Bought Used Car from Dealer - 30 Day Warranty?

1gavinr

Hi All,

I don't know if anyone has asked this question before with their own personal experience.

I have just bought a used car from a small dealer on 10/2/16 (2005 Ford Galaxy 1.9 TDI Ghia).

Before purchase it had a few cosmetic issues (patches of rust) & a clutch pedeal issue which they said would be addressed before buying the car so we put a deposit down for it. 10 days past the original collection date (due to an MOT failure), the car was finally ready for me to collect.

After 24 hours with the car, I noticed some other issues with the car and the clutch pedal sticking issue hadn't been fixed - even though it had a replacement spring before collecting the car.

My wife and kids were going away for a few days with the car so I let the dealer know that as soon as they were back I would be bringing the car to them. While my wife and kids were away, the car broke down twice and needed jump starting.

Once they were back I took the car back to the dealer and gave them a list of issues that the car had:

1) Still had a rust patch
2) Clutch Pedal still sticking
3) Gears crunching occasionally - happens to both my wife & I
4) Battery issue causing the 2 breakdowns
5) Climate Control Panel buttons very stiff - some inoperable
6) Windscreen wiper blades not clearing windscreen
7) Parking sensors (front & back) not working at all
8) Dashboard clock (analogue version) not working

The dealer said that they couldn't find an issue with NO 3, NO 5 is something they can't do anything about due to general wear and tear and they might not be able to do anything about NOs 7 & 8.

At the time of writing this they still have the car which is day 4 now so my question(s) are:

1) Does my 30 day warranty extend by the number of days that they have the car doing repair work?

2) If we know there are issues that they won't address, how do we go about getting them fixed without costing us the money? Surely the 30 day warranty should cover us for any issues that the car still has??

---

I've already said to my wife that I have no issue rejecting the car under the Consumer Act 2015 but she has a good point when telling me that the car has had a lot of money spent on it by the dealer on work putting it through a fresh MOT before we collected it. Plus the work that is currently being done on it isn't costing us anything BUT I don't want any expensive bills to fork out on after our 30 day warranty expires. I'm not a mechanic but with 19 years driving experience, I'm guessing the gears crunching issue could be an expensive gearbox problem in the near future.

Can anyone advice me on addressing the issues we have which the dealer says they won't do anything about or do we have to just live with them not being done?

Many thanks

Gavin

WellKnownSid

You have bought an 11 year old car, so you cannot have the same expectations of a new car with zero faults.

What you can expect is that it'll fulfil its primary function - getting you from A to B.

It sounds like they are doing a reasonable job so far. Their liability extends far beyond the 30 days by the way.

With regards spending money on the car and getting it through it's MoT - how else would they have been able to sell the car?

LiGhTfasT

Its an old banger your asking to much from it, the only real issue is the clutch but even thats wear and tear.

motorguy

1gavinr wrote: »

Hi All,

I don't know if anyone has asked this question before with their own personal experience.

I have just bought a used car from a small dealer on 10/2/16 (2005 Ford Galaxy 1.9 TDI Ghia).

Before purchase it had a few cosmetic issues (patches of rust) & a clutch pedeal issue which they said would be addressed before buying the car so we put a deposit down for it. 10 days past the original collection date (due to an MOT failure), the car was finally ready for me to collect.

After 24 hours with the car, I noticed some other issues with the car and the clutch pedal sticking issue hadn't been fixed - even though it had a replacement spring before collecting the car.

My wife and kids were going away for a few days with the car so I let the dealer know that as soon as they were back I would be bringing the car to them. While my wife and kids were away, the car broke down twice and needed jump starting.

Once they were back I took the car back to the dealer and gave them a list of issues that the car had:

1) Still had a rust patch
2) Clutch Pedal still sticking
3) Gears crunching occasionally - happens to both my wife & I
4) Battery issue causing the 2 breakdowns
5) Climate Control Panel buttons very stiff - some inoperable
6) Windscreen wiper blades not clearing windscreen
7) Parking sensors (front & back) not working at all
8) Dashboard clock (analogue version) not working

The dealer said that they couldn't find an issue with NO 3, NO 5 is something they can't do anything about due to general wear and tear and they might not be able to do anything about NOs 7 & 8.

At the time of writing this they still have the car which is day 4 now so my question(s) are:

1) Does my 30 day warranty extend by the number of days that they have the car doing repair work?

2) If we know there are issues that they won't address, how do we go about getting them fixed without costing us the money? Surely the 30 day warranty should cover us for any issues that the car still has??

---

I've already said to my wife that I have no issue rejecting the car under the Consumer Act 2015 but she has a good point when telling me that the car has had a lot of money spent on it by the dealer on work putting it through a fresh MOT before we collected it. Plus the work that is currently being done on it isn't costing us anything BUT I don't want any expensive bills to fork out on after our 30 day warranty expires. I'm not a mechanic but with 19 years driving experience, I'm guessing the gears crunching issue could be an expensive gearbox problem in the near future.

Can anyone advice me on addressing the issues we have which the dealer says they won't do anything about or do we have to just live with them not being done?

Many thanks

Gavin

Hmmm..

If the car was advertised with parking sensors front and rear they they should be working.

If it was agreed the sticking clutch would be sorted and the rust spot, then that should have been done.

Crunching gears would worry me and i wouldnt find that acceptable.

Battery shouldnt be running flat.

Wiper blades - i generally stick a set of new Bosch Aeroblades on a car when i get it for the sake of £20, so i probably personally wouldnt have an issue with that - they passed MOT after all.

Clock not working on an 11 year old car - again i probably wouldnt be that bothered.

So yes, most of that, at least, should be sorted.

Warranty means diddly anyway, however you could ask for - and get it in writing - that the warranty runs 30 days from you picking the car up as they've had the car more time than you have.

Dont forget that your rights are based on the Consumer Act, NOT based on his 30 day warranty.

motorguy

LiGhTfasT wrote: »

Its an old banger your asking to much from it, the only real issue is the clutch but even thats wear and tear.

A 2005 Galaxy TDI could have cost £3,000 - £4,000, so its not in banger money.


http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/ford/galaxy/postcode/bt622hb/radius/1500/keywords/2005/fuel-type/diesel/maximum-age/over_10_years_old/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/maximum-mileage/up_to_100000_miles

And dont forget the seller agreed to fix the clutch pedal and the rust, but didnt.

Also, "crunching" gears are NOT wear and tear - thats a fault

1gavinr

Thanks for the replies and advice.

To clear up a couple of points. The car, although it's 11 years old this year, has cost £3100 cash so it's not in the banger category. We did state to the dealer that this isn't a car to last us 1 or 2 years, it has to last us a number of years and will be used for a lot of holidays for the children, hence why we made sure that it was agreed that all the faults we picked up on during the inspection and test drive of the car would be done before collection.

The other faults we have found after getting the car, we feel that they should be working seeing as they are part of the car. Yes we know that we aren't buying a brand new car and spending tens of thousands of pounds on the car but this is all we could afford in our budget so we want to make sure that we do not have big repair bills to fork out on after the 30 day warranty if we have made these issues known to the dealer.

If we are not satisfied with the dealers answers relating to the clutch and the gears, are we entitled to take it elsewhere to get a diagnosis and get the dealer to fix the faults that have been found?

1gavinr

We know that there will be some issues with a car that age but it is the thought of gear issues in the future that may cost us a lot of money when we have made them aware of them now. The dealer is saying that they can't find an issue with crunching gears and difficulty in getting it into gears occasionally.

Can you explain further when you say their liability extends longer than the 30 days please?

Thanks

1gavinr

The small issues I am not personally bothered with but I have brought them to their attention to see if they will do anything about them but it is the bigger problems in the future with the gears and clutch that really worry us.

I would expect the parking sensors to still be working on the car and hope that they don't try to brush us aside with that like they have tried with the climate control buttons on the dashboard.

With regards to the Consumer Act, which way would be best to approach the dealer with these bigger issues to make sure that they are dealt with in a satisfactory way?

Thank you

AdrianC

1gavinr wrote: »

Can you explain further when you say their liability extends longer than the 30 days please?

The warranty is on top of their legal responsibility under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which replaced the venerable Sale of Goods Act for all purchases after last October.
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act

Your expectations are still tempered by what's reasonable wear and tear for a vehicle of that age, price and apparent condition.

1gavinr

Yes you are right, £3100 is not a small amount of money and I wouldn't class it as banger car money.

With the crunching gears, would we be within our rights to take the car elsewhere in the 30 day warranty period to get a second opinion on the gears issue and take it back to the dealer to fix?

Thank you

1gavinr

It's an older car but it's not a banger, it's a family car for the foreseeable future. Even if the clutch issue is down to wear and tear over the years, should it not be corrected by the dealer when they sell it on?

Thanks