Second hand car consumer rights advice desperately sought please

Jen15nifer

Hi guys,
My mum bought me a second hand Ford Focus automatic 1.6 55plate from a local dealer/mechanic partnership. Transmission failure after three weeks, went back to them and they fixed it and returned it after about a week. 5 months later the car breaks down again with what seems to be the same issue, and we return it to them to fix with the agreement to pay half each, considering the car had barely done a thousand miles since it had been with me. 5 weeks later and they are still no closer to fixing it, having problems finding a working auto gearbox for it apparently. I have been offered no alternative transport and I feel that this is becoming unacceptable. Do we have any consumer rights in this case?
Thanks for your time 👍

knightstyle

It is a twelve year old car so expect problems even if you do low milage.
Sounds like a decent garage, what are they offering you? I would be prepared to accept that, maybe pay them a bit to get a newer car?

Jen15nifer

Thanks for the reply. They have agreed to pay half of the repair costs but I have no agreement as to how much they will spend or how quickly it will be done...5 weeks so far.

EdGasket

So how do you know they will be paying half? They could charge you the whole amount and just say it cost double that.

Jen15nifer

They are being very cagey about giving me any details at the moment...of course when we are presented with a bill I will do my best to make sure that it is legitimate and I go through all the paperwork to back it up.

Jen15nifer

I was actually wondering wether I would be within my rights to ask for a refund of some sort, as they don't seem to be capable of fixing it within a reasonable timeframe?

consumers_revenge

I had sorta the same issue with my mums old car. Engine though and garage at 6 weeks.

In the end I put a fake advert in trade it or whatever it was at the time and rang the garage whilst recording the call and asked if they had enquirer about it a few days later. Oh yes we rang them straight away they claimed during my call and we're making a decision.

Funny how 5 mins after my call they rang my personal mobile to enquire about the engine.

Explained to them I put it in the paper and had a recording of them lying to me and do they want to explain?

Funny how my mum got the car back later in the week with a replacement engine for a sensible price.