Should I take them to court?

Cafu

I am the OP. I lost my email address for that account.

In the end I drove the 150 miles to let them fix the AC problem with my car. They spent a few hours on it and said they tried their best. Unfortunately the problems returned. The AC smell returned and my breathing is suffering. The bad smell returned within a day.

I contacted the Trading Standards officer again that they said that the Toyota dealer must provide me with a like for like replacement or buy the car back from me at a market fee. She told me that they were offering £4,300 and I should accept it because it is the market price. She said it was a good offer. But I refused. She said that if I took it to court the judge will consider me unreasonable. I told her that it cant be the market price. She said I should then contact the dealer and tell them so.

I emailed the dealer with evidence that other cars with my spec are are being sold for £6,500. They increased the offer to £5,000 sent me a list of cars on the market as justification. However those cars have almost double my mileage and one was an ex write off. They gave me a week to return the car to them and said it was a final offer. Thus I rejected the offer.

I decided to open court proceedings and paid the fees. I emailed the dealer just before that telling them that they must give me enough money to buy a car like mine, not one with double the mileage. Today they emailed me an offer of £5,500. They cited a car on autotrader with 3000 more miles but 6 months newer. They claimed the car had parking assist and said mine does not. That car was being offered for £6,000 but they want to buy mine for £5,500.

I replied that my car does have parking assist and that they cannot offer me £500 less than a car which has 3000 more miles and is only 6 months newer. Also I don't know if that car is from a reputable dealer or if the miles are clocked. Cars like mine are being sold for £6,500 on the market. I also told them that I had started court proceedings.

My car is an 07 Prius T Spirit with 41000 miles. I bought on 30th march for £7250 and it had 35,000 miles.

Now I have not received a reply from them because I only just sent them the email.

I have three questions:

1, If they increase the offer to £6,000 do you advise me to take it? I think the value of the car is £6,500 from ordinary (non-Toyota) dealers.

2, Are all these final offers going to look bad for them in court?

3, I told the trading standards officer that they should offer me what a Toyota dealer would sell the car for, not what a normal dealer would offer because I want to have the same quality car when I buy it back. She said that condition wont hold up in court. Is that true?

I don't understand how incompetent this trading standards officer is. Why did she ask me to accept £4,300?

Cafu

I sent them details of a car being sold by a Toyota dealer with 57 re and 62,000 miles listed for £5,870.

They offered to match the price. But it has 21,000 more miles than mine. I rejected it.

I got a call from the Trading Standards officer that in their opinion I am being unreasonable and they will let the judge know this.

AdrianC

Cafu wrote: »

I sent them details of a car being sold by a Toyota dealer with 57 re and 62,000 miles listed for £5,870.

They offered to match the price. But it has 21,000 more miles than mine. I rejected it.

I got a call from the Trading Standards officer that in their opinion I am being unreasonable and they will let the judge know this.

A car from a dealer has a package of benefits, warranty and legal backup with it that yours does not have any longer. This would count as betterment, but is clearly being offset by the lower mileage. Against that, this one is newer than yours.

For an 8-9yo car, even 62k miles is lower than average.

force_ten

Cafu wrote: »

I got a call from the Trading Standards officer that in their opinion I am being unreasonable and they will let the judge know this.

You are being unreasonable

rhino_horn

No these offers will not look bad in court as they are offering to compromise and settle before it goes that far.

You on the other hand are not offering to compromise on anything.

If anything, it will look bad on you from refusing to budge from your position.

sacha28

:wall::wall::wall:

robbies_gal

you will look bad in court for being unreasonable theyre offering you something based on your now "mouldy" car that they will have to spend to fix

why cant yu just take their offer

i think youre lucky they offered you anything

almillar

Take the £6k offer and buy another car of your choice, in my opinion.

if the miles are clocked.

That's certainly not reasonable, IMO. Why throw around these accusations? Inspect the car.

Cafu

robbies_gal wrote: »

you will look bad in court for being unreasonable theyre offering you something based on your now "mouldy" car that they will have to spend to fix

why cant yu just take their offer

i think youre lucky they offered you anything

Please remember the car had mould issues from the beginning. The fault is not mine at all.

So they got back to me with a list of cars that don't match the specs of my car. They all had much higher mileage. I again responded with a list that is close to my spec. Average price is £6,500. Then I said I will accept £6,000 to cancel the court case and they said no.

Are they not being unreasonable?

They said: " A fair charge for usage is .25p per mile which works out at a deduction of £1450.75 for fair usage. You paid £7250 for the vehicle (plus £10 road fund licence which you have also used), so £7250 minus £1450.75 means we shou! ld offer £5799.25 for your vehicle whereas we are actually offering £5,870. "

Where would they get that equation to calculate the price?

AdrianC

Are you suggesting there shouldn't be any deduction for the nearly 6,000 miles you've done in it? Or that 25p/mile is excessively high?