Car Faulty day 2 please help Refund!

afcafc

I bought a Volvo XC90 on the 29th September from an hour away. I got home and the vehicle is vibrating when in park slightly. When I put it in reverse it is heavily vibrating. I asked a mobile mechanic to check it out the same night and he also found the parking brake was not working as well as finding an oil leak on the engine. I paid via bank transfer and I have messaged the sales person asking for a full refund. Do i have a leg to stand on and what is the best way to get a full refund please? The car drove fine in D but it is for my wife and new born so concerned. I paid 5k and the car has 145k miles on the clock. Please help

afcafc

Im going to drop the car off to them tomorrow. Should I be doing this as I want to reject the car for a refund. Please advise as I want to do this asap as I am only on day 2. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ontheroad1970

At 5k it must be an old car, what's the year of manufacturer?

afcafc

ontheroad1970 said:

At 5k it must be an old car, what's the year of manufacturer?

It is a 2007 plate 

afcafc

Will the fact it is a 2007 plate affect .y ability to get a refund from the company?

[Deleted User]

Dump it on their forecourt. Tell them you want a refund, see what the response is.

Legally they can try to fix it instead, but obviously this time you are going to go over it with a fine tooth comb and check everything carefully for faults so a refund might be easier for them.

dogshome

It is an old car with miles on the clock, but the dealer still has to abide by the rules

The rule is that within the first 30 days from the date of the purchase, you can reject the car for faults and the dealer does not have the right to attempt repairs - After 30 days he does have the right to attempt repairs.

An inoperative Parking Brake is a serious fault, and the vibrating in park & reverse suggests the Auto box is on it's way out - very, very expensive to fix

Deliver the car back to the dealer with all it's keys and paperwork, and letter rejecting the car listing the faults.

Grumpy_chap

afcafc said:

I bought a Volvo XC90 on the 29th September from an hour away. I got home and the vehicle is vibrating when in park slightly. When I put it in reverse it is heavily vibrating. I asked a mobile mechanic to check it out the same night and he also found the parking brake was not working as well as finding an oil leak on the engine. I paid via bank transfer and I have messaged the sales person asking for a full refund. Do i have a leg to stand on and what is the best way to get a full refund please? The car drove fine in D but it is for my wife and new born so concerned. I paid 5k and the car has 145k miles on the clock. Please help

afcafc said:

ontheroad1970 said:

At 5k it must be an old car, what's the year of manufacturer?

It is a 2007 plate 

This is a 14 yo car with high mileage.

As the OP purchased from the forecourt, the CCR rules relating to remote purchases are certain not to apply.  Even if the OP thinks they did the remote purchase, the Dealer will almost certainly have had some paperwork signed on collection so it is not a remote purchase.  As such the options to return for any reason (or none) are not there.

The process for rejecting a car under short term right to reject is explained in the following article:
https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/rejecting-a-car/

It is important to note that the right to any kind of remedy is tempered by reasonable expectations taking into account the product purchased, including the age and condition of the product.  A car nearing the end of life cannot be expected to be as faultless as a car just driven brand new out of the showroom.  The older car will show some signs of wear and tear commensurate with age, and that will include deterioration of the functional parts.

The OP mentions some concerns:

• oil leak
• vibration 
• hand brake not holding as well as it might

Did the OP test drive the car and were any of these faults present on the test drive?  If so, it is hard to then use these items as reason to reject the car.  If there was no test driver, why not?

IMO, an oil leak and vibration on a car of this age is to be expected. That does depend, of course, on the magnitude of the leak and the vibration.  I assume this is a small oil leak and vibration is not so excessive that the OP noticed it until arriving home after the one-hour drive.  If the vibration was that bad, surely, the OP would not have made it off the forecourt.

Hand brake holding - it likely holds sufficiently to pass the MOT and could very well be a small adjustment of the cable that is required.

Was the car supplied with any warranty?  The Dealer may suggest claiming on the warranty and that may be a pragmatic way forward.

From what the OP has described, the concerns identified are not sufficiently bad given the age of the vehicle to warrant rejection.  Approaching the Dealer on that route may well be the easiest to way to get their back up and meet robust hostility.

A friendly conversation along the lines of "like the car, but there is a vibration that really concerns my wife - I'm sure it is nothing but she is a worrier at times, especially with the baby.  Is it possible you could quickly check this?  I also noticed that the hand brake does not have much 'travel' - can that be checked and adjusted also?" may well solicit a more co-operative response from the Dealer.

(I used the phrase "travel" in relation to the handbrake but realise that a car with electronic parking brake does not have "travel" in the same sense as a conventional handbrake.  I am really just not sure what the comparative term would be if the car is fitted with electronic parking brake.)

I'd probably ignore the oil leak entirely, assuming it is a small leak and not gushing everywhere, and just monitor the oil levels regularly to keep in check.  Is it engine oil or gear oil.

It may be inconvenient to take the car back, but it was choice to buy from an hour away, and an hour is really not that far to give the OP (and wife) peace-of-mind.

The time to check the car, or take the friend who is a mechanic, is at the viewing and not later that evening when arriving home.

Good luck OP, and keep us updated.

AdrianC

afcafc said:

Will the fact it is a 2007 plate affect .y ability to get a refund from the company?

Yes.

The same consumer rights legislation applies to a 14yo car (the age of the average car in the UK at scrapping) as to a new one... and that legislation tempers your comeback with reasonable expectations for used goods of that age/price/apparent condition.

The simple test is whether it would be reasonable to expect that fault to have developed if the vehicle wasn't newly-acquired, but had been in your ownership all along.

If you'd owned that car for 14 years and 145,000 miles, would it be reasonable to expect a minor vibration and a small oil leak to develop, and for the parking brake to not work? Yes, absolutely to be expected.

You'll need to get the handbrake working for the MOT. It's probably simply stuck through lack of use, since many drivers of automatics use P instead of the handbrake, having completely forgotten all they were taught when learning to drive...

afcafc

Hello guys, just to let you all know. I went today first thing in the morning and explained my concerns. I spoke to the manager and he was a great guy. They identified the issue and he also offered a full refund. He said he understood that how i felt and immediately transfered the money. I feel i have been very lucky. Lesson learnt. Will be going for a car with less than 100k miles and taking a mechanic to inspect 

Grumpy_chap

afcafc said:

Hello guys, just to let you all know. I went today first thing in the morning and explained my concerns. I spoke to the manager and he was a great guy. They identified the issue and he also offered a full refund. He said he understood that how i felt and immediately transfered the money. I feel i have been very lucky. Lesson learnt. Will be going for a car with less than 100k miles and taking a mechanic to inspect 

I am glad this worked out well for you.  Seems as though the polite, friendly, firm approach yielded positive outcome.