Rejecting a used car - any experience?

SensibleSarah

Hoping for some advice from you kind, experienced, used-car-owning folk...

Situation is that I bought my latest vehicle on 1/10. It's 8 years old so of course has a few wear and tear issues, but upon taking it for a quick checkover at main dealer garage yesterday, they discovered a multitude of faults which would have been there since before purchase - including an ABS issue requiring a very costly repair, an illegal tyre (I did do a quick tyre visual check when I bought it, but this is inner edge and I missed it) and a few other minor things. They couldn't even try to diagnose the main issue I took it in for as they couldn't road test it because of the illegal tyre.

Totally lost faith in the vehicle and the cost of the work quoted already is more than I paid for it in the first place - and just isn't possible financially at the moment.

I know that the law changed on 1/10, so I'm covered by the new consumer rights act (for the next 2 days) - so even though the only thing which makes it legally unroadworthy is the tyre - can I reject and request a refund based on just that?

Its various other issues found yesterday would make it fail it's next MOT, but does that make it not "roadworthy" and thus a breach of contract from the dealer? Paperwork from the sale of the car shows that dealer says he did a pre-delivery inspection and any faults were rectified - but surely that should have picked up on an illegal tyre with cord showing?

If it makes a difference, I've driven around 400 miles in the 4 weeks since purchase but obviously have now ceased driving it.

Thanks in advance.

BeenThroughItAll

A worn inner edge doesn't *necessarily* make the tyre illegal, depends how worn, really - if cords are exposed then yes, that would be illegal. Have you seen the wear with your own eyes, or are you just going on the paperwork the dealer's given you? Does this main dealer sell tyres, by any chance?

What exactly is the ABS problem, and what else is wrong. What is the car, make, model and mileage?

Some more details would help.

runningben16

As far as I know, if the cord is showing at all then it's not legal to use that tyre.

BeenThroughItAll

runningben16 wrote: »

As far as I know, if the cord is showing at all then it's not legal to use that tyre.

True, but this might not be the first instance of a main dealer slightly exaggerating things to make a sale...

SensibleSarah

I have a photo from yesterday's mechanic showing the tyre. Definitely cord showing and illegal.

ABS warning light was showing on test drive. I asked him about it and he said it was a loose wire type issue and would be rectified before sale - light was off when I drove it home, but then started coming on intermittently and now is constant - hence the checkup. They said they found fluid leaking from connector and a pump/unit replacement is needed - cost upwards of £1.5k.

Other problems include coil relay and glow plug replacement (which is presumably a wear & tear thing), shock absorber brush splitting, the issue they couldn't road test to diagnose is power cutting off intermittently when in low gears/reverse and clutch engaged.

Car is Fiat Doblo 1.9 m-jet, 2007. 70k miles

burlington6

I can't believe a main dealer would find so many faults on a used vehicle.

Shocked

WellKnownSid

burlington6 wrote: »

I can't believe a main dealer would find so many faults on a used vehicle.

Shocked

I know. It's almost like... I don't know... they were looking extra hard to find work...

BeenThroughItAll

WellKnownSid wrote: »

I know. It's almost like... I don't know... they were looking extra hard to find work...

Like, for example, replacing an entire ABS pump rather than diagnosing the issue properly, and replacing only necessary components (or maybe tightening a leaky union...).

Probably nothing wrong with the glow plugs either, or maybe one or two are down - but does the thing start OK? Yes? Great, move on.

A damper bush splitting... OK. Is it split or not? If it's not, move on until it is.

Personally, I'd go back to the selling dealer and ask them to fix it, but hey, why ask them to do that when we can now just reject an old used car the moment the first problem shows up.

SensibleSarah

I take your point that of course a main dealer is going to pick apart & find/exaggerate things. Selling dealer mysteriously not answering the phone today... So I'd love to discuss it with them if I could.

It does worry me somewhat that they didn't properly check tyres before sale. Surely that's standard? And annoys me that I didn't too before driving off in the thing of course

BeenThroughItAll

SensibleSarah wrote: »

I take your point that of course a main dealer is going to pick apart & find/exaggerate things. Selling dealer mysteriously not answering the phone today... So I'd love to discuss it with them if I could.

It does worry me somewhat that they didn't properly check tyres before sale. Surely that's standard? And annoys me that I didn't too before driving off in the thing of course

In fairness, if there is a suspension alignment issue that hadn't been noticed, a tyre's outer edge could wear from 'worn but legal' to 'cords exposed' in a very short time. A colleague of mine once complained to me that his car failed its MOT because of exposed cords on a tyre he'd replaced with a brand new one less than 1500 miles before - when i looked at it there was a very obvious misalignment, but something more subtle could be at play in this case.

Don't just assume the dealer has done this on purpose - I'm no fan of car dealers, but they're not all shysters.

SensibleSarah

Fair point. If they'd just answer their phone...