Do we have any rights with second hand dealer ?

sillysi

Hi .im after a bit of advice off you guys.
My son brought a second hand car from a dealer for £650 which was described in the advert as "runs and drives excellent " .We knew it would not be a minter for that price and took it for a test drive which was literally about 3 miles as the car was running on fumes .In all fairness it didn't show an issue in this short distance or obviously no purchase would of been made.
He paid cash and got a receipt that did state sold as seen . Now 2 days later the clutch has gone and it has gained an oil leak which was not visible when we checked it over . we informed the dealer who told us sold as seen so basically tuff luck ,see ya !
Now this is where I need a little advice from you guys .Do we have a leg to stand on if we try and take this further or is the "sold as seen " the final nail for us ? As a dealer has he breached any form of contract as I would imagine he was probably aware of some of the issues with the car .
If you say don't bother then that's fair enough and its a lesson learnt by us .
Many thanks in advance .

Mr_Mink

My understanding from what I've seen here is that SOGA doesn't care if the dealer wrote 'sold as seen' or not.

The key question here would be, was it a private sale between you and the guy who happens to have a car dealership or did you buy the car from his dealership? Because that'll be the key to your level of comeback.

sillysi

Thanks for the reply .
The receipt has got his business details on it so surely that means its through his dealership or am I wrong ?
Also the receipt is a proper printed receipt/invoice with just the vehicle details hand written .

Mr_Mink

Sounds like that should work in your favour. Do you know if there was any VAT paid on the car?

Nodding_Donkey

Sold as seen means absolutely nothing as far as SOGA is concerned. He is liable, end of.

burlington6

Car? Age? Mileage? To be honest a £650 car isn't going to be any good.

force_ten

How does this work in practice?

The "professional diligence" test under the CPRs mean that buyers can reasonably expect traders to carry out pre-sale checks in relation to the history, mileage and mechanical condition of the car.
They should also provide after-sales service, listen to complaints, and never try to hide behind illegal disclaimers that suggest there are "no refunds" or the car is "sold as seen".

that is a small section from a BBC article on used car sales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8574668.stm

a dealer cant hide behind sold as seen

if the dealer said at the point of sale that the car had an oil leak and the clutch was on it last legs and could fail at anytime then you would have no comeback as he made you aware of the cars problems

to me a £650.00 car is not going to be in mint condition but I would expect the clutch to last more than a couple of days i

motorguy

force_ten wrote: »

that is a small section from a BBC article on used car sales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8574668.stm

a dealer cant hide behind sold as seen

if the dealer said at the point of sale that the car had an oil leak and the clutch was on it last legs and could fail at anytime then you would have no comeback as he made you aware of the cars problems

to me a £650.00 car is not going to be in mint condition but I would expect the clutch to last more than a couple of days i

+1

Dealer "should" repair the clutch, but getting him to do it will be another thing entirely.

Cody123

You do not pay vat on any second hand cars, only commercial vehicles, and yes he is liable, put it to him that you are going to take it to trading standards first, and see how that pans out, as long as your invoice does not spares or repairs on it, you should be ok.

welfayre

Out of interest can anyone explain how the trader be held liable for the clutch?

The OP says they tested it prior to sale with no obvious faults, if the clutch was on its way out there would be noticeable slip, noise or problems selecting gears. If there's no signs of wear how would the trader know??

colino

If he is a reasonable trader he will swap it with something else; there shouldn't be enough profit in it to repair. As has been said, even on a short test drive a dodgy clutch should have been spotted (there is no magic tool that he could have used to check it), but at that end of the market, I'm not sure how reasonable he is going to be.
With consumer sales, sold as seen, tried and tested, no warranty given or implied are just an improper, waste of ink.
Go back, be pleasant and hope for the best.