Son's car MOT advisories - garage ignoring us

Jirmette1

Any advice please?

My son bought his first car over the Christmas holidays, a few days before his 17th birthday, he's bought & inured this himself with money he'd saved so we wanted it to be a really special experience for him which it mostly was.

The garage of course made all kinds of promises, the car has come with a 6 month warrantee and they were insistent that any issues would be resolved.

On collection day the car had just been MOT'd, my husband asked if there were any advisories and was told no.

Once home we looked online and learnt that there were intact 4 advisories, nothing major but as my son's used his own money for this we would have pushed to have them rectified prior to collection.

I emailed the garage on 31st December - no reply. Filled out their online email a few days later - no reply.

At the weekend my husband spoke to someone who advised that the car should not have gone out without these being rectified and promised to call him yesterday morning to book the car in. No call.

Do we have any rights here please and how would you advise going forwards?

Thank you

alembicbassman

Have a read of the info on the website below.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/your-rights-if-something-is-wrong-with-your-car

You do have rights regarding faults.

You can argue that if you knew the car had the advisories you wouldn't have bought it.

You could negotiate a bit of a refund.

If you reject the car as misrepresented the dealer can apply a reasonable adjustment for use of the vehicle, so you may not get a full refund.

Advisories are a funny one. The vehicle is still classed as roadworthy. I've heard from an MOT tester that some garages look for advisories because the DVSA get a bit suspicious when too many cars get a clean pass from a testing station. It shows the DVSA inspectors that the garage is being diligent. You see lots of 'slight play' and 'slight corrosion' 'slight misting' advisories. Sometimes these miraculously disappear on the next MOT (my Mcpherson strut slight play advisory disappeared for 8 years !)

If you're happy with the car ask for a free service or oil change or a free MOT for next time.

foxy-stoat

What are the advisories?

custardy

I would say you have no 'rights'.
Advisories are just that. The car is roadworthy and the warranty is unlikely to cover any of them.
So realistically its goodwill on the garage.

Jirmette1

foxy-stoat wrote: »

What are the advisories?

Vehicles internal headlight adjuster altered to recheck lights Set to 0 ()
Offside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
Rear Exhaust mounting defective (6.1.2 (a))

AdrianC

Jirmette1 wrote: »

Vehicles internal headlight adjuster altered to recheck lights Set to 0 ()

They had to twiddle the load-adjuster on the dash from 1 or 2 to 0 to get the lights pointing the right direction.

Offside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))

It needs a pair of tyres at some point in the future, but they're still legal now. But you noticed that when viewing it and before agreeing to buy, right...?

Rear Exhaust mounting defective (6.1.2 (a))

More detail there, but it may be as minor as a rubber ring's gone ping and been replaced by something else.

How expensive a car are we talking about...?

alembicbassman

2 part worn tyres and a new back box (maybe) = £100 sorted. (I had the support mount welded back onto my Astra backbox for £20.) It lasted another 5 years.

Legal limit is 1.6mm across 75% of tyre width. If it's worn on outer edge not much wrong there.

Jirmette1

Thanks all, it means next to nothing to me. With them being so minor you'd think they'd just have replied and sorted them for him to keep us happy!

Car was sub £4k, I just want it all to go smoothly for him being his first car.

BoGoF

None of them are condescending just reality. Any driver should know the legal minimum for a tyre and inspect them accordingly.

Unless you have it in writing that there were no advisories you are wasting your time persuing this.

AdrianC

Jirmette1 wrote: »

Not exactly no

Ooookay...

But he was happy with those tyres when he agreed to purchase the car, right?

and £4k isn't cheap to a just turned 17 year old student

It's the cheaper end of used cars.

we haven't tried to negotiate anything with them

You want them to sort the advisories. Two of the four advisories are that the front tyres are lowish on tread. Sorting that requires two new tyres...

BoGoF wrote: »

None of them are condescending just reality. Any driver should know the legal minimum for a tyre and inspect them accordingly.

He has no excuse for not knowing - it's one of the show-me-tell-me questions on the driving test.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/car-show-me-tell-me-vehicle-safety-questions/car-show-me-tell-me-vehicle-safety-questions

custardy

Jirmette1 wrote: »

Thanks all, it means next to nothing to me. With them being so minor you'd think they'd just have replied and sorted them for him to keep us happy!

Car was sub £4k, I just want it all to go smoothly for him being his first car.

but a sub £4K they arent going to be maknig a fortune on it. 2 tyres and an exhaust fix could wipe that out.
Really this is a pre purchase deal when you have the leverage