Faults on used car bought from dealer - how much of the responsibility lies with the dealer to fix?

KeysMcK

Hi all,

My car was stolen and written off a few weeks ago so when insurance paid out I decided that I would use a chunk of the money I got back to pay off debts, add to savings etc, and just buy a relatively cheap used car instead. I’ve ended up paying £3000 for a 14 year old car with 2 previous owners and “full service history” from a local dealer on Autotrader. 

On viewing I noticed the full service history had a 30k 5 year gap in it, and I did question them over how the brakes felt on the test drive but they assured me they were fine. Over all I was desperate to get back on the road, it had enough receipts and was tidy enough for me to take a punt, especially given it came with 6 month 3rd party warranty. 

Driving home I noticed a few problems. A rattling from the engine bay. A knocking over bumps, the brakes were still singing with a slight stutter, and the car thought it was -40 degrees outside. 

The rattle I have narrowed down to the engine plastics not being bolted back in so they’re loose, a few quid to fix. The knocking is down to both of the air box mounts having snapped so it’s loose and ‘donk’ing against the car over bumps. The brakes seem to be sticky and the front brake disks are damaged (on closer inspection the passengers side front looks a bit like a vinyl LP!) The ambient temp sensor showing -40 seems to be due to the plug being replaced by 2 spade connectors which just aren’t doing their jobs. 

Now I know I have the CRA giving me 30 days to reject the car, but I do quite like it aside from the niggles so I would rather keep it. That said I don’t really want to spend my own money fixing undeclared problems that came with the car. My question is how many of these problems should I expect the dealer to rectify, given it was a relatively cheap car? Is it unreasonable to expect a new set of front pads&disks, an air box, some clips and a bit of electrical work to be done?

Thanks in advance! 

bris

Take it back and get them to fix it.

You do however have to remember used cars come with wear and tear built into the deal, a 14 year old motor will have a lot of wear and tear. The law takes age and mileage into consideration when buying a used car.

A proper test drive would have picked this up, did you just drive round the block or something?

KeysMcK

bris said:

Take it back and get them to fix it.

You do however have to remember used cars come with wear and tear built into the deal, a 14 year old motor will have a lot of wear and tear. The law takes age and mileage into consideration when buying a used car.

A proper test drive would have picked this up, did you just drive round the block or something?

Yeah just around the block. It was nearly out of petrol so I was pretty reluctant to push it. Live and learn! 

From what I’ve read so far, old car wear and tear aside gouged discs must surely be enough to trigger my right to return for a full refund under the CRA? 

I’m actually on holiday from tomorrow until the 26th so the earliest I could bring it back to them would be 27th (15 days from purchase). I’ve been in touch and engaged via phone and text with them though. I’ve said I could have someone else drop the car with them too if needs be.

born_again

Did it come with 12 months MOT? Any advisory's on it?

Maybe check the MOT history..
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

KeysMcK

born_again said:

Did it come with 12 months MOT? Any advisory's on it?

Maybe check the MOT history..
https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

Not 12 months only 6 left as car was taken in PX by them. Advisory from last MOT was a slight blowing exhaust but there’s a receipt for a whole new exhaust so that’s sorted. 

HPI clear, no salvage or auction history, 1 previous owner on the log book (so I’m #3) and the owners had it for 8 and 5 years respectively.

biscan25

IMO the only thing I'd be pushing for is the brakes, as the remainder are just small things that you might expect with an older car.
The brakes are a roadworthiness issue. As you like the car and it seems you have dodged a lemon, I'd just push for them to either replace the disc/pads themselves, or for the cost of fixing yourself at a garage/DIY if you are handy.
The previous owners must have looked after the car reasonably well; for example to fix a blowing exhaust by replacing it is probably overkill.

KeysMcK

biscan25 said:

IMO the only thing I'd be pushing for is the brakes, as the remainder are just small things that you might expect with an older car.
The brakes are a roadworthiness issue. As you like the car and it seems you have dodged a lemon, I'd just push for them to either replace the disc/pads themselves, or for the cost of fixing yourself at a garage/DIY if you are handy.
The previous owners must have looked after the car reasonably well; for example to fix a blowing exhaust by replacing it is probably overkill.

Thanks! I agree. That said, the dealer keeps referencing the airbox and the engine plastic pins (which are things I can easily do myself) and hasn’t mentioned the brakes at all. 

This morning en route to the airport I sat in the back while our neighbour drove the car (easier than getting a taxi!) and there was definitely knocking in the rear suspension. 

Brakes and suspension I really want fixing as they’re expensive and like you said it’s a roadworthiness issue. 

I am a little concerned it may have been in a collision. The airbox being broken from both mounts doesn’t fully make sense unless it’s had a knock, and the ambient temp sensor wire being snapped often means the front bumper has been removed.  That said, vcheck comes back clean so it could be innocent.

born_again

New disks & pads should be  a cheap fix. if they are that badly >>Front brake disks are damaged (on closer inspection the passengers side front looks a bit like a vinyl LP!)<<
Can't really be that bad or it would have come up as a advisory on the last MOT. Unless it has done thousands of miles since.

Banging from rear could be exhaust that is not seated correctly and hitting underside of car.

KeysMcK

OK - the dealer asked me to take it to their chosen garage and they had a look around.

- The good news is they have confirmed the banging from the rear is the exhaust. The recently fitted new exhaust is aftermarket (I wasn't aware) that is made for the car but doesn't fit too great. He thinks he could bend some metalwork to stop the clunking. 

- Brakes. He said both front and rear disks are degraded and rusted on the inside (rears are fairly new) so the car had probably been sat for a while before sale. His advice would be to change all four corners but has said that roadworthiness and MOT wise they would likely only be an advisory. He couldn't tell what was causing the sticking calliper on the front passenger but said the brakes are spongey so he'd like to bleed them, take them apart and just see what's sticking and fix/replace the issue. He was sceptical as to whether the dealer would be willing to do any or all of the above though due to cost. 

- Air box is broken, just needs a new one putting in. 

- Ambient temp sensor needs rewiring before he could say if the sensor was gone. This can be pretty expensive because the cables/plugs aren't made to be broken! 

It really comes down to whether the dealer would be willing to do any of this though. I've done 175 miles on the car so far so I'm reluctant to pay for these repairs myself. I will try my best to get some movement out of the dealer. I'd like to think that the above faults would cumulatively be more than enough to reject the car in the first 30 days under CRA though if worst comes to.