We bought a new van only it wasn't new!

Skibird

We bought a new van from Hartwell, a Ford Dealership but after a few months we started noticing issues with the paintwork. We were not overly concerned as the paintwork is guaranteed for many years. It got gradually worse and we suspected it had been in an accident which was repaired before selling it to us as NEW.
To cut a long story short, Hartwell said it was not them and asked FordUK for documentation on it's journey from production to them, which never materialised. We continued our communication with FordUK direct and after months and taking the van to 2 Ford Body shops on their request, who confirmed that there had been a repair, and a poor one which is why it started becoming visible to us, all FordUK will do is repair the repair. Without us actually taking them to court which will cost a fortune and they know this, is there anything we can do legally?
Thanks in advance
Bev

SHAFT

Skibird wrote: »

We bought a new van from Hartwell, a Ford Dealership but after a few months we started noticing issues with the paintwork. We were not overly concerned as the paintwork is guaranteed for many years. It got gradually worse and we suspected it had been in an accident which was repaired before selling it to us as NEW.
To cut a long story short, Hartwell said it was not them and asked FordUK for documentation on it's journey from production to them, which never materialised. We continued our communication with FordUK direct and after months and taking the van to 2 Ford Body shops on their request, who confirmed that there had been a repair, and a poor one which is why it started becoming visible to us, all FordUK will do is repair the repair. Without us actually taking them to court which will cost a fortune and they know this, is there anything we can do legally?
Thanks in advance
Bev

So it is a new van, it just had a repair before you bought it?

Car_54

It's not at all unusual for vehicles to be damaged between leaving the factory and arriving at the dealer, and to be repaired before sale. It does not mean the vehicle is not 'new': it is registered as new, and the manufacturer's warranty starts from the date of sale.


Ford have agreed there is a problem, and are going to repair the van. What more do you imagine you're entitled to?


BTW should you decide to sue, your contract is with Hartwell, not Ford.

Skibird

Are you seriously telling me it's OK to sell a van as NEW when it has been damaged and repaired and you have not been told about it? Then they denied it until 2 independent inspections were done.

What more am I entitled to? A van that is actually NEW.

We know our contract is with Hartwell but FordUK ignored Hartwell's request for documentation on the vehicles journey from production to them, and have also not once said "go back and deal with Hartwell".

There were only 400 of these special edition vans made and it is not OK to find out the one you bought was damaged and repaired before selling it as new. It is not new and it's re-sale value will be effected beacuse of this repair.

AdrianC

The Transit Connect is built in Spain, the Transit and Transit Custom are built in Turkey. There's a lot of scope for delivery damage to occur. Manufacturers don't release figures, but some estimates claim as high as a third of all new vehicles have had some body repair before registration and delivery. That rectification work may have occurred at the assembly plant, at the import depot, or at the dealer. All you know is that the dealer say it wasn't done by them.

That doesn't mean it's not new. If it's not been previously registered, it's new.

The van is being repaired for free.

If that's not acceptable, what would be?
To reject the vehicle, and get a replacement? To reject it and get your money back? You don't say how long you've had it, other than you noticed the problem after "a few months" and you've been chasing it for "months" since. So somewhere around a year since delivery? So is it reasonable to reject and get a brand-new vehicle in replacement, with no account for that year's-worth of use? No. Would it be acceptable if the dealer offered you a favourable trade-in price?

Car_54

Skibird wrote: »

There were only 400 of these special edition vans made and it is not OK to find out the one you bought was damaged and repaired before selling it as new. It is not new and it's re-sale value will be effected beacuse of this repair.

A 'new' vehicle is one with no previous owners, and registered as new. People buy 'new' cars every day without knowing they've been repaired.



If it is repaired to the proper standard, it should not be detectable by any later buyer, and so its resale value should not be affected. After all, you didn't detect the 'poor' repair when you bought it.

Arklight

What actually is the extent of the repair?

SHAFT

Skibird wrote: »

Are you seriously telling me it's OK to sell a van as NEW when it has been damaged and repaired and you have not been told about it? Then they denied it until 2 independent inspections were done.

What more am I entitled to? A van that is actually NEW.

We know our contract is with Hartwell but FordUK ignored Hartwell's request for documentation on the vehicles journey from production to them, and have also not once said "go back and deal with Hartwell".

There were only 400 of these special edition vans made and it is not OK to find out the one you bought was damaged and repaired before selling it as new. It is not new and it's re-sale value will be effected beacuse of this repair.

Yes, it is.

shaun_from_Africa

Skibird wrote: »

Are you seriously telling me it's OK to sell a van as NEW when it has been damaged and repaired and you have not been told about it?

Yes, perfectly okay.
When you buy a new house, there is a very good chance that something would have originally been installed incorrectly then put right or damaged and repaired before you moved in.
Buying kitchen appliances is the same. Quite often these will be tested prior to being sold (hence the reason for some washing machines having a bit of water in them when delivered).
If any fault is found during this testing then it will be put right before the appliance is eventually sold.

AdrianC

Arklight wrote: »

What actually is the extent of the repair?

With vans, it doesn't take a lot of body damage to involve substantial sections of the shell.

Look at the non-sliding door rear body side of something like a Transit Custom.

That's a big single panel which needs replacing in the event of something relatively straightforward like a non-trivial scrape. They aren't going to scrap the brand new van... They aren't going to build number 401 to satisfy the 400th order, given that there's now only 399 (or probably a lot less) virgin examples extant of this "special edition"... If it doesn't have an order against it, then it just goes into stock, same as if it hadn't been damaged, awaiting a customer and registration.

Maybe there's a case to argue that it should be pre-registered and sold as used... But then everybody would just assume all pre-regs had been damaged in transit, and the bottom would fall out of that market.

Substantially damaged vehicles would normally be written off, recorded, and sold as salvage, though - it's not unusual to see new, unregistered at CoPart.

Skibird

Their favourable trade in offer, which we have gladly done, would have been an insult if it wasn't so laughable.