Used Car Purchase

Melday2002

Hi guys I hope you can help me.  We purchased a used car via the AA used car site in late December 2020 with a full 12 month MOT and 3 month warranty as standard.  The car was purchased for our 18 year old son to help with his car lessons and as a car to use when he passed his test.  Unfortunately Covid lockdown stopped all lessons and non essential journeys.  We where aware from the MOT of some advisories , that a tire was worn and would need replacing, subframe had some corrosion but not weakend, so we took to an engineer who found that the car should have never passed an MOT due to the chassis being so badly corroded that if it was involved in any form of accident however slight the car would have crumpled like a tin can, the breaks are all shot and the exhaust has been removed and re-soldered back onto the car.  The 3 month warranty finished at the end of March and as the car has only been used by myself for a few journeys to keep the battery charged we do not know where we stand, the car was also not local and delivered to us.  What are our rights? the car is an 08 plate Yaris with good mileage and a passed MOT history that was all ok, the advisories we could resolve quite easily but with the engineer telling us otherwise it sounds like we where sold a bodgit job!! Help and advice please and thank you.

The_Fat_Controller

You should have inspected those items that had advisories as soon as you received the car and challenged the seller straight away

Have you been in contact with the seller ?

AdrianC

13yo car, four months post-purchase...? Consumer rights are minimal, because reasonable expectations are minimal.

It's too late to appeal the MOT now. That's three months for corrosion-related issues.
https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/problems-with-your-test-result

The brakes are "shot", but I presume your test drive showed them to stop the car adequately? That's all the MOT tests. Discs, pads, shoes are all routine consumables, and dirt cheap on something like this.

The exhaust has been removed and welded? And...?

So it comes down to how bad this corrosion really is. The tester flagged the rear subframe. Your engineer's comments sound, frankly, a bit melodramatic unless they're being paraphrased.

tommyedinburgh

Melday2002 said:

Hi guys I hope you can help me.  We purchased a used car via the AA used car site in late December 2020 with a full 12 month MOT and 3 month warranty as standard.  The car was purchased for our 18 year old son to help with his car lessons and as a car to use when he passed his test.  Unfortunately Covid lockdown stopped all lessons and non essential journeys.  We where aware from the MOT of some advisories , that a tire was worn and would need replacing, subframe had some corrosion but not weakend, so we took to an engineer who found that the car should have never passed an MOT due to the chassis being so badly corroded that if it was involved in any form of accident however slight the car would have crumpled like a tin can, the breaks are all shot and the exhaust has been removed and re-soldered back onto the car.  The 3 month warranty finished at the end of March and as the car has only been used by myself for a few journeys to keep the battery charged we do not know where we stand, the car was also not local and delivered to us.  What are our rights? the car is an 08 plate Yaris with good mileage and a passed MOT history that was all ok, the advisories we could resolve quite easily but with the engineer telling us otherwise it sounds like we where sold a bodgit job!! Help and advice please and thank you.

I’d be putting this one down to experience. You won’t make the same mistake again and will take more responsibility for your purchase I’d imagine. 

daveyjp

Unfortunately corrosion is progressive.  There is a time when it isn't an issue, a time when its an advisory and a time when the car is scrap.

Between advisory and scrap can be very short.

My first car was 18 years old.  Passed an MOT about 6 months after I bought it with corrosion noted and told it didn't have long.  6 months later, after winter, I had it scrapped as the corrosion was too far gone.

justworriedabit

Did it come with the AA check record or is it a case of like many back street garages displaying the signs off AA/RAC warranty but you pay for it and get the report so it does not come automatically.
Thanks

born_again

>> we took to an engineer who found that the car should have never passed an MOT <<

Which was when?

If the car had been sat over winter & been driven a few times on gritted roads. Then it will not have helped any corrosion that was already present.

leonj

Some of the dodgiest garages near me have "AA approved cars", inspect protect etc., what does it even mean

AdrianC

leonj said:

Some of the dodgiest garages near me have "AA approved cars", inspect protect etc., what does it even mean

It means the garage have paid the AA for the rights to use their branding.
https://www.theaa.com/cars/approved-dealers-trade