Unrepairable car back on the road

Ditzy_Mitzy

[DELETED USER] said:

OP, ignore all the snarky comments. You bought the car, it wasn't fit for purpose and they couldn't fix it, it broke within the first month. You are entitled a refund. They may try to claim some mileage but on a car of that age it will be negligible.

I know it's difficult so maybe ask someone to help you, but the next step is to send them a Letter Before Action. Don't worry, you don't have to go to court if you don't want to, although as a last resort Small Claims Court is very easy to do. Just send them something like this:

Dear XXX,

We purchased a Vauxhall Zafira on XX.XX.XXXX. It broke down on XX.XX.XXXX and you were unable to repair it. As you did not have any suitable replacement vehicles we asked for a refund and subsequently bought another car elsewhere. Please issue us a refund of £1,599 by XX.XX.XXXX (2 weeks hence) or we will proceed to Small Claims Court.

Regards,
OP


Send that and see what they do. You can just bluff and not go through with Small Claims Court, usually they just pay up when they see they are about to lose even more money.

The issue here is, on close reading of the circumstances and filling in the missing bits, that the OP no longer owns the broken Zafira.  At some point it's been given back to the garage, presumably in exchange for consideration of some sort.  A figure of £500 has been mentioned, although it's not clear whether this was the amount paid.  The garage has also, apparently, sold the same Zafira to someone else, meaning that it had clear title for the car at some point after the OP bought it.  For this to make any sense at all the OP would have had to sign paperwork agreeing to sell the broken Zafira back to the garage.  Otherwise the garage would be on the hook for stealing the car, which hasn't been suggested. 
There's nowhere for this to go, legally speaking.  A seller can't sue a buyer for paying an agreed price for something at the point of sale if the seller later decides that the item was sold for too little.  Monies and goods have been exchanged, meaning the transaction has completed.  There's no loss here to put before a court.  

Hasbeen

[DELETED USER] said:

OP, ignore all the snarky comments. You bought the car, it wasn't fit for purpose and they couldn't fix it, it broke within the first month. You are entitled a refund. They may try to claim some mileage but on a car of that age it will be negligible.

I know it's difficult so maybe ask someone to help you, but the next step is to send them a Letter Before Action. Don't worry, you don't have to go to court if you don't want to, although as a last resort Small Claims Court is very easy to do. Just send them something like this:

Dear XXX,

We purchased a Vauxhall Zafira on XX.XX.XXXX. It broke down on XX.XX.XXXX and you were unable to repair it. As you did not have any suitable replacement vehicles we asked for a refund and subsequently bought another car elsewhere. Please issue us a refund of £1,599 by XX.XX.XXXX (2 weeks hence) or we will proceed to Small Claims Court.

Regards,
OP


Send that and see what they do. You can just bluff and not go through with Small Claims Court, usually they just pay up when they see they are about to lose even more money.

Perhaps?

But the Op states " I constantly checked new cars they had online and on 1st December 19, I arrived and said I wanted the car I’d seen online. The intent was to sell this car to recoup some of my losses. As I had a new job, I used this car for work until end of January and at this stage have not been able to sell it."


So the Op received a replacement car from the dealer, used it and then tried to sell it. As they had already bought another Zafira to go to the airport.  Why would the dealer issue any refund?

Or am I missing something from somewhere in the OPs posts??

AdrianC

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

[DELETED USER] said:

OP, ignore all the snarky comments. You bought the car, it wasn't fit for purpose and they couldn't fix it, it broke within the first month. You are entitled a refund. They may try to claim some mileage but on a car of that age it will be negligible.

I know it's difficult so maybe ask someone to help you, but the next step is to send them a Letter Before Action. Don't worry, you don't have to go to court if you don't want to, although as a last resort Small Claims Court is very easy to do. Just send them something like this:

Dear XXX,

We purchased a Vauxhall Zafira on XX.XX.XXXX. It broke down on XX.XX.XXXX and you were unable to repair it. As you did not have any suitable replacement vehicles we asked for a refund and subsequently bought another car elsewhere. Please issue us a refund of £1,599 by XX.XX.XXXX (2 weeks hence) or we will proceed to Small Claims Court.

Regards,
OP


Send that and see what they do. You can just bluff and not go through with Small Claims Court, usually they just pay up when they see they are about to lose even more money.

The issue here is, on close reading of the circumstances and filling in the missing bits, that the OP no longer owns the broken Zafira.  At some point it's been given back to the garage, presumably in exchange for consideration of some sort.  A figure of £500 has been mentioned, although it's not clear whether this was the amount paid.  The garage has also, apparently, sold the same Zafira to someone else, meaning that it had clear title for the car at some point after the OP bought it.  For this to make any sense at all the OP would have had to sign paperwork agreeing to sell the broken Zafira back to the garage.  Otherwise the garage would be on the hook for stealing the car, which hasn't been suggested. 
There's nowhere for this to go, legally speaking.  A seller can't sue a buyer for paying an agreed price for something at the point of sale if the seller later decides that the item was sold for too little.  Monies and goods have been exchanged, meaning the transaction has completed.  There's no loss here to put before a court. 

It's a bloody complicated situation... Let's go back to the start...

daydreamexpert said:

Hi everyone,

I bought a Zafira in February 2019, it broke down (all electrics died) in beginning of March 19. It started again after 19 hours and the dealer couldn’t find what was wrong. 2 weeks later it did it again, this time it didn’t restart.

After about a month of driving a courtesy car while they looked at it, they said it was no good due to the ECU being fried and that we could exchange for another car with our car cost coming off the sticker price of another. We have 3 kids in car seats, and they had nothing we could use as a family, so we waited hoping to get something else in. 

We had a holiday booked end of May, and needed a car for the airport, so we bought another Zafira. We told the dealer we wanted our money back as the car was not fit for purpose and they said they would get back to us. After our holiday, we contacted them and they offered us £500 for the car (we paid £1599). We told them this was unacceptable as it broke down within a month of having it and that we were entitled to a full refund. We even said we would take £1300 just to be done.

The dealer was always ‘going to get back to me’ and as I suffer from severe anxiety and panic disorder, chasing them up isn’t the easiest for me. Of course they took advantage of the situation and just let it go. I constantly checked new cars they had online and on 1st December 19, I arrived and said I wanted the car I’d seen online. The intent was to sell this car to recoup some of my losses. As I had a new job, I used this car for work until end of January and at this stage have not been able to sell it.

Today, after picking my son up from school, I was passed by my old Zafira, the one that was too expensive to repair according to the dealer. Is it legal for them to say they can’t repair my car and then fix it and sell it after I have a new one? This doesn’t seem right at all, especially since if they had repaired it I wouldn’t be out and £2500 since then.

Would really appreciate any advise on whether the dealer is allowed to do this.

So cutting through all the verbiage, let's draw up a timeline...
  
1. Feb 19 - bought Zafira, £1,599.
2. Early March - broke down, returned to vendor. Started, no fault diagnosed, returned.
3. Two weeks later - broke down again, returned to vendor, given courtesy car.
4. Month later (late April?) - exchange offered, OP chose to wait for something suitable to come into stock.
5. End May - OP bought car elsewhere, requested refund.
6. Return from holiday - vendor offered £500. OP refused, counter-offered £1,300. Vendor presumably refused.
7. December - exchange agreed on car being advertised by vendor.

So, no, there's nothing left against the vendor.

The vendor agreed they were liable for the issue, and the Zafira was exchanged for a mutually-acceptable alternative, albeit after a very extended period of time caused in part by the OP not wanting any of the cars the vendor had in stock.
The OP hasn't mentioned any issue with that car - apart from they haven't been able to sell it on...

The OP's main beef appears to be that the Zafira wasn't weighed in, but was sold on and fixed by somebody at some point in time between April 2019 and this week...

Aretnap

[DELETED USER] said:

OP, ignore all the snarky comments. You bought the car, it wasn't fit for purpose and they couldn't fix it, it broke within the first month. You are entitled a refund. They may try to claim some mileage but on a car of that age it will be negligible.

The OP was indeed entitled to a refund. The problem is that by my reading of her (slightly unclear) post she accepted an alternative settlement involving some sort of exchange for another car from the same dealer. If the OP did indeed agree to this then the matter is closed - unless the replacement car turns out to be a dud as well there is nowhere left to go. Perhaps the exchange was a poor deal and she should have pressed harder for a refund at the time - but it's too late to do anything about that now.

AdrianC

Aretnap said:
unless the replacement car turns out to be a dud as well there is nowhere left to go

Given that the OP appears to have had the replacement since January - six months - then I don't think there's any realistic comeback against what is effectively a £1,600 car, even if it explodes tomorrow.

When you take into account that the contract was formed in February last year...

Ditzy_Mitzy

AdrianC said:

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

[DELETED USER] said:

OP, ignore all the snarky comments. You bought the car, it wasn't fit for purpose and they couldn't fix it, it broke within the first month. You are entitled a refund. They may try to claim some mileage but on a car of that age it will be negligible.

I know it's difficult so maybe ask someone to help you, but the next step is to send them a Letter Before Action. Don't worry, you don't have to go to court if you don't want to, although as a last resort Small Claims Court is very easy to do. Just send them something like this:

Dear XXX,

We purchased a Vauxhall Zafira on XX.XX.XXXX. It broke down on XX.XX.XXXX and you were unable to repair it. As you did not have any suitable replacement vehicles we asked for a refund and subsequently bought another car elsewhere. Please issue us a refund of £1,599 by XX.XX.XXXX (2 weeks hence) or we will proceed to Small Claims Court.

Regards,
OP


Send that and see what they do. You can just bluff and not go through with Small Claims Court, usually they just pay up when they see they are about to lose even more money.

The issue here is, on close reading of the circumstances and filling in the missing bits, that the OP no longer owns the broken Zafira.  At some point it's been given back to the garage, presumably in exchange for consideration of some sort.  A figure of £500 has been mentioned, although it's not clear whether this was the amount paid.  The garage has also, apparently, sold the same Zafira to someone else, meaning that it had clear title for the car at some point after the OP bought it.  For this to make any sense at all the OP would have had to sign paperwork agreeing to sell the broken Zafira back to the garage.  Otherwise the garage would be on the hook for stealing the car, which hasn't been suggested. 
There's nowhere for this to go, legally speaking.  A seller can't sue a buyer for paying an agreed price for something at the point of sale if the seller later decides that the item was sold for too little.  Monies and goods have been exchanged, meaning the transaction has completed.  There's no loss here to put before a court. 

It's a bloody complicated situation... Let's go back to the start...

daydreamexpert said:

Hi everyone,

I bought a Zafira in February 2019, it broke down (all electrics died) in beginning of March 19. It started again after 19 hours and the dealer couldn’t find what was wrong. 2 weeks later it did it again, this time it didn’t restart.

After about a month of driving a courtesy car while they looked at it, they said it was no good due to the ECU being fried and that we could exchange for another car with our car cost coming off the sticker price of another. We have 3 kids in car seats, and they had nothing we could use as a family, so we waited hoping to get something else in. 

We had a holiday booked end of May, and needed a car for the airport, so we bought another Zafira. We told the dealer we wanted our money back as the car was not fit for purpose and they said they would get back to us. After our holiday, we contacted them and they offered us £500 for the car (we paid £1599). We told them this was unacceptable as it broke down within a month of having it and that we were entitled to a full refund. We even said we would take £1300 just to be done.

The dealer was always ‘going to get back to me’ and as I suffer from severe anxiety and panic disorder, chasing them up isn’t the easiest for me. Of course they took advantage of the situation and just let it go. I constantly checked new cars they had online and on 1st December 19, I arrived and said I wanted the car I’d seen online. The intent was to sell this car to recoup some of my losses. As I had a new job, I used this car for work until end of January and at this stage have not been able to sell it.

Today, after picking my son up from school, I was passed by my old Zafira, the one that was too expensive to repair according to the dealer. Is it legal for them to say they can’t repair my car and then fix it and sell it after I have a new one? This doesn’t seem right at all, especially since if they had repaired it I wouldn’t be out and £2500 since then.

Would really appreciate any advise on whether the dealer is allowed to do this.

So cutting through all the verbiage, let's draw up a timeline...
  
1. Feb 19 - bought Zafira, £1,599.
2. Early March - broke down, returned to vendor. Started, no fault diagnosed, returned.
3. Two weeks later - broke down again, returned to vendor, given courtesy car.
4. Month later (late April?) - exchange offered, OP chose to wait for something suitable to come into stock.
5. End May - OP bought car elsewhere, requested refund.
6. Return from holiday - vendor offered £500. OP refused, counter-offered £1,300. Vendor presumably refused.
7. December - exchange agreed on car being advertised by vendor.

So, no, there's nothing left against the vendor.

The vendor agreed they were liable for the issue, and the Zafira was exchanged for a mutually-acceptable alternative, albeit after a very extended period of time caused in part by the OP not wanting any of the cars the vendor had in stock.
The OP hasn't mentioned any issue with that car - apart from they haven't been able to sell it on...

The OP's main beef appears to be that the Zafira wasn't weighed in, but was sold on and fixed by somebody at some point in time between April 2019 and this week...

Thank you - that really clears it up and covers what I missed! 

Ditzy_Mitzy

AdrianC said:

Aretnap said:
unless the replacement car turns out to be a dud as well there is nowhere left to go

Given that the OP appears to have had the replacement since January - six months - then I don't think there's any realistic comeback against what is effectively a £1,600 car, even if it explodes tomorrow.

When you take into account that the contract was formed in February last year...

In addition, we don't know how much the new car taken in exchange for the broken Zafira is worth.  It could be equivalent to, or greater than, the old one's worth if it was fully functioning.  It may be that the OP has got a better car as a result of this.  The purchase of the other car, the interim banger, would not be relevant - it's not the garage's fault this car was bought and is now proving difficult to sell. 

AdrianC

Ditzy_Mitzy said:
The purchase of the other car, the interim banger, would not be relevant - it's not the garage's fault this car was bought and is now proving difficult to sell. 

I read it as the OP wants to keep the bought-elsewhere £900 Zafira, and only did the exchange so they could then sell on the exchanged car - which is the one they can't sell.

Either way, it's academic. The vendor's responsibility ceased with the exchange, whatever the OP's motives.