Have I lost £10k on a duff car?

Big_dog

I know this topic has been covered before, but I wanted to ask a few things that could help me recover money paid out for a car that is clearly dangerous and seriously faulty.
My son saved and saved and at the age of 24 brought his dream car from a dealer on AutoTrader. The car was a 2010 model 5.2ltr S8 Audi (the one with the Lamborghini engine in it). Now for a junior chef, this was a remarkable achievement for him.
It was delivered one evening at the start of August and naturally he came home all excited and wanted to take his mother for a trip in his new car.I preferred not to go but saw them off in the car park, wich was just as well as I noticed engine fluid on the floor. It turns out that the brakes were leaking because the break pipes were corroded and also completely broken off the brake calipers. If I hadn't of stopped them, they would have died that night. I insisted it was taken to a garage the very next morning, but it didn't make it there as it broke down. The car was leaking oil and fuel and over heating. It was toed to a local garage and partly diagnosed. I say partly because they had to do emergency fire fighting procedure on the car as it nearly caught fire. From their initial finds we are looking at at least £5k to fix the worst of the problems as the manifold is completely smashed up inside, it looks like someone tried to fix it and breached fuel lines. The official Audi diagnostics wont even recognise the car or model and the car was given a brand new M.O.T the day it was sold by the dealer.
The cost of the car and several garages is now £10k and it hasn't move more than 3 miles and now immobile in a compound. The dealer said that the car was fine when he sold it, but the other garages disagree. The dealer has now started to ignore our phone calls and we are now wandering how we can recover the money. My son paid about £5k by bank transfer (his bank wont help him recover this), but I insisted that I paid £3k on my credit card and my son paid me back, which we did. I have the details of where the garage was that accepted the credit card payment, but they said that they didn't sell the car to us, they only took the money for a favour to the other garage.
My question is, who do we sue and how do we do it.
As the car was indeed a death trap, is there anyway we could involve VOSA.
Any help with this would be fantastic. My son has just experienced a breakdown as his life savings have all but gone... He's devastated.

LeafGreen

I'm sorry but I can't offer any advice about the main issue, which does sound very unfortunate, but I am curious as to why you would stop your son from driving the car one evening to prevent him and his mother from dying due to the defective brakes, yet insist he take it to a garage the very next morning?

The_Rainmaker

I think I'll follow granny's advice on this one and say nothing!

Car_54

Other advice may differ, but in your position I'd send letters before action to both garages.

I suspect section 75 protection may not apply, since the transaction wasn't between the garage and the cardholder.

AdrianC

Big_dog said:

It was delivered one evening at the start of August...
It turns out that the brakes were leaking because the break pipes were corroded
...
the car was given a brand new M.O.T the day it was sold by the dealer.
...
is there anyway we could involve VOSA.

Yes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complain-about-an-mot

A 10yo, <£10k "supercar" like that is always going to be an absolute moneypit to run. He bought at the bottom end of prices for those, and they were near-on a hundred grand new. Expectations should have been low...

Even so, he's clearly been tucked up like a kipper on a car that's probably best off being broken for parts. His best option is to remind the dealer about his right to a full refund within 30 days. If they don't play ball, leave it with them and launch a small claim for the purchase cost.

The good money he threw after bad on it is the price he's paid to learn this lesson. They are under no obligation to refund that.

TimSynths

Car is test driven, checks done, price agreed and dealer gets fresh MOT then within a few days its turned into a bucket of flaming nails. That is a run of bad luck. 

Mercdriver

TimSynths said:

Car is test driven, checks done, price agreed and dealer gets fresh MOT then within a few days its turned into a bucket of flaming nails. That is a run of bad luck. 

Bad Luck?  I'd call it dodgy shenanigans.  

Grumpy_chap

TimSynths said:

Car is test driven, checks done, price agreed and dealer gets fresh MOT then within a few days its turned into a bucket of flaming nails. That is a run of bad luck. 

The OP does not confirm whether or not there was a test drive.
There should always be a test drive.
Bet the insurance is not a dream on this type of vehicle for a 24-YO chef.

daveyjp

Replacing the manifold on this engine is almost routine maintenance and being a specialist engine its hugely expensive because its complicated.  Its also full of plastic engine components which go brittle over time.

Its why these cars end up at ten years old being sold by non specialist dealers to dreamy eyed buyers.

Scrapit

if a junior chef can afford it then they shouldn't want it. Its always gonna be a banger.

LudaMusser

I would speak to citizen’s advice first, I imagine this will be a case for a small claims court.