Is the garage legally allowed to do this?

ginsterman

My parents bought a 1 year old car on the 2nd of June from a garage, having asked the salesmen whether it was suitable to tow their caravan, he said yes, it would tow anything so they bought it. 6 weeks later, the log book comes back from the DVLA, and it turns out the car is too light to tow their caravan. Parents phone the garage, they admit liability but because it is past 30 days they will only buy the car back which means they will lose 2.5k on a car which was sold unsuitable and the garage know they have erred. They have done 1500 miles in the car since buying it but even so does that equate to a 2.5k depreciation in 6 weeks!!!

Purchase price was 12k

Any advice gratefully received

topdaddy_2

Sale of goods act should apply if specificly bought to tow the caravan and this was explained to sales man.

lizziebabe

Probably best to get in touch with Trading a Standards. The car was sold with the wrong information, the garage is liable whatever they say.

ginsterman

The garage have admitted liability but wont offer a full refund as the car has been used for 6 weeks so they are offering to buy it back at the trade price which will mean a 2.5k loss.

DUTR

ginsterman wrote: »

My parents bought a 1 year old car on the 2nd of June from a garage, having asked the salesmen whether it was suitable to tow their caravan, he said yes, it would tow anything so they bought it. 6 weeks later, the log book comes back from the DVLA, and it turns out the car is too light to tow their caravan. Parents phone the garage, they admit liability but because it is past 30 days they will only buy the car back which means they will lose 2.5k on a car which was sold unsuitable and the garage know they have erred. They have done 1500 miles in the car since buying it but even so does that equate to a 2.5k depreciation in 6 weeks!!!

Purchase price was 12k

Any advice gratefully received

Persons that tow caravans know already what their intended car will tow. They didn't have to wait until the V5 to find out if their intended purchase was suitbale or not.
Towing figures are included in the spec, the salesperson wouldn't necessarily be up to date on caravans.

Iceweasel

I hope you can get a solution to this.

But for future reference you don't need to ask any salesmen or wait for V5cs.

All the info you need is on the the car plate/sticker - usually on the driver's door-post.

It will list 4 weights

max gross vehicle weight
max gross train weight
front axle max
rear axle max

By simple subtraction of the max gross vehicle weight from the max gross train weight you get the max permissable trailer weight.

olias

Or you just look it up on Google..............

Olias

ginsterman

DUTR wrote: »

Persons that tow caravans know already what their intended car will tow. They didn't have to wait until the V5 to find out if their intended purchase was suitbale or not.
Towing figures are included in the spec, the salesperson wouldn't necessarily be up to date on caravans.

The garage have admitted liability on this, the salesman said it would tow anything when asked if it would be suitable so liability isn't the issue here. The issue is whether they are entitled to a full refund because the vehicle wasn't fit for purpose and it has been admitted that it wasn't.

custardy

What car is it that can be defined as 'towing anything'?

Iceweasel

Even a Unimog or a LandRover Defender can't tow 'anything'.

When you speak to salesmen you need one of these:

DUTR

ginsterman wrote: »

The garage have admitted liability on this, the salesman said it would tow anything when asked if it would be suitable so liability isn't the issue here. The issue is whether they are entitled to a full refund because the vehicle wasn't fit for purpose and it has been admitted that it wasn't.

Technically it can tow anything , although you wouldn't expect say a 1 litre Corsa to pull a maximum size multiwheel caravan.
It depends what question was asked.
Although they have accepted some liability, I'm no lawyer but I would expect as the vehicle has been used further, then less than 100% refund is due, I guess only a court could decide if both party's are not going to come to a mutual agreement, you would expect to take some sort of loss, but how much loss that is acceptable will be debatable. Trouble is they have probably paid top book and being offered trade in price.