Sufficient grounds to reject a car successfully? 7 August 2022 at 7:56PM in Motoring 6 replies 263 views

Theguywhovapes

Evening all

I purchased my first car recently after passing my test at the ripe old age of 30. I did a fair bit of research on what I wanted/needed and found a vauxhall astra k 2017 1.4 turbo. 37k miles, £9500. Went to the dealership (BMW as it was a trade in) checked the car over, had a test drive, was happy and agreed to purchase. Went home sorted finance through my bank. They paid it and I went to collect the following weekend at end of June.  All is well.

2 weeks pass, my wife is driving and she is struggling to get the car into gear. Managed to get it to a shopping park and car would not go into gear and clutch pedal stuck to the floor. Engine wouldn’t restart after pulling the pedal up manually as a sensor had gone. Breakdown came out and cleared the fault code to allow the engine to restart and get home. Advised to get hydraulics checked

I spoke to the dealer who told me to go through warranty. Warranty wouldn’t guarantee work as fault isn’t now there and code cleared. Dealer then told me to contact vauxhall directly. They advised there is a technical  service bulletin for this issue and my car had never had the remedial work.

I’ve begun the process to reject the car through finance company after weighing up getting it repaired or not. coming up to 4 weeks and still not had a case handler appointed. 

With the above issue, is it likely to be successful or have I not got a leg to stand on?

all views and opinions welcome 🙂

macman

Under CRA2015, you can reject it within 30 days if it's unfit for purpose, so it's not clear from your post if you have already rejected it or not. If not, you are out of time and must allow the dealer to repair or replace. If they refund, they can deduct for the mileage covered.
Up to 6 months, you do not have to prove a pre-existing fault.
If the warranty you refer to is a dealer supplied insurance based warranty, then these are invariably useless, as so many items are excluded-they're just a marketing tool.
The provision of a warranty does not remove your statutory tights under CRA2015, so enforce them. I'd start with a letter to the dealer principal, since this is a main dealer.

Theguywhovapes

macman said:

Under CRA2015, you can reject it within 30 days if it's unfit for purpose, so it's not clear from your post if you have already rejected it or not. If not, you are out of time and must allow the dealer to repair or replace. If they refund, they can deduct for the mileage covered.
Up to 6 months, you do not have to prove a pre-existing fault.
If the warranty you refer to is a dealer supplied insurance based warranty, then these are invariably useless, as so many items are excluded-they're just a marketing tool.
The provision of a warranty does not remove your statutory tights under CRA2015, so enforce them. I'd start with a letter to the dealer principal, since this is a main dealer.

Thanks for the reply.

sorry, to clarify yes I have rejected it on the 14th July through finance company as advised by citizens advice. I have sent my evidence to the finance company confirming the fault (breakdown report) and information on the TSB direct from vauxhall. 

Would the above fault be enough grounds? Having gone through old threads and seeing some of the outcomes it does make me think whether it’s enough or not.

macman

I don't understand your comment 'rejected it through the finance'. Your contract to purchase is with the dealer, the finance is entirely separate. If you have not rejected it in writing to the dealer then your 30 day window has now expired.
Since we don't know what the fault is, no one can answer your second question as to 'enough grounds', but if the situation is as above, it's academic now, as you no longer have the option to reject it. If the fault is an easy fix, then why not fix it?
I suggest you start engaging with the dealer on the basis of your statutory rights under CRA2015.
You may have been poorly advised by CAB, as they are well-meaning but are under-resourced.

Theguywhovapes

macman said:

I don't understand your comment 'rejected it through the finance'. Your contract to purchase is with the dealer, the finance is entirely separate. If you have not rejected it in writing to the dealer then your 30 day window has now expired.
Since we don't know what the fault is, no one can answer your second question as to 'enough grounds', but if the situation is as above, it's academic now, as you no longer have the option to reject it. If the fault is an easy fix, then why not fix it?
I suggest you start engaging with the dealer on the basis of your statutory rights under CRA2015.
You may have been poorly advised by CAB, as they are well-meaning but are under-resourced.

What I mean by rejected through finance is that citizens advice said ‘Don’t contact the dealer do it through the finance company as that is the way to do it’ It wasn’t the dealers in house finance it was an external one. Finance company said as much this morning the rejection can go through them as they own the car as it is hire purchase (should have clarified this sooner)

The issue as mentioned above was the car wouldn’t go into gear, clutch pedal was stuck to the floor and the engine wouldn’t restart as it didn’t recognise the clutch was depressed. This indicates an issue with the slave cylinder according to vauxhall.

I could get it fixed but as the fault occurred within the first 30 days I’d rather just get the refund.

macman

Slave cylinder fault is hardly terminal, why not just get it fixed under warranty or CRA2015 and save all the hassle?
I do not think the advice you have been given is correct. Yes, the finance company own the vehicle until the finance is paid, but the vendor was the dealer who sold you it, and that's who you need to reject it from (obviously informing the finance co. as well).
Hopefully others can offer some input on this.
I'm still puzzled by your reluctance to raise this further with the dealer.

Theguywhovapes

macman said:

Slave cylinder fault is hardly terminal, why not just get it fixed under warranty or CRA2015 and save all the hassle?
I do not think the advice you have been given is correct. Yes, the finance company own the vehicle until the finance is paid, but the vendor was the dealer who sold you it, and that's who you need to reject it from (obviously informing the finance co. as well).
Hopefully others can offer some input on this.
I'm still puzzled by your reluctance to raise this further with the dealer.

Thanks for the reply.

I did contact the dealer first mentioning about rejecting it for a refund and said that as I hadn’t done it in the first 14 days then it wouldn’t be possible. This was a red flag and led me to believe they wouldn’t entertain the idea. They knew my mechanical knowledge was non existent so banked on me not looking up consumer rights. 

Re repair. Warranty wouldn’t guarantee a fix even with the breakdown report. Basically being fobbed off in all directions.