5 Year Old Car (bought new), Low Mileage Car Needs Expensive repair.

retep53

My car which was bought new, 5 years ago, but has done less than 13000 miles, and has never been in an accident has suffered a steering rack fault and needs a costly repair. I am sure that I have a cast-iron case under the sale of goods act, 1979 for the dealer to make the repair as any reasonable person would expect a steering rack to last considerably more mileage. However the title of the dealership changed about 3 years ago. The "new" dealership has agreed to do the repair for cost and the manufacturer is willing to contribute about 40% but I would still be charged nearly £700 for something that I do not feel I should have to pay for at all.
This seems to be a case where, morally, the manufacturer should be made to bear the cost (13000 miles, it can't be of sufficient durability or was sub-standard when made) but the Sale of Goods Act is impotent if the dealer doesn't exist anymore.
Can anyone advise how I find-out whether this name change is just a brand-name change by the holding company or whether a new company has indeed taken over and what my rights would be, if any exist.

wealdroam

retep53 wrote: »

My car which was bought new, 5 years ago, but has done less than 13000 miles, and has never been in an accident has suffered a steering rack fault and needs a costly repair. I am sure that I have a cast-iron case under the sale of goods act, 1979 for the dealer to make the repair as any reasonable person would expect a steering rack to last considerably more mileage. However the title of the dealership changed about 3 years ago. The "new" dealership has agreed to do the repair for cost and the manufacturer is willing to contribute about 40% but I would still be charged nearly £700 for something that I do not feel I should have to pay for at all.
This seems to be a case where, morally, the manufacturer should be made to bear the cost (13000 miles, it can't be of sufficient durability or was sub-standard when made) but the Sale of Goods Act is impotent if the dealer doesn't exist anymore.
Can anyone advise how I find-out whether this name change is just a brand-name change by the holding company or whether a new company has indeed taken over and what my rights would be, if any exist.

Whilst reading the Sale of Goods Act, did you notice that after six months from purchase the seller has the right to ask you to prove that the problem is not due to fair wear and tear?

At the moment it seems that they have decided not to ask for that.
I can imagine that stance might change if you tried harder to enforce your rights.

As for the company name, you need to establish exactly what the company is now called. A search at Companies House should show when that company was formed.

Also remember that in law the manufacturer owes you nothing beyond their warranty/guarantee.

Your last question is easy to answer.
If it is now a new company, then you have no claim against them.

tomtontom

Given the age of the car, an offer of 40% does seem generous to me.

frugal_mike

If you paid any amount of the cost of the car on credit (a credit card, finance etc) then the credit provider is jointly and severally liable to you, so it wouldn't matter that the original company has (possibly) gone out of business. The credit provider would definitely require you to prove that the car is inherently faulty though.

retep53

wealdroam wrote: »

Whilst reading the Sale of Goods Act, did you notice that after six months from purchase the seller has the right to ask you to prove that the problem is not due to fair wear and tear?

At the moment it seems that they have decided not to ask for that.
I can imagine that stance might change if you tried harder to enforce your rights.

As for the company name, you need to establish exactly what the company is now called. A search at Companies House should show when that company was formed.

Also remember that in law the manufacturer owes you nothing beyond their warranty/guarantee.

Your last question is easy to answer.
If it is now a new company, then you have no claim against them.

wealdroam, the point is that the goods, in this case the steering rack, were either not fit for purpose, or as durable as any reasonable person would expect (irrespective of age and 5 years isn't very long anyway), as the car had completed less than 13,000 miles. ( I would expect a steering rack to last at the very least 50,000 miles, probably more), 13,000 miles isn't reasonable wear and tear.


I know the trading names the dealership site has been under but how do I determine exactly whether the holding company is the same or not (even if that has changed names). Or if it was the case that that the original company sold-up to a new company, how does that affect my rights. If the original company went bankrupt and a new company took over what are the rights then. The site is a dealership for 3 different marques (although they are probably all GM owned).


I know the manufacturer is only liable for the term of their warranty legally, but morally the fault has to be theirs. Perhaps the Sale of Goods Act needs to be changed to make manufacturers directly liable but I'm sure that there are arguments against that.. but I do feel cheated.

retep53

tomtontom wrote: »

Given the age of the car, an offer of 40% does seem generous to me.

tomtontom:
I refer you to my post above. A steering rack should last more than 13000 miles.

System

Assuming that you haven't treated the steering system badly against kerbs etc and can prove this?

retep53

frugal_mike wrote: »

If you paid any amount of the cost of the car on credit (a credit card, finance etc) then the credit provider is jointly and severally liable to you, so it wouldn't matter that the original company has (possibly) gone out of business. The credit provider would definitely require you to prove that the car is inherently faulty though.

frugal_mike:


Unfortunately we couldn't get them to take payment by credit card and the deal wasn't done on finance.

bris

retep53 wrote: »

tomtontom:
I refer you to my post above. A steering rack should last more than 13000 miles.

In law you have to prove it after 6 months by getting an independent expert to say it failed due to an inherent fault at time of manufacture, not easy to do after 5 years.


Who knows how many kerbs you hit or pot holes you drove over.


You could try seeing if this model has a high fail rate for the steering rack, if not it's just one of those things that happen in used cars.


There is no point trying to quote the law to anyone if you don't know it in the first place. The new company and the manufacture owe you nothing, they will know that so be careful what you wish for.

retep53

!!!!!! wrote: »

Assuming that you haven't treated the steering system badly against kerbs etc and can prove this?

!!!!!!:
I'm not sure how we could prove this, apart from the fact that the tyre wear is even and the tracking has never been altered.

wealdroam

retep53 wrote: »

wealdroam, the point is that the goods, in this case the steering rack, were either not fit for purpose, or as durable as any reasonable person would expect (irrespective of age and 5 years isn't very long anyway), as the car had completed less than 13,000 miles. ( I would expect a steering rack to last at the very least 50,000 miles, probably more), 13,000 miles isn't reasonable wear and tear.


I know the trading names the dealership site has been under but how do I determine exactly whether the holding company is the same or not (even if that has changed names). Or if it was the case that that the original company sold-up to a new company, how does that affect my rights. If the original company went bankrupt and a new company took over what are the rights then. The site is a dealership for 3 different marques (although they are probably all GM owned).


I know the manufacturer is only liable for the term of their warranty legally, but morally the fault has to be theirs. Perhaps the Sale of Goods Act needs to be changed to make manufacturers directly liable but I'm sure that there are arguments against that.. but I do feel cheated.

Did you read the first sentence of my earlier post?

retep53 wrote: »

...if it was the case that that the original company sold-up to a new company, how does that affect my rights.

As I said earlier, you have none.
You only have rights against whoever sold the thing to you. If they no longer exist....

Accept the offer that is currently available.

Speak to you MP about the changes to The Sale of Goods Act you would like to see.