Car sold WITHOUT Catalytic Convertor - what rights after 18 months?

MKPhil

On 24th August 2019 we bought a 2004 Honda Jazz for £900 (sticker price was £990) from a User Car Dealer.  At the time I noted that the Engine Management light was on and drew this to the attention of the dealer.  He explained it was probably a faulty sensor.  The car came with an MOT dated 15th July 2019 from a different garage.   When we bought the car, we test drove it and popped the bonnet and had a good look round but didn't notice anything untoward.  We didn't get a professional inspection done as it was only a £900 value.

Later I ran some diagnostics software (connecting to the car via the ODBII port) and discovered two fault codes related to the Oxygen Sensors.  I made a note to get this looked at later. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible due to Coronavirus.

Today (12th January 2021) we took the car for a new MOT (having had a 6-month extension due to Coronavirus last year) and our Garage discovered the reason for the Engine Management Light - the Catalytic Convertor was missing - a piece of plain pipe had been put in it's place and the Oxygen Sensors were just loose in the engine bay.  We haven't had change made, nor would I expect a thief to spend the time to replace the Cat with a pipe and zip-tie the O2 sensors out of the way.  Therefore it is our conclusion this fault was present at the point of sale.

What rights do we have in this situation?  We have arranged to get the car fixed (at a cost of around £350) by our Garage as this work is required to get it to pass it's MOT and we need the car road-legal as soon as possible (according to some sources the car might be worth more than we paid for it once fixed! Go figure!).  Can we ask the User Car Dealer who sold us the car to cover the cost of this repair?  

Grumpy_chap

You probably have very few - no rights here.

The fault was present at the time of purchase, but you identified that from the EML illuminated, so can hardly say it was entirely congealed by the vendor.

You purchased the car in August 2019, but say you could not investigate the faults because of COVID.  The very earliest coronavirus developed as an issue was January 2020 (5 months after purchase) in China and the first lockdown did not come until another 3 months later.  Pinning this one on COVID seems like a complete non-starter.

After 18 months, the hassle of trying to claim any of this back of the dealer really is probably not worth it.

You paid £900 for a car that is now 17 yo and you've had 18 months trouble free from it.  That car owes you nothing.  Either scrap it or repair it, your choice.  If you know the car works and runs well, then repair at £350 is sensible as it will get you another's year of cheap motoring.  If you don't fix this car, then going after another car at similar price-point may get you into a less reliable position than you currently are.  Don't count on the car being sellable at more than £900 though.

If it were a newer car, I might be of a different view, but for £900 you've done well.  Just keep moving forwards.

Aylesbury_Duck

I agree.  I can't see you'll get anywhere this far down the line on what is a banger.  No offence intended, by the way, I practise bangernomics myself.

Tokmon

MKPhil said:

On 24th August 2019 we bought a 2004 Honda Jazz for £900 (sticker price was £990) from a User Car Dealer.  At the time I noted that the Engine Management light was on and drew this to the attention of the dealer.  He explained it was probably a faulty sensor.  The car came with an MOT dated 15th July 2019 from a different garage.   When we bought the car, we test drove it and popped the bonnet and had a good look round but didn't notice anything untoward.  We didn't get a professional inspection done as it was only a £900 value.

Later I ran some diagnostics software (connecting to the car via the ODBII port) and discovered two fault codes related to the Oxygen Sensors.  I made a note to get this looked at later. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible due to Coronavirus.

Today (12th January 2021) we took the car for a new MOT (having had a 6-month extension due to Coronavirus last year) and our Garage discovered the reason for the Engine Management Light - the Catalytic Convertor was missing - a piece of plain pipe had been put in it's place and the Oxygen Sensors were just loose in the engine bay.  We haven't had change made, nor would I expect a thief to spend the time to replace the Cat with a pipe and zip-tie the O2 sensors out of the way.  Therefore it is our conclusion this fault was present at the point of sale.

What rights do we have in this situation?  We have arranged to get the car fixed (at a cost of around £350) by our Garage as this work is required to get it to pass it's MOT and we need the car road-legal as soon as possible (according to some sources the car might be worth more than we paid for it once fixed! Go figure!).  Can we ask the User Car Dealer who sold us the car to cover the cost of this repair?  

People seem to be blaming everything on Coronavirus these days! So how did Covid make it not possible to get it looked at when garages have never been required to close?
You could have also quite easily looked at this yourself once you saw the problem was with the oxygen sensor.

mattyprice4004

None, how will you possibly prove it wasn't you that removed it?
There's been plenty of chance since August 2019 to have this checked out, even since 1st lockdown when we were all enjoying 2 for 1 meals etc - you've left it far too late.