Aircon fails in four year old car days after purchase

Ibrahim5

A corgi registered engineer condemned my boiler 15 years ago due to a leaking heat exchanger. Wanted £2k for a new boiler. I took a look and could see a leak from the connection to the heat exchanger. 99p PTFE tape fixed it and it's still working fine. You need to know exactly where the leak is. It's possible that it could be leaking from somewhere that is cheap to fix.

born_again

LarryLancaster said:

Update after speaking to the dealer who I bought the car from. He told me I had bought a four year old car that he had sold "as seen" (that was never claimed at the time) and that his responsibility to me stopped the day I bought it. He says he will not pay a penny to repair the aircon even though he admitted to knowing it had had to be regassed before selling it to me.  He will still try to persuade the warranty company to make a goodwill gesture though I'd have to pay towards that and the fault appears to be outside their Ts and Cs. Or he'll take the car back and refund me minus a (no doubt hefty) depreciation cost. Which I don't want to do as I otherwise like the car. Besides, I thought that I had the right to insist that the dealer fixes a fault that presents on a car within 30 days of purchase?

Why is it so hard to buy a fairly new car that fully works?

Letter before action, if does not resolve, then off to court. 👍

LarryLancaster

As the dealer refuses to budge on helping me, I have asked the garage where the car is to see if they can first try to fix the leak without needing a new pump. I will obviously have to pay for that and ask the dealer to contribute, but I need the car back. If it doesn't work then its more money wasted and a new pump and another regas. I have given the dealer every chance to repair at his cost but he says he is under no obligation to do so and will not pay a penny now the car is mine as that is what warranties are for - except when they don't help either.

I don't really want to exercise my right to reject the car; I have had it now four months and although it has been little used in that time, I can envisage being refunded a fraction of what I paid based on the dealer'sattitude so far, so I'd lose even more that way than the cost of any repairs. And its spec is popular, what I needed and quite hard to find.

Where do I go from here?

Herzlos

LarryLancaster said:

Besides, I thought that I had the right to insist that the dealer fixes a fault that presents on a car within 30 days of purchase?

You do, or at least get a refund on it. However, your legal right and practice are completely different things. Given he knew it was dodgy before selling it, I assume you're going to have to fight him the whole way.

You can always see how much he'll offer you for depreciation before sticking it into auction and decide if it's worth taking the money and walking away, just fixing the car, or trying to get the money back from him via the courts (which could take months even if he doesn't just phoenix)

macman

You really need to remind the dealer that no warranty from a third party removes or reduces your considerable rights under CRA 2015. As advised above, your remedy is an LBA, then small claims process.
Unfortunately, by taking it to a third party garage for assessment/repair first, you've greatly complicated your case.

Herzlos

macman said:

Unfortunately, by taking it to a third party garage for assessment/repair first, you've greatly complicated your case.

I dunno, normally I'd agree but in this instance it's the 3rd party garage that can prove the dealer knew about the fault before selling.

LarryLancaster

macman said:

You really need to remind the dealer that no warranty from a third party removes or reduces your considerable rights under CRA 2015. As advised above, your remedy is an LBA, then small claims process.
Unfortunately, by taking it to a third party garage for assessment/repair first, you've greatly complicated your case.

How have I complicated things? I did that precisely because the dealer told me to. Specifically, he told me that I needed to claim under warranty since he had himself paid a lot of money (in his words) to provide me with a good warranty that included air conditioning.....

The warranty company required me to take the car to a garage to get the problem diagnosed, at my expense. so I did. It's been sitting in the garage, aircon disassembled to find the fault now for nearly a month whilst I have been passed from pillar to post by the dealer and the warranty company.

The garage tried this morning to fix the seal without needing a new pump but were unable to, so I have to get a new pump after all. They will fit an OEM which is cheaper than the VW branded pump but it will still leave me with a very hefty bill in the end. Taking the car back without the repair isn't possible as everything has been stripped down to diagnose, as per instruction of dealer to claim on the warranty. I'd be committing to even more expense, wasted time and a non-functioning aircon system if I asked them to put things back sufficiently to make the car driveable whilst I tried to persuade the dealer to fix the problem, knowing full well that he will not.

I presume I now have to send the dealer the bill and wait for him to confirm that he won't pay before going any further?

Herzlos

LarryLancaster said:

macman said:

You really need to remind the dealer that no warranty from a third party removes or reduces your considerable rights under CRA 2015. As advised above, your remedy is an LBA, then small claims process.
Unfortunately, by taking it to a third party garage for assessment/repair first, you've greatly complicated your case.

How have I complicated things? I did that precisely because the dealer told me to. Specifically, he told me that I needed to claim under warranty since he had himself paid a lot of money (in his words) to provide me with a good warranty that included air conditioning.....

It's a standard out for the dodgy dealer of "Maybe the fault was caused by the other guy", but I don't think it applies here.

I presume I now have to send the dealer the bill and wait for him to confirm that he won't pay before going any further?

Pretty much. You're not going to get him to fix it so I'd just it repaired with the OEM part and at least get the car back, then you can decide how much time you want to waste chasing up the dealer for the money.

sheramber

Our  air con pump failed completely. The warranty company denied liability as they didn't cover wear and tear, only 'catastrophic failure'. Apparently , a broken pump is not catastrophic failure.

The dealer we bought from fitted a new pump and told us they would fight it out with the warranty company. The girl mentioned she was quite used to fighting with them for payment.

macman

LarryLancaster said:

macman said:

You really need to remind the dealer that no warranty from a third party removes or reduces your considerable rights under CRA 2015. As advised above, your remedy is an LBA, then small claims process.
Unfortunately, by taking it to a third party garage for assessment/repair first, you've greatly complicated your case.

How have I complicated things? I did that precisely because the dealer told me to. Specifically, he told me that I needed to claim under warranty since he had himself paid a lot of money (in his words) to provide me with a good warranty that included air conditioning.....

The warranty company required me to take the car to a garage to get the problem diagnosed, at my expense. so I did. It's been sitting in the garage, aircon disassembled to find the fault now for nearly a month whilst I have been passed from pillar to post by the dealer and the warranty company.

The garage tried this morning to fix the seal without needing a new pump but were unable to, so I have to get a new pump after all. They will fit an OEM which is cheaper than the VW branded pump but it will still leave me with a very hefty bill in the end. Taking the car back without the repair isn't possible as everything has been stripped down to diagnose, as per instruction of dealer to claim on the warranty. I'd be committing to even more expense, wasted time and a non-functioning aircon system if I asked them to put things back sufficiently to make the car driveable whilst I tried to persuade the dealer to fix the problem, knowing full well that he will not.

I presume I now have to send the dealer the bill and wait for him to confirm that he won't pay before going any further?

Which is complete nonsense, and he knows it. Him purchasing a warranty, good or bad, does not remove your statutory rights. These 3rd party warranties always exclude virtually any wear and tear item, they are purely marketing gimmicks. 
Liability remains with him under CRA 2015, as I pointed out before.