Used car rights

Carlos1731

Hi,

I bought a van 4 days ago for £450. Now I know what to expect buying a vehicle for that amount and wasn't expecting it to be perfect.
I bought it through gumtree off a nice old man, who was a retired mechanic.
I had my eye on another van but the thing that made me buy this one was the fact it had 12 months MOT on it and the other van only had a month.

Fast forward four days and the vehicle wouldn't start when I went to leave work.
I've had it checked out and among the many things wrong with it there are 3 that are important.

1. Brake light out due to wiring fault, the car had only done 4 miles since its MOT and this is an MOT failure.

2. The engine management light does NOT illuminate on start up as ( wait for it ) ............ somebody has stuck a small black sticker over it on the dashboard !!! I'm led to believe that if the EML doesn't illuminate on start up then go out that it is an MOT fail.

3. The ABS light doesn't illuminate then go out on start up either but I can't see a sticker over it. I'm also led to believe this is an MOT failure but I'm not certain and the delay website isn't clear.

I can live with the other things as like I said it's a £450 van but I bought it as it had the year MOT so I had a little faith in it.

My suspicion is that the retired mechanic has had his friend MOT the vehicle so as to pass it and then sell it but obviously can't prove it.

I want to ring him up and ask for my money back but I'm not sure about my rights and don't like confrontation which is what I expect il get.

Any advice ?

Also I foolishly signed a document that he had printed off which basically said sold as seen, is this worth the paper it's written on ?

Thanks in advance

Lomast

Brake lights should work but if its a high level one then there is a odd grey area in that some are only lenses and never connected and the tester is not allowed to take apart to see, if its not obvious to the tester then the advice is to pass rather than fail.
Eml is not a testable item.
Not all vehicles illuminate the abs warning light on start up

Carlos1731

Thanks for the advice , guess I'm stuck with it then

Carlos1731

It was the nsr light, not the high level

facade

Generalisation, but don't buy a vehicle from a mechanic.
Although they can usually get parts cheaper, as a rule they are so sick of working on other people's vehicles that they never work on their own (unless the fault actually stops the wheels going round)

An enthusiast is different- they normally fix everything to a high standard as soon as the slightest thing goes wrong with it.

AdrianC

A £450 van...? You were doing well to get it home under its own power.

societys_child

Generalisation, but don't buy a vehicle from a mechanic

Yup, generally, everywhere I've ever worked, the company mechanic owns the worst vehicle in the yard

arcon5

Your expecting a lot of a banger... But you don't actually say what the fault was to cause the non start

Robisere

Sorry to burst a couple of critical balloons, but I always kept my own vehicles in perfect working order, and so did every other mechanic I ever worked with. I was a workshop foreman and had many years in the trade, working with many others over the years. I would 'borrow' the workshop and facilities over a weekend to maintain each vehicle I owned.

As my garage also carried out Recoveries, we understood what happens to vehicles which are badly maintained. Or not maintained at all. We also carried passengers, usually close family, whose safety was important to us.

arcon5

I've been a mechanic for a few years and still yet to meet one that looks after their own. With the exception of the manager or foreman who got the mechanics to do the dirty work for them

System

Carlos1731 wrote: »

I had my eye on another van but the thing that made me buy this one was the fact it had 12 months MOT on it and the other van only had a month.

Fast forward four days and the vehicle wouldn't start when I went to leave work.
I've had it checked out and among the many things wrong with it there are 3 that are important.

Any advice ?

Learn from the lesson you've just had that a MOT is a worthless piece of paper for judging the condition of a vehicle.

Also I foolishly signed a document that he had printed off which basically said sold as seen, is this worth the paper it's written on ?

If it was a private sale, yes it is. SAS is basically implied even without that on a private sale. If it is a business selling it then it is a different story and it would have to be sold for spares to have a chance of no comeback.