Dealer finds a fault after buying my car.

greyteam1959

ValerieC said:

Plot twist!

The dealer has said they are returning the car to me and expect me to pay their costs for transporting it.

This leads me to believe there is a fault, BUT, the car has been listed on Auto Trader for a couple of days, meaning they were intending to sell it on without fixing it.

I have told them I will take the car back, but I will not fund their failure to make a reasonable inspection of the car, ie, 10 minutes poking at it in the dark because they were 3 hours late, barely asking any questions, and not even taking it for a test drive.

The car was supposed to be back at my home 2 hours ago, still not here.

Val.

Stupid thing to do !!

maxmycardagain

ValerieC said:

Plot twist!

The dealer has said they are returning the car to me and expect me to pay their costs for transporting it.

This leads me to believe there is a fault, BUT, the car has been listed on Auto Trader for a couple of days, meaning they were intending to sell it on without fixing it.

I have told them I will take the car back, but I will not fund their failure to make a reasonable inspection of the car, ie, 10 minutes poking at it in the dark because they were 3 hours late, barely asking any questions, and not even taking it for a test drive.

The car was supposed to be back at my home 2 hours ago, still not here.

Val.

Baddest of bad news...

Any "fault" could be the dealers fault (did he pot hole it, run it out of fuel or nobble it)

It could come back as a non-runner...

No, dont do it

The_Fat_Controller

They could easily have attempted an unsuccessful repair and even taken and replaced other parts.

What exactly was the fault ?

Why on earth have you agreed to take it back ?

You are putting yourself in a very precarious position.

maxmycardagain

"This leads me to believe there is a fault, BUT, the car has been listed on Auto Trader for a couple of days, meaning they were intending to sell it on without fixing it."

your proof it was OK, print the advert off for any possible claim THOUGH there wouldnt be one

ring the advert, ask if the car is still for sale and in good order

theres just a chance he had a buyer who has backed out!

Aretnap

Bad idea to take it back, whether or not you pay the delivery costs.

Best case scenario 're allowing yourself to be bullied by a dealer who couldn't be bothered doing his due diligence.

Worst case scenario is it's an outright scam which goes something like this: Buy a car. Help yourself to some good/valuable parts. Replace them with broken/worn out parts. Terrify the seller into accepting it back with some blood curdling threats of legal action. The seller is left with a broken car; you have aquired some good parts essentially for free and can sell them on. If you're very lucky the seller might even agree to pay an inflated fee for the transportation costs.

Herzlos

I'd only take it back IF AND ONLY IF they take it to a garage of your choosing to confirm that nothing has been tampered with.

Like I said earlier, it's not unheard of for someone with a broken part to buy a car, swap out the part and then try to return it.
If the faulty part then starts to give you problems, they'll claim that it's why they returned it. An inspection might show that stuff has been removed recently.

Do they have any similar cars up for sale?

If you do take it back, then you shouldn't be paying for their failure - they'd never pay your costs in the reverse, and you've got no obligation to take it back either.

Grumpy_chap

There is no way the OP should take this car back or refund any money.

ontheroad1970

Backtracking was not a wise move.  

facade

Don't accept it back. You sold it in good faith without any  fault to the best of your knowledge as you had been driving it without incident.

If you take it back you will have an unsellable, apparently unfixable car (the dealer would have fixed it if it was easy) that is only worth scrap money.

Something is certainly off wanting to return it as the dealer would just put it through auction if it had a hidden fault (which is why you don't buy from auction, there is always something wrong with an auction car)

What is this fault? you can tell us now surely.

Goudy

Backtracking might be the only move.

You've been a bit coy with what is wrong with the car, saying it's a serious fault that doesn't effect the way the car drives.

The dealer has bought it from you, listed it on Autotrader, discovered there is this serious fault and seems more than confident they can reject it, get refunded and even bill you for transportation.

Is the car some sort of insurance write off that you either didn't know about or didn't disclose at the time of sale?

I can only think that the dealer didn't HPi it themselves as Autotrader automatically do when a car is listed. Which is when they discovered the serious fault.