Car needs 2nd repair within 6 months from purchase

Roxy2018

Bought a 2012 Evoque, 82,000 miles, in May which flashed a Gearbox fault on the dash mid July. Got the car back to the dealer as requested who then had the car for 3 weeks trying to repair it. Eventually it got dropped off at Land Rover who did a wire repair on the control unit but another 2 months down the line, the same issue appeared. Another trip to Land Rover later and they confirmed the car would have to have more work done to it but not related to the previous repair. Now the dealer is stating their 3 month warranty has lapsed and they won’t pay for any further repairs. Spoke to Citizens Advice who said they should offer to repair the car since it’s been less than 6 months or I can ask for a refund. I opted for a refund and sent a letter asking for their final response within 7 days but guess what, haven’t heard anything for 3 weeks! What do I do now?

jimjames

What they should do and what they will actually do are likely to be very different things. It's a 9 year old car so I think you're unlikely to get a refund after 6 months for a fault so "opting for a refund" isn't really an option. Depending what sort of dealer it is will make a difference but for a 9 yo car I assume it's not a main dealer but smaller trader. The dealer may just ignore you in which case you'd need to take legal action against them to recover your costs but only you can decide if that's worth the effort. The dealer may just shut up shop and start trading under a different name if they have no intention of fixing it.

Roxy2018

Surely they have some obligations, right? It’s a relatively big 2nd hand car dealer with around 150 cars for sale at the moment. They said immediately that they won’t pay for further repairs but I don’t see how they can do that, from a legal point of view I mean. 

Jenni_D

Have you stopped driving the car? (You must do so if you wish to reject it, other than returning it to the seller's premises and leaving them the keys etc.). The Consumer Rights Act 2015 mandates that a seller is allowed a single repair attempt when goods fail to conform to contract*. If the goods subsequently fail again (for any reason, not just the same reason) then the consumer can exercise their Final Right To Reject the goods for a refund. Within the first 6 months any refund would normally be 100%, but there's leeway for vehicle sales for the amount of refund to be reduced based on the number of miles added during the consumer's ownership. (if you've added 500 miles to a vehicle with 82k miles then the difference in value would be negligible).

How did you pay for the car? Any form of finance? (Credit card counts as finance).

* Such failures taking account of the nature, age and condition of the goods.

tacpot12

Roxy2018 said:

Surely they have some obligations, right? It’s a relatively big 2nd hand car dealer with around 150 cars for sale at the moment. They said immediately that they won’t pay for further repairs but I don’t see how they can do that, from a legal point of view I mean. 

Yes, they have obligations, but getting them to meet those obligations can quite hard. Car dealers live in the real world and sometimes customer sometime try it on.

If you have home insurance and have legal expenses cover, call the legal helpline for advice. You may find that they will review the letter you have written to see that it meets the requirements of a Letter Before Action, and if not, they may write a letter before action for you. If you don't have this insurance, you will need a solicitor who has some expertise in civil litigation. Most solicitors will give you 30 minutes of free 'advice', so take along (or email) your letter that you have sent to see if it meets the  requirements of a Letter Before Action, get their initial view on your chances of success, and  most importantly, ask them how much it will cost for them to help you with the case. Note that if you sit back and let them to all the work, you will not get much of a refund, it will all go on their legal bills. You have been warned - do most of the work yourself - use them to tell you the law that you need to know.  

To my mind the fault you describe is a significant one and should not appear on a nine year old car if was for sale at the price of a car without that fault. (If you got it for the price that the dealer would have got for it had they sold it with that fault, you would be on shakier ground.)

Roxy2018

Jenni_D said:

Have you stopped driving the car? (You must do so if you wish to reject it, other than returning it to the seller's premises and leaving them the keys etc.). The Consumer Rights Act 2015 mandates that a seller is allowed a single repair attempt when goods fail to conform to contract*. If the goods subsequently fail again (for any reason, not just the same reason) then the consumer can exercise their Final Right To Reject the goods for a refund. Within the first 6 months any refund would normally be 100%, but there's leeway for vehicle sales for the amount of refund to be reduced based on the number of miles added during the consumer's ownership. (if you've added 500 miles to a vehicle with 82k miles then the difference in value would be negligible).

How did you pay for the car? Any form of finance? (Credit card counts as finance).

* Such failures taking account of the nature, age and condition of the goods.

I have stopped driving the car and I’ve sent them a letter stating exactly what you’ve said. I’ve asked for a refund because they were an absolute pain in the a@#e to deal with back in July. I paid the deposit on a credit card and the rest in cash.

Roxy2018

tacpot12 said:

Roxy2018 said:

Surely they have some obligations, right? It’s a relatively big 2nd hand car dealer with around 150 cars for sale at the moment. They said immediately that they won’t pay for further repairs but I don’t see how they can do that, from a legal point of view I mean. 

Yes, they have obligations, but getting them to meet those obligations can quite hard. Car dealers live in the real world and sometimes customer sometime try it on.

If you have home insurance and have legal expenses cover, call the legal helpline for advice. You may find that they will review the letter you have written to see that it meets the requirements of a Letter Before Action, and if not, they may write a letter before action for you. If you don't have this insurance, you will need a solicitor who has some expertise in civil litigation. Most solicitors will give you 30 minutes of free 'advice', so take along (or email) your letter that you have sent to see if it meets the  requirements of a Letter Before Action, get their initial view on your chances of success, and  most importantly, ask them how much it will cost for them to help you with the case. Note that if you sit back and let them to all the work, you will not get much of a refund, it will all go on their legal bills. You have been warned - do most of the work yourself - use them to tell you the law that you need to know.  

To my mind the fault you describe is a significant one and should not appear on a nine year old car if was for sale at the price of a car without that fault. (If you got it for the price that the dealer would have got for it had they sold it with that fault, you would be on shakier ground.)

I don’t expect it to be a walk in the park but it’s been incredibly frustrating so far! I paid market value for the car so the price didn’t raise any suspicions. I contacted the Motor Ombudsman and this dealer isn’t registered with them so they can’t help either.

Funnily enough they were very quick at responding to the reviews I left this morning absolutely slating my decision to buy this car and that I should’ve expected to have issues with it because it’s “old and high mileage”. 2012 Range Rover old?! 82,000 miles on the clock and that should justify a gearbox failure?!

Off to check my home insurance policy…

Jenni_D

As you paid the deposit using a CC then the whole transaction is covered by Section 75 protection (assuming the total amount paid was less than £30k). If the seller won't communicate then raise a S75 claim with the CC provider.

Roxy2018

Jenni_D said:

As you paid the deposit using a CC then the whole transaction is covered by Section 75 protection (assuming the total amount paid was less than £30k). If the seller won't communicate then raise a S75 claim with the CC provider.

Thanks Jenni, I’ll look into that!

Ectophile

It's old-ish.  And it's an Evoque, so it's bound to go wrong from time to time.

Not that the above has anything to do with your consumer rights.  But it's worth looking around to find a local Land Rover specialist, because you are likely to need them.

Roxy2018

Ectophile said:

It's old-ish.  And it's an Evoque, so it's bound to go wrong from time to time.

Not that the above has anything to do with your consumer rights.  But it's worth looking around to find a local Land Rover specialist, because you are likely to need them.

Which I fully accept! I know it’s not brand new or even new so things are more likely to go wrong, what I won’t accept is the ignorance of the dealer and how they quite frankly have just fobbed me off