car issue

aymz1983

Hello hoping someone can help

we bought a second hand car from a local dealer in october. Nothing fancy, just a 10 year old car. I had my dad come with me to look at it, although neither of us are mechanically minded and do not know anyone who is. Apparently the aa and rac only do checks on cars under a certain age

anyway, test drove it, it sounded fine, it drove ok. Didnt take it too far as the tank almost empty. Noticed it needed two tyres on the front, he said that he would throw these in withiut raising price as it was important he kept customers happy. He said he would send it off to be mot'd and jt would have full 12months mot on it (he sells all his cars with 12 months on).

Took a deposit, had it mot'd and it passed, but he said he needed toget drive shaft changed. So he changed this (he showed me when I went to enquire where car was) then the car was ready. So I paid the rest (1200 altogether) and drove away.

car was slow to start but he said its because of low fuel. We ended up replacing battery a couple of weeks later.

6 weeks later, I get a flat tyre on one side with the other looking deflated. Rac man said it was lucky I hadnt been pulled over by police as both tyres were so worn you could see the canvas. An error on my part for not checking to see if he had put new tyres on as promised, which he evidently hadnt.

at the local garage (recommended by several) they put two new tyres on. The mechanic seemed amazed it had had 12 mo ths mot as he found things that they would have failed had they done the mot.

a couple months later there was a noise from underthe car, and part of the exhaust was dragging - we ended up replacing the cat converter which had broken.

We are now having problems with a noise at the bavk - hubby had a look under the car and part of the exhaust atthe back, some bracket or something has gone, leaving it boinging around (for want of better words!)

Having recently looked through all the paperwork he gave us, I can see there were 5 advisories, two relate to the tyres, two relate to ball joints and one fuek tank strap corroded. That's my faukt I know for not checking it, but when he came back and said it had passed I just need to sort the driveshaft out, I presumed tnat was all there was to know.

ive also seen on a service sheet that was done just before the previous owner sold csr to dealer it states exhaust corroded (cat section back) slight play in ball joints and engine cover posts (?) Broken. None of this was mentioned when we were looking at the car, when we test drove it or at any point in the 10 days between putting deposit down and gettingthe car. I wouldnt have bought it otherwise.

I didnt go to the dealer becuase I presumed nothing would be able to be done. But looking back through paperwork etc and thinking of what has gone wrong - is there any way to get any recompense from him? Frustrsting that weve bought the car and have had issues ever since.

oh - passenger front wheel makes a squeak/rattle when driving although cant hear at high speed. Took it back to the guy shortly after buying it, he had a look but couldn't see anything, local garage couldnt oinpoint problem but said ball joint needs replacing as leaking oil. Could that be problem?

Any advice most welcome thanks

bris

You bought a ten year old car, age is a key factor when buying used cars. Normal wear and tear is excluded in almost everything so ten years would be seen as reasonable for things to go wrong.

You can ask but don't hold your breath.

aymz1983

Im aware of that, I was justthinking the problems that he would have known about but failed to mention, and the tyres

JJ_Egan

MOT pass so it was legal for road use .
But if you feel it was a faulty MOT report to the Department of transport .
Battery you are not going to know how good until its been used for a few weeks and duff battery is not always the battery at fault .
Slow to start has nothing to do with low fuel .

Exuast problems reasonable wear and tear no comeback for new cat .

new tyres promised in writing ???

Seller may well not have looked at the service sheet no reason to at that age .

All you can do is ask Trading Standards for their opinion but they are likely to say its ten years old .