Bought 2nd hand car this morning big problems..

JLS1901

Evening all,
I'm wondering if you can help me, I test drove a car earlier in the week from a trade seller all was ok drive nice ran well plenty of service history etc.

So went today picked it up and paid for it (debit card) set off to visit my OH and half way there engine started jumping around high random revs speedo was all over the place and engine light came on. Pulled over and it ticked over fine so I rang the seller back and said it wasn't right he said something about fuel sensor or something. So as I wasn't a million miles away from home I managed to get back.

So the guy has said it will go into garage on Monday but was talking about me taking the cost of any work. Obviously I'm not happy as I feel I have been missold.. Can I get my money back? I don't want the car now it's done this..
Thanks everyone,
Welly x

Geodark

wellylass89 wrote: »

Evening all,
I'm wondering if you can help me, I test drove a car earlier in the week from a trade seller all was ok drive nice ran well plenty of service history etc.

So went today picked it up and paid for it (debit card) set off to visit my OH and half way there engine started jumping around high random revs speedo was all over the place and engine light came on. Pulled over and it ticked over fine so I rang the seller back and said it wasn't right he said something about fuel sensor or something. So as I wasn't a million miles away from home I managed to get back.

So the guy has said it will go into garage on Monday but was talking about me taking the cost of any work. Obviously I'm not happy as I feel I have been missold.. Can I get my money back? I don't want the car now it's done this..
Thanks everyone,
Welly x

I *think* you have to give them the chance to put any work right, and as far as I am aware it is up to them to put right not you - with it being such a short time it is up to them to prove that the problem wasn't inherent when you bought it.

arcon5

Age, Mileage, Price?

All depends.

You can reject faulty goods, subject to the fault not being immaterial it would be deemed unreasonable to do so. But depends on the fault and how much wear and tear it's been subjected to.

JLS1901

Thanks for the replys guys.. It's 03 reg, 80k miles and I paid £900. I understand there's always a risk with 2nd hand cars but this was like 2 hours after I picked it up..

Quiet_Spark

It's an 11 year old car, there are a multitude of possibles that could cause the problem you describe and 95% of them would be classed as fair wear and tear (which means it's your problem).

Your first recourse (as already stated by Arcon5) is to let the dealer deal with it and find out what the actual issue is.

tberry6686

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

It's an 11 year old car, there are a multitude of possibles that could cause the problem you describe and 95% of them would be classed as fair wear and tear (which means it's your problem).

You are saying that If someone buys a car from a dealer and 2hrs later it breaks down without the buyer doing anything daft, it is the buyers problem - The only way that statement can be correct is if the fault was pointed out to the buyer before they bought the car and agreed to accept it with that fault.

OP : The dealer has (realistically) 2 options - either they repair it at their cost or refund you, no ifs, no buts that is what trading standards will tell you and the dealer knows it too.

Quiet_Spark

tberry6686 wrote: »

You are saying that If someone buys a car from a dealer and 2hrs later it breaks down without the buyer doing anything daft, it is the buyers problem

If I buy an 11 year old car for £900 with 80K on the clock and 2 hours later the alternator fails, I cannot for one minute see the law being on my side and the dealer being responsible - it's a "fair wear and tear" item.

vaio

Quiet_Spark wrote: »

If I buy an 11 year old car for £900 with 80K on the clock and 2 hours later the alternator fails, I cannot for one minute see the law being on my side and the dealer being responsible - it's a "fair wear and tear" item.

If a £900 car can fail to the point of not being able to be used after two hours and it's not down to the dealer then what's the point of SoG and all the other consumer protection legislation which keeps banging on about goods being fit for purpose and reasonably durable?

The "reasonable" bit means it moves into a grey area so faults on a £1k car after two weeks/months might be different but not after two hours.

Is an alternator failure after two mins ok? How about major engine failure after two hours?

Aretnap

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/glos/con1item.cgi?file=*ADV0003-1011.txt

- Of a satisfactory quality - free from minor defects, safe and durable for a reasonable length of time. When assessing satisfactory quality you should take into account price, age, mileage and condition at the time of sale.

Obviously when buying an 11 year old car you can't reasonably expect 10 years of trouble free motoring, but you should be able to expect to drive for 2 hours without it breaking down. Sale of Goods Act likely to apply IMHO.

harveybobbles

I'd be wanting the seller to put the car right at their cost.

arcon5

tberry6686 wrote: »

You are saying that If someone buys a car from a dealer and 2hrs later it breaks down without the buyer doing anything daft, it is the buyers problem - The only way that statement can be correct is if the fault was pointed out to the buyer before they bought the car and agreed to accept it with that fault.

OP : The dealer has (realistically) 2 options - either they repair it at their cost or refund you, no ifs, no buts that is what trading standards will tell you and the dealer knows it too.

If it breaks down within such a short time and you suspect the dealer knew or should have known or even that it was present before it was sold then it could be a case of misrepresentation.
If the fault occurred genuinely within that time then it depends on the fault.

Aretnap wrote: »

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-bin/glos/con1item.cgi?file=*ADV0003-1011.txt

- Of a satisfactory quality - free from minor defects, safe and durable for a reasonable length of time. When assessing satisfactory quality you should take into account price, age, mileage and condition at the time of sale.

Obviously when buying an 11 year old car you can't reasonably expect 10 years of trouble free motoring, but you should be able to expect to drive for 2 hours without it breaking down. Sale of Goods Act likely to apply IMHO.

If it was say the fuel sensor and service history shows it was replaced a few months ago then it would reasonable to say it's lasted a few months and is therefore faulty.
If it's never been changed then the question would be 'is 11 years/80k miles a reasonable amount of time for the sensor to last?'. Because realistically that's how long it's remained durable, not the 2hrs, 2 days or whatever.