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Help, Purchased a classic used car from Private seller
Hi all,
Hoping someone can offer some advice regarding the purchase of a used car from a private seller.
I purchased a 1989 classic car on the 28/05/2018 (last week) from a private seller on ebay. I paid top money for one (5k) as it was advertised as a good example and looked tidy for the age. Included with the sale was a brand new MOT (test date 23/05/18). The MOT was posted on the GOV MOT website and showed up as no advisories and no faults. This was great news, so I gladly went to pick it up and paid 5k by bank transfer.
I drove the car 50 miles home and put it in a storage unit where I planned to use it only on the odd occasion. On the advice of family & friends and following a few niggles regarding small technical faults and safety issues, I had the mechanic next door complete a thorough inspection of the car. He came back to me with 3 things that would be instant MOT failures.
1. The track rod end wasn't secured with a nut (essentially could have easily caused it to roll on the way home.
2. The bench seat was not anchored to the floor (it was wedged under the sill/door rubbers.
3. Wheel nuts missing from each wheel (the wheels have caps over so this isn't visible unless you remove with a tool).
Upon further advice, I agreed that best course of action was to submit for a repeat MOT to a well respected garage in the local area. I suspected a bit of foul play with regards to the previous 'MOT' but just wanted to reaffirm my suspicions. I notified the seller and queried as to how these basic safety issues were overlooked as part of the MOT it had just been given. He wasn't grateful of the message and said that I was picking faults in the car as its a classic and 30 years old.
SO, today it went in for its MOT and after 3.5 hours the FAIL certificate was posted to the GOV website. In total;
3 x "Do Not Drive Until Repaired (Dangerous Defects)". One being brake pipe at imminent risk of failure, another regarding the seat not actually being attached to anything.
22 x "Repair Immediately (Major Defects)". Ranging from heavy corrosion, no wheel seam, no fog light, suspension damage, shock absorbers welding gone, track rod end not secured... The list goes on.
15 x "Minor Defects & Advisories. Just to top it off.
Firstly its worth mentioning that the garage has said that it would be uneconomical to repair. Apparently its good for scrap.
I contacted the seller today to inform him the outcome of the MOT and explained how disgusted I was that the MOT was obviously fraudulent and the car was sold under false pretence. I asked that he take the car back and refund my 5k to which he refused.
He claimed that the car had drive 90 miles since the MOT and that the damage probably happened on the trip. He also seems to think that the MOT station I used was helping me to make it look worse than it actually is. He also maintains that im juts picking faults.
Can anybody advise on how im best to proceed. Im going to call VOSA tomorrow to report the garage that MOT'd and request an engineers report to backup the MOT that I have had done. This should also prove that all of the defects reported in the MOT cant have happened on the journey back home.
However, this wont get me my 5k back! Does anybody know how I should proceed and where I stand with regards to the law.
Hoping someone can offer some advice regarding the purchase of a used car from a private seller.
I purchased a 1989 classic car on the 28/05/2018 (last week) from a private seller on ebay. I paid top money for one (5k) as it was advertised as a good example and looked tidy for the age. Included with the sale was a brand new MOT (test date 23/05/18). The MOT was posted on the GOV MOT website and showed up as no advisories and no faults. This was great news, so I gladly went to pick it up and paid 5k by bank transfer.
I drove the car 50 miles home and put it in a storage unit where I planned to use it only on the odd occasion. On the advice of family & friends and following a few niggles regarding small technical faults and safety issues, I had the mechanic next door complete a thorough inspection of the car. He came back to me with 3 things that would be instant MOT failures.
1. The track rod end wasn't secured with a nut (essentially could have easily caused it to roll on the way home.
2. The bench seat was not anchored to the floor (it was wedged under the sill/door rubbers.
3. Wheel nuts missing from each wheel (the wheels have caps over so this isn't visible unless you remove with a tool).
Upon further advice, I agreed that best course of action was to submit for a repeat MOT to a well respected garage in the local area. I suspected a bit of foul play with regards to the previous 'MOT' but just wanted to reaffirm my suspicions. I notified the seller and queried as to how these basic safety issues were overlooked as part of the MOT it had just been given. He wasn't grateful of the message and said that I was picking faults in the car as its a classic and 30 years old.
SO, today it went in for its MOT and after 3.5 hours the FAIL certificate was posted to the GOV website. In total;
3 x "Do Not Drive Until Repaired (Dangerous Defects)". One being brake pipe at imminent risk of failure, another regarding the seat not actually being attached to anything.
22 x "Repair Immediately (Major Defects)". Ranging from heavy corrosion, no wheel seam, no fog light, suspension damage, shock absorbers welding gone, track rod end not secured... The list goes on.
15 x "Minor Defects & Advisories. Just to top it off.
Firstly its worth mentioning that the garage has said that it would be uneconomical to repair. Apparently its good for scrap.
I contacted the seller today to inform him the outcome of the MOT and explained how disgusted I was that the MOT was obviously fraudulent and the car was sold under false pretence. I asked that he take the car back and refund my 5k to which he refused.
He claimed that the car had drive 90 miles since the MOT and that the damage probably happened on the trip. He also seems to think that the MOT station I used was helping me to make it look worse than it actually is. He also maintains that im juts picking faults.
Can anybody advise on how im best to proceed. Im going to call VOSA tomorrow to report the garage that MOT'd and request an engineers report to backup the MOT that I have had done. This should also prove that all of the defects reported in the MOT cant have happened on the journey back home.
However, this wont get me my 5k back! Does anybody know how I should proceed and where I stand with regards to the law.
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Comments
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5k for a top end classic car sounds cheap to me. Perhaps you should get Mike Brewer on to it...0
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Apologies, I should have clarified. 5k makes it a more expensive example for the model.0
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What is it?0
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You're probably in for an uphill battle now - depends on how far you want to push re getting money back especially if you've 'devalued' the car by having a significant MOT fail to it's name now.#
Surely given it was top end for model you'd have done your due-diligence before purchase :eek:0 -
You're probably in for an uphill battle now - depends on how far you want to push re getting money back especially if you've 'devalued' the car by having a significant MOT fail to it's name now.#
Surely given it was top end for model you'd have done your due-diligence before purchase :eek:
I'm willing to go all the way.
There has been foul play. I have had people look at it who know what they are doing and have given it nothing but praise with regards to the way it looks. A lot of the nasty's would have taken a mechanic, some time and a ramp to find.
At the end of the day, a car with an MOT should be roadworthy. This wasn't 1 or 2 things that have been missed, its 40 Dangerous, major or minor faults.0 -
i'll ask the question you ignored before. What car is it? I have a feeling I know what car model it is judging year and some of the mentioned faults.0
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Are the rear brakes ok?0
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This discussion has been closed.
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