Bought A Broken & Misrepresented Car Privately

bvm1999

Bought A Broken & Misrepresented Car Privately

Hey guys, hoping someone can advise me what my rights are on the following case. I have tried to keep it as short as possible.

22/02/2020 I picked up a Volkswagen Golf 2006 1.9 TDI. I had checked over the car and there were quite a lot of things that were not mentioned in the description bodywork wise, but I went a head with it. My self and my friend (also a mechanic) checked over the car, and engine bay the best we could and everything seemed fine. Took it for a test drive, it drove okay. I drove it back 4 hours. 2 hours in, the car went into limp mode - turned it off let it cool down for a bit and it started to run fine... 10 minutes away from home the car decided to throw a rod, new engine time!

I contacted the seller, who told me there was nothing wrong with the car, told me he had no problems with it etc. etc. The way the engine blew, there clearly was a problem with it before - I asked if he would at least contribute and he rejected. I went ahead with the new engine anyway as I wanted to keep the car and could not be bothered with the hassle.. Anyway, it gets worse.

02/03/2020 - I picked the car up from the garage £800 down. He left me a list of advisories that were wrong with the car:
- Chassis Leg had been cut - Severe MOT Failure
- All 4 wheels were buckled on inner rim
- N/S Outer CV Boot Split
- No Air Filter
- Lower Gearbox Bolt Stripped In Stabiliser

I was also advised that a new clutch & flywheel was needed. I was told by the seller that there was a loud rattling and slight shakiness due to the car being polybushed, it was since confirmed it was the flywheel.

Bar the air filter, I didn't know of any of these, neither was I advised of them and it, obviously, wasn't possible to check this as I couldn't look under the car.

I took the car to a rolling road to make sure the new engine was okay. It passed all tests, however - in the original ad it was described it was a Stage 2 235bhp - it was 187bhp with no remap. Another lie.

I continued to message the person I bought the car off asking for contributions towards getting everything sorted, but obviously the answer was no.

After doing some routing through Facebook, I found the following comments on a post related to the car:
Person 1: 'Surprised you haven't bought it back'
Seller: 'It's tempting, but I got rid of it for a reason'
Person 2: 'New engine?' followed by curious emojis
Person 1: 'XXXX Sold another dodgy car'
Seller: 'Yeah! Hope he changed the engine mounts too'

So the above is proof that he knew there was something wrong with the car.

No date noted, but I had posted a picture of the rear of the car on a post relating to 'Valeo Rear Lights' - which I was informed the car had.

On the 23/04/2020 I was contacted by someone who wanted to buy the Valeo Tail Lights. I sent him a photo of them to check if they were valeo tailighs, he replied 'No, they are normal or R32/Edition 30 tail light'. Yet another false description.

There are 2 more things that were falsely described:

The description said the car was to come with a strut brace. It didn't.
The car was also supposed to come with an 'iPad install', however the iPad was locked to the sellers Apple ID and refused to do anything about it.

So, in a nutshell:
Original engine blew, seller said no problems with it - but found comments suggesting it was.
There were more, serious problems discovered upon repairs to the car
Was told a noise was to do with it polybushed, but it was actually the flywheel
Was told it would come with a few things that I didn't.

The car was bought privately, which I still have proof of all messages. I have a report from the mechanic and receipts of everything (all together just shy of £2,000 with still a lot more work to do!!).

Where do I stand? Ideally, I would like to take the car back in return for my money - but even just a contribution to the repairs I would be happy

Aylesbury_Duck

bvm1999 said:

Bought A Broken & Misrepresented Car Privately

Hey guys, hoping someone can advise me what my rights are on the following case. I have tried to keep it as short as possible.

22/02/2020 I picked up a Volkswagen Golf 2006 1.9 TDI. I had checked over the car and there were quite a lot of things that were not mentioned in the description bodywork wise, but I went a head with it. My self and my friend (also a mechanic) checked over the car, and engine bay the best we could and everything seemed fine. Took it for a test drive, it drove okay. I drove it back 4 hours. 2 hours in, the car went into limp mode - turned it off let it cool down for a bit and it started to run fine... 10 minutes away from home the car decided to throw a rod, new engine time!

I contacted the seller, who told me there was nothing wrong with the car, told me he had no problems with it etc. etc. The way the engine blew, there clearly was a problem with it before - I asked if he would at least contribute and he rejected. I went ahead with the new engine anyway as I wanted to keep the car and could not be bothered with the hassle.. Anyway, it gets worse.

02/03/2020 - I picked the car up from the garage £800 down. He left me a list of advisories that were wrong with the car:
- Chassis Leg had been cut - Severe MOT Failure
- All 4 wheels were buckled on inner rim
- N/S Outer CV Boot Split
- No Air Filter
- Lower Gearbox Bolt Stripped In Stabiliser

I was also advised that a new clutch & flywheel was needed. I was told by the seller that there was a loud rattling and slight shakiness due to the car being polybushed, it was since confirmed it was the flywheel.

Bar the air filter, I didn't know of any of these, neither was I advised of them and it, obviously, wasn't possible to check this as I couldn't look under the car.

I took the car to a rolling road to make sure the new engine was okay. It passed all tests, however - in the original ad it was described it was a Stage 2 235bhp - it was 187bhp with no remap. Another lie.

I continued to message the person I bought the car off asking for contributions towards getting everything sorted, but obviously the answer was no.

After doing some routing through Facebook, I found the following comments on a post related to the car:
Person 1: 'Surprised you haven't bought it back'
Seller: 'It's tempting, but I got rid of it for a reason'
Person 2: 'New engine?' followed by curious emojis
Person 1: 'XXXX Sold another dodgy car'
Seller: 'Yeah! Hope he changed the engine mounts too'

So the above is proof that he knew there was something wrong with the car.

No date noted, but I had posted a picture of the rear of the car on a post relating to 'Valeo Rear Lights' - which I was informed the car had.

On the 23/04/2020 I was contacted by someone who wanted to buy the Valeo Tail Lights. I sent him a photo of them to check if they were valeo tailighs, he replied 'No, they are normal or R32/Edition 30 tail light'. Yet another false description.

There are 2 more things that were falsely described:

The description said the car was to come with a strut brace. It didn't.
The car was also supposed to come with an 'iPad install', however the iPad was locked to the sellers Apple ID and refused to do anything about it.

So, in a nutshell:
Original engine blew, seller said no problems with it - but found comments suggesting it was.
There were more, serious problems discovered upon repairs to the car
Was told a noise was to do with it polybushed, but it was actually the flywheel
Was told it would come with a few things that I didn't.

The car was bought privately, which I still have proof of all messages. I have a report from the mechanic and receipts of everything (all together just shy of £2,000 with still a lot more work to do!!).

Where do I stand? Ideally, I would like to take the car back in return for my money - but even just a contribution to the repairs I would be happy

You've got no chance of rejecting it for a refund now, given all the work you've had done on it.  You should have rejected it and returned it to the seller the day you bought it.  Instead you've fitted a new engine, replaced all sorts of parts and driven it about for two months.  It's nothing like the car you bought any more.  Unless you've kept photos and independent verdicts on the parts fixed and replaced, the seller can simply claim that there's no evidence the parts were not working/safe/as described. 

All you can do is send the seller a list of what you want by way of contribution and if he doesn't agree, take him to small claims court.  I've no idea if you'll be successful or not but my guess is you won't be.  You also need to stop using the car.  Every time you work on the car or use it you are taking it further away from the condition in which it was sold and lessening your chances of claiming anything.  It will also take months to even get to court because they are currently closed and there will be an enormous backlog of cases when they reopen. 

cardiff_dave

Unless you can do a bit more digging and find that he's a dealer it's a case of buyer beware and your stuck with it, you did take a mechanic with you who should have noticed the flywheel rattling and the garage that fitted the engine could have told you that the clutch and flywheel was shot when they had it out and saved you a lot more expense.
The 1.9 pd vw engine is a great unit good for 350k if looked after looks like you were just unlucky.

Hermione_Granger

bvm1999 said:

.My self and my friend (also a mechanic) checked over the car,

Not being funny but what sort of mechanic misses all of the following when inspecting a used car:

- Chassis Leg had been cut - Severe MOT Failure
- All 4 wheels were buckled on inner rim
- N/S Outer CV Boot Split
- No Air Filter
- Lower Gearbox Bolt Stripped In Stabiliser

a new clutch & flywheel was needed

The description said the car was to come with a strut brace. It didn't

waamo

You say your friend is "also a mechanic". By this do you mean you are a mechanic? Or simply the friend you took along happens to be a mechanic?

mattyprice4004

Your mechanic is clearly blind, and you have no rights. 

An engine about to throw a rod won’t do a 2 hour drive - the usual indication of a rod failing is about 5 seconds of tapping, then a hole appears in your engine. 

The onus is on you to satisfy yourself with the condition of the car, its not the seller’s problem.
Sorry, but get it fixed and in future buy from a dealer if you want a warranty. It’s a 14 year old car, stuff breaks.