Second hand car - buckled wheels

greatfloyd69

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could provide advice regarding a situation I have with my second hand car.
I acquired a Ford Kuga (I know... but I love them) on hire purchase in March 2016 from a privately owned dealership. Before explaining the situation, I'm genuinely only here to ask advice about the rights I may have, if any at all. I fully understand too much time may have passed or that there's simply nothing I can do.
The dealership is based in Derby, is fairly large but owned privately (I can name the dealership but wasn't sure if I should?!) I collected the car on 11th March 2016. My disclaimer here is that I'm in no way mechanically minded, no one is in my family, and I have to put total trust in the seller. When collecting the car the seller explained it had need some expensive work on certain elements of the car to pass the MOT, but it was now in perfect condition (i can list the work, but don't have the document on me while I type) I kept a copy of all the work that was done. Highlighed on various sheets was 'Tracking needs doing!' Myself and my Mom collected the car and it looked fine, but even driving it home that day I felt like I could notice the slight wobble balancing causes. I put it down to it being a different car (a slight sense of paranoia!)

After a few days of having the car, I left work at 3am and the front driver side tyre was flat. I immediately cursed assuming I'd picked up a nail. Managing to get home that night, I put air in the tyre and drove to a nearby tyre place so they could have a look. After finding no nail and no other cause they placed it into water, eventually realising the alloy had a small dink, meaning it was buckled. The balancing was also off. They balanced the tyre, checked pressure and said without changing the alloy there wasn't much more to be done and that it was safe to drive (they actually did all that for free) I promptly drove straight back to the dealership on my next day off (60 mile round trip) and firmly requested they sort the alloy. They had the car for a few hours, explaining they'd done everything they could to the car to make sure it did not go flat again (more technical mechanics terms) but told me and my OH if it happened again to make sure we came back, that they would remember us even it went out of the 30 days warranty. The tyre did not go flat again but I have since topped up air twice (tyre had dropped to around 27psi - should have been 33) all other tyres had held pressure.
Coming back to today, With a drive to Scotland coming soon my partner and I decided to re-check balancing. We went to the same place and he remembered me, cutting a long story short they checked tracking and balancing. 3 of 4 tyres on the car were buckled. Tracking was way out and none were balanced properly. Again he assured me it continued to be safe to drive, we would notice a slight wobble but wouldn't vibrate any nuts or bolts out. It would just be bad news in the long term. Since owning the car we've had no reason to take it anywhere, nor to have tyres checked. We did this purely of our own violition. The MOT is not due until March 17.

So thank you for staying with me... aside from this, since having the Diesel car, I've needed the DPD changed, thankfully the warranty actually covered it. I don't normally pay for 'insurance' on things but for some reason did on this. And i did feel the DPD may have been caused by us as we were moving house and the engine was on and off on short journeys.

Another side note is that I was getting a quote on a small scratch on passenger side front door around May time, the technician noticed the rear passenger side door was a very very slightly different colour, as if it had been resprayed, suggesting it wasn't just work to pass the MOT that had needed doing.

Other than the points explained above, so far it has driven okay (touch wood). I'm now disappointed in myself for buying the car but my OH feels there's no way we would have known. We purchased in good faith.

After all that, my question is, with 3 of the tyres buckled do we have any rights? Is there anything we can do? Whilst I am angry and feel I've been deceived regarding the cars quality, I understand that is the very nature of bying second hand. I also know feelings are irrelevant, I need to only deal in consumer rights and provable facts.

Thatnk you in advance for your help.

wealdroam

greatfloyd69 wrote: »

I need to only deal in consumer rights and provable facts.

An excellent idea.

Over six months after buying the car you have been told 'the tracking was way out'. That could've happened anytime during that six months. Of course it could've happened before, but that is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to determine. Have you had that corrected?
Have you had the wheels balanced now?

Do you know when that door repaint was done? Perhaps it was done before you first saw the car - even before the seller saw the car? It seems a bit unfair to attribute that work to the seller's preparation.

Now that it is over six months since you made the purchase, It is for you to prove that any problems are due to inherent faults. An inherent fault is one that was present at the time of sale but not necessarily apparent at that time.
With a secondhand car it is quite difficult to establish which faults were present at the time of sale. Probably why a thorough inspection by a knowledgeable person at the time of sale is such a good idea.

Good luck.

greatfloyd69

Thank you Wealdroam, yes the tracking has been corrected and balancing done as near perfect as possible, with the worse wheels on the back and the good wheel and least buckled on the front. The dinks in the back of the alloys are only so small, but visable. I appreciate your advice, I do accept any of that may have happened after purchase, I may write to them to see what they say but I understand my limitations here.

Thank you