Can a dealer get round consumer protections with spare/repair?

bartelbe

Basically we bought a secondhand car used from a dealer. At the point of sale they suddenly wrote spares/repairs on the invoice. To be honest we should have argued the toss then, but we were so surprised by this we let it go.

Of course the ABS light failed almost instantly. In the end we just fixed it, cheap scrappy abs pump and a bit of spannering, problem solved. Put it down to experience and put dealer on the avoid list.

However might be looking for another car soon, so I wanted to check can a dealer avoid declaring faults and consumer protections with the spare/repair scam?

forgotmyname

Depends on the price/age/condition of the vehicle, if its 20 years old and a couple of hundred quid then you cannot expect it to be totally fault free.

foxy-stoat

forgotmyname wrote: »

Depends on the price/age/condition of the vehicle, if its 20 years old and a couple of hundred quid then you cannot expect it to be totally fault free.

But the dealer cannot sell a car with faults for spares/repairs and be clear of all their obilgations on ebay or autotrader or whatever no matter how many terms they add to the advert. There are places to sell these cars to already - scrapyards or their nearest ADT or similar car auction places.

OP got ripped with their current car - I wouldnt buy a spares/repairs car from the dealer.

force_ten

if the dealer advertises the car as spares or repair and tells you to collect the car on a trailer or tow it away then he is quite within his rights to sell as seen for spares or repairs and to put this on the invoice

if the seller sold the car as a running driving car and allowed you to drive it away then the spares or repair will not wash, sounds like the seller has just slipped this on the invoice to try and avoid his responsibilities

bartelbe

if the dealer advertises the car as spares or repair and tells you to collect the car on a trailer or tow it away then he is quite within his rights to sell as seen for spares or repairs and to put this on the invoice

if the seller sold the car as a running driving car and allowed you to drive it away then the spares or repair will not wash, sounds like the seller has just slipped this on the invoice to try and avoid his responsibilities

That is what I thought, it was my parents car, but I was there for the purchase. I suspect they knew about the fault. It wasn't listed as spare/repair in the ad, we did drive away in it and there was no discount for said fault.

So we got ripped off, trouble is I am quite good at fixing things for little expense, so it didn't seem worth the hassle to complain at the time.

Joe_Horner

force_ten wrote: »

if the seller sold the car as a running driving car and allowed you to drive it away then the spares or repair will not wash, sounds like the seller has just slipped this on the invoice to try and avoid his responsibilities

And has committed a criminal offence by doing so.

Unfortunately, it's an offence that it's very difficult indeed to get anyone to take action on - if more were prosecuted for it it might not happen so often!