Consumer rights, second hand car been in major accident?

sophiejames

We bought a VW Touran on 5.12.14 from Arnold Clark, 21000+ miles, 62 reg, paid £14300 by debit card.
Since buying the car we found the following faults:
Body paintwork stops at edge under the bonnet. Panels under the bonnet not matching body, right back to below windscreen. Insulation at below windscreen peeling off. 1 screw sticking out about 10mm. Speedo Rev counter not straight. Boot lid rattles. Heated mirrors not working. Fan too loud & coming on when engine still cold.
We have doubts about the repair & repairer & we think the car has had a major bump. We feel that we have paid over the odds for this car & this accident considerably lowers the resale value. On top of all this I use this car for my childminding business & we have lost trust in the safety of this car.
We contacted our legal insurance, they think we don't have a case , saying just because it was involved in an accident doesn't mean it's of unsatisfactory quality. Citizens advice seems to think we have a case.
We will take car to dealer tomorrow, see what they say.
Looking for opinions before we go to dealer. How do we best approach this? My husband called sales guy & told him about the issues & he said straight away that we need to deal with the manager.
Is it worth paying to get a HPI report & show this to dealer? Which website would you recommend?
All help much appreciated.

wiogs

Caveat Emptor

If you feel that you were mis-sold in some way then you may have a case, otherwise I would agree with your insurance advisor

AdrianC

Many modern cars don't have the finish body colour sprayed on internal surfaces, including under-bonnet areas. Nothing you've described is in any way indicative of poor quality collision repair.

HPI won't show if it's "ever been in an accident" - it will only show if insurers decided not to repair it after a collision, leading to it being flagged as a Cat D write-off - decided not to repair, but damage below the value of the vehicle. Cat C would be shown on the V5C. There is no absolute sure-fire 100% guaranteed way for anybody to know if the vehicle has ever been bent and repaired or not.

It sounds very much as if a number of relatively minor niggles are causing buyer's remorse, aided by an assumption somehow turning into a fact in your minds.

George_Michael

wiogs wrote: »

Caveat Emptor

With a C2C purchase this is true but not with a B2C contract such as the one in question.


If the vehicle had previously been involved in a serious accident and Arnold Clark were aware of this then they are required to tell prospective purchasers about this.


It used to be the case that info such as this only had to be declared if asked about but this is no longer the case.
Any relevant information that could influence the decision to buy must be given to customers.

Foxy-Stoat_3

sophiejames wrote: »

Body paintwork stops at edge under the bonnet.
Panels under the bonnet not matching body, right back to below windscreen.
Insulation at below windscreen peeling off.
1 screw sticking out about 10mm.
Speedo Rev counter not straight.
Boot lid rattles.
Heated mirrors not working.
Fan too loud & coming on when engine still cold.

The only thing that "sticks" out to me about the safety of the car is the screw sticking out by 10mm, a child could catch their thumb on it.

Give the dealer a chance to repair it first before trying to reject it.

AdrianC

George_Michael wrote: »

If the vehicle had previously been involved in a serious accident and Arnold Clark were aware of this then they are required to tell prospective purchasers about this.

IF - which we don't know.
AND - which we don't know.

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

The only thing that "sticks" out to me about the safety of the car is the screw sticking out by 10mm, a child could catch their thumb on it.

Depends entirely where this screw is, does it not?

Spicy_McHaggis

So far there is no evidence of a major accident.

You bought the car from a dealer so will have a copy of the hpi certificate. Have a read of that and tell us if it mentions the car being written off.

Foxy-Stoat_3

AdrianC wrote: »

Depends entirely where this screw is, does it not?

Yes, I assumed that the screw was inside somewhere.

George_Michael

AdrianC wrote: »

IF - which we don't know.
AND - which we don't know.

I realise that, I was simply pointing out that "Caveat Emptor" does not generally apply to business to consumer transactions.

colino

The route to go is have a detailed list of the faults you want addressed, book it in with them and talk them through, and leave a copy of the list with them. As AC is largely self insuring, unlikely HPI cert is useful for anything more than a bookmark.
If you are still not happy with any remedial work, take it back and indicate where you believe they have fallen short. After that, reject.
It is correct that a trader has to proactively tell a potential buyer of anything major on any vehicle that may, if known, make the potential buyer take a different buying decision. The caveat, as has been circulating recently in the trade, that if you do a condition and mileage check and it comes back clean and the car is not, without deep inspection, anything other than it purports to be, a second hand vehicle: How would the trader know?

jimjames

Spicy_McHaggis wrote: »

So far there is no evidence of a major accident.

You bought the car from a dealer so will have a copy of the hpi certificate. Have a read of that and tell us if it mentions the car being written off.

Even if it had been there is no guarantee it will show up.

Bet this one will never appear on HPI as it wasn't written off but with £12k of damage I'd want to avoid it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5154302