Warranty on seond hand car

carolann312

Hi


My son bought a second hand car from a dealer in the middle of September. There is now a problem with it starting and a mechanic has checked it out and said it looks like the cylinder head has gone.


Do all second hand cars come with a 3 month warranty by law or does this have to be offered by the dealer? The car only cost him £500 so if he has to pay the repair costs himself it probably wouldn't be worth doing it.


Thanks

lincroft1710

No law which says car dealers have to offer any form of warranty/guarantee

motorguy

carolann312 wrote: »

Hi


My son bought a second hand car from a dealer in the middle of September. There is now a problem with it starting and a mechanic has checked it out and said it looks like the cylinder head has gone.


Do all second hand cars come with a 3 month warranty by law or does this have to be offered by the dealer? The car only cost him £500 so if he has to pay the repair costs himself it probably wouldn't be worth doing it.


Thanks

A dealer doesn't have to put a warranty on a call at all, however they are legally obliged to warrant the condition of it.

Typically in the first six months of ownership if a fault occurs it's up to the dealer to prove the fault wasn't there at the time of sale. He would probably be quite comfortable saying that as the car has driven fine for two plus months, then the fault was not there at the time of sale.

Likewise he could argue that on a most likely very old £500 car, a head gasket failure could be described as wear and tear

Finally, head gasket failure is often a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. For example, allowing the engine to run low or out of water could cause a head gasket failure.

AdrianC

carolann312 wrote: »

My son bought a second hand car from a dealer in the middle of September.
The car only cost him £500

His consumer rights are tempered by reasonable expectations for the age, cost and apparent condition.

A £500 car from a dealer? Yeh, good luck with that...

walwyn1978

A car bought from a dealer for £500 will have actually cost him probably £150 at the absolute top end, and the condition will reflect that.

If your son is spending 500 on a car, next time try to buy private. That way you're not buying a car worth 150 for 500, with the extra as his profit. If you're buying private, you're hopefully buying a car worth about 500, as the seller doesn't need to make profit on the deal to live.

You won't get a warranty, but TBH I've never seen a car at a dealer sub 1k offered with any kind of warranty, and as Motorguy says above they only need to warrant the condition at point of sale.

I was told once if you're spending 3k or less on a car, buy private as sub 3k stuff from a dealer is overpriced to get a profit margin. Don't know how accurate that advice is, and happy to be proved wrong, but it's what I've stuck to.

macman

If your son wanted or expected a warranty on a £500 car, wouldn't it have been wise for him to ask the dealer if there was one before he handed over the cash?

worried_jim

macman wrote: »

If your son wanted or expected a warranty on a £500 car, wouldn't it have been wise for him to ask the dealer if there was one before he handed over the cash?

And still not worth the paper it's printed on.