to £1000 inc VAT and that I will try to get the bank to pay for those charges. On the 28th Feb I requested a convenient date to the dealer and requested for a courtesy car that was previously provided to me and he agreed for me to bring the car on the 15th March.

On Friday 14th March I sent an email confirming that I will be dropping the car and if a courtesy car will be available as the duration of the repair was estimated roughly 2 weeks. The dealer came back to me and said that he will not provide any loan car for me as it was under his impression that I was not using the car. I believed that was very unreasonable for him to inform me about this at the very last minute. I had to postpone the repair as a car is important for my day to day travel to work. He then proposed to me another date which for the 14th April and that I will need to make my own arrangement for alternative travel. I contacted the bank and they said they cannot do anything and they are not legally trained and there is not clear breach of contract.

At this stage I feel that I am the only one suffering, both the dealer and the bank says that there is no fault in the car and that it is driveable, I am not sure how this is normal that every 250miles I have to put a litre of oil. I feel that my consumer rights are not being protected and both the bank and dealer are taking advantage of the situation.



I am at a standstill and this has been going for 10months and I am unable to use the car properly, it has been very stressful and caused me a lot of inconvenience. I never expected to be paying that much money for a car and having to go through so much hassle.



Any advice would me much appreciated.



Thanks,

Hrishi

spacey2012

Start the Complaints procedure in writing making it clear it is to start the clock for an ombudsman complaint, ask them to issue a deadlock letter if they have no intention of addressing the matter.

PS instruct the dealer in Writing that the car is rejected and you are pursuing chargeback via the bank.

photome

spacey2012 wrote: »

Start the Complaints procedure in writing making it clear it is to start the clock for an ombudsman complaint, ask them to issue a deadlock letter if they have no intention of addressing the matter.

PS instruct the dealer in Writing that the car is rejected and you are pursuing chargeback via the bank.

Can he still do that 9 months down the line

agrinnall

photome wrote: »

Can he still do that 9 months down the line

Probably not, but not knowing whether something is possible or not never seems to stop Spacey suggesting it anyway .

timbstoke

agrinnall wrote: »

Probably not, but not knowing whether something is possible or not never seems to stop Spacey suggesting it anyway .

To be fair, at this stage of proceedings, it can often help to warn a dealer of any action you intend to attempt to take. You can worry about whether you can actually do the things you threaten later - for now, focussing the dealers mind is the priority.

visidigi

hrishi wrote: »

I had no choice than to take the car, but I kept in the garage and did not use it. I had to make alternative arrangement for my transport.

hrishi wrote: »

On the 28th Feb I requested a convenient date to the dealer and requested for a courtesy car that was previously provided to me and he agreed for me to bring the car on the 15th March.
On Friday 14th March I sent an email confirming that I will be dropping the car and if a courtesy car will be available as the duration of the repair was estimated roughly 2 weeks. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] came back to me and said that he will not provide any loan car for me as it was under his impression that I was not using the car. I believed that was very unreasonable for him to inform me about this at the very last minute. I had to postpone the repair as a car is important for my day to day travel to work.

The car is either drivable or it isn't - I can see why the dealer was under the impression, you wrote as much here.

You have either arranged alternative transport as you initially agreed but at some point you mention the dealer previously provided.

It seems there are some holes here that don't exactly fall to the side of the dealer, but more what you want to situation to look like to an outsider...

ess0two

I bought a diesel Golf,and soon realised it was using 2 litres of oil per 500 miles.
The garage in question took it as a PX,so they had been hoodwinked.
It turns out after numerous oil changes,turbo check,valve stem oil seal check,the bores where oval causing excessive oil burn.
Luckily they accepted responsibility and refunded my intial outlay.

Bantex_2

How much oil is the car using?

arcon5

Your only mistake is using the car.

You are right after this short period of time you would be entitled to reject the vehicle for a refund. However acceptance can occur through inaction and other circumstances, like using the vehicle many months later for commuting could be used to show you have accepted the vehicle, thus lost your right to a refund and entitled to a repair.

Since the original fault was reported within 6 months you could still be in the stage where they have to disprove an inherent fault.

At this stage it could be worth getting an independent report in writing.
If you can get a county court judgement you could use this to demonstrate a breach of contract - including implied terms by legislation and force them to sort it out.

DaveTheMus

agrinnall wrote: »

Probably not, but not knowing whether something is possible or not never seems to stop Spacey suggesting it anyway .

I've noticed that too.....

hrishi

The car is using 2.55 litres per 1000kms... Now I have been insisting since the beginning to get a full refund but i was not getting anywhere and even the CAB was suggesting that the dealer has the right to repair which i gave him the opportunity.
When I got a report from Audi that stated it was using 2.55 litres of oil and as per TPI Audi recommends that the piston and piston rings need changing, i thought it was clear that there was a fault. The dealer then took the car from Audi and I told him that i am rejecting the car, however he forced me to take the car from his premises else he would charge me £20 a day or leave the car outside on the road unattended.

I decided to take the car and keep it in the garage and not use and informed the dealer that this is case. The car sat unused in the garage for 2 months since i picked it up, i tried to go through the bank under section 75 but i believe they were siding with the dealer and saying that there is no clear breach of contract as the dealer was stating there is no fault and he is willing to do an improvement as a goodwill gesture.

After several months of frustration i decided to agree with the repair as i wanted to avoid the court action trying to limit cost of solicitors at this point i started using the car for short trip only.

Which is when he said that i need to pay £1200 in vat for the previous time he spent taking the engine down.

The latest on this is now that the dealer has now refused to do any work on the car and will take legal action against me for referencing his company name and his name on forums.

I didn't realise that i should use names on post so i rectified this, but my main purpose is to seek advice on the posts and i believe that the information i provided are as accurate as possible.