Financed car, issues once again.

Mikej92

Hi people, I came here a while
back for some advice with a car I bought on finance that was a heap of sh*t.

I’m once again in another situation with another car I’ve bought on finance around 40 days ago.

wondering if someone has some info for me/advice.

So, point one, the dealer and I agreed a price (verbally), I paid a deposit for the car as we’d agreed on a price, 2 days went by, and dealer ignored my calls, finally managed to contact the dealer, in which they replied, we cannot sell you this vehicle for the agreed price, we will need an extra £350 to come to a deal, which was no skin off my back really, as I wanted the car.

the car was advertised as a 1 owner car, a good service history, and a gearbox service history with previous service.

low and behold, the v5 arrived, and it showed (5 previous owners).
the car had no service history and no gearbox history.

a week or so later, the car had its first fault, a clunking from the rear, in fairness, the dealer paid for the repairs local to me.

another week or so went by, and I noticed a grinding sound from the gearbox when it selected third gear (automatic), this has been put down to a faulty synchro (within the gearbox).

Another fault has become evident, which has been diagnosed as a faulty timing chain tensioner.

to get these repairs done it would be nigh on £5000.

I chased the dealership from middle of November 2022, until 3 days ago where I finally got a response from him, where he has said “I will repair the car if you bought a warranty from us”.

the supplying dealer never offered me this, so obviously I didn’t get one.

he then replied with “okay then mate, what do you want me to do? You bought a second hand car, I also can’t do anything for another 25 days.

although I’d been chasing him for 2 months almost, he is still telling me it’ll be an extra 25 days.

do I have grounds to reject this car as quite frankly, it is not of satisfactory quality, and the dealer isn’t helpful?

Mikej92

Just to add , 2017 Skoda Octavia 58k miles.

macman

Why did you contract to buy the car without checking the service history and V5C first?
If it was advertised as one owner, and has had five, then you clearly have a case to sue for misrepresentation. I'd reject it on those grounds, rather than any defects in it's condition.
I trust you have written proof of the misrepresentation in the no. of owners (copy of the ad etc)?

Tucosalamanca

Why would a low mileage 2017 vehicle need a gearbox history? That should raise a red flag immediately.

Service history will likely be available from Skoda for at least the first three years of its life. A simple phone call should confirm.

As to number of owners, a low cost HPI check would reveal ownership history and more. Five owners in five years would have me running.

Hope you reach an amicable solution.

Grumpy_chap

Was this car a remote purchase, or did you view in person?
The time to verify the number of previous owners, service history, etc. is on viewing the car before purchase.
Did you do any due diligence such as HPI check?  Check MOT history on line?
Did you do a test drive?
Was the price paid "bargain basement" for the age and condition, or was it Skoda main dealer price?

Some of your dates don't align, but this may become significant if looking to reject the vehicle:

Mikej92 said:

car I’ve bought on finance around 40 days ago.

I chased the dealership from middle of November 2022,

I also can’t do anything for another 25 days.  although I’d been chasing him for 2 months almost, he is still telling me it’ll be an extra 25 days.

Why was it that you desperately wanted this car, and not any other of same type?

Mikej92 said:

So, point one, the dealer and I agreed a price (verbally), I paid a deposit for the car as we’d agreed on a price, 2 days went by, and dealer ignored my calls, finally managed to contact the dealer, in which they replied, we cannot sell you this vehicle for the agreed price, we will need an extra £350 to come to a deal, which was no skin off my back really, as I wanted the car.

If I'd agreed a price on a car and then the price increased, I'd be seeing that as a red flag and seeking refund of the deposit and cancel the order.
Did the dealer sense your desperation for the car?

Mikej92

Tucosalamanca said:

Why would a low mileage 2017 vehicle need a gearbox history? That should raise a red flag immediately.

Service history will likely be available from Skoda for at least the first three years of its life. A simple phone call should confirm.

As to number of owners, a low cost HPI check would reveal ownership history and more. Five owners in five years would have me running.

Hope you reach an amicable solution.

Manufacture states that it should be done every 40k miles. 

They sent me a hpi as showing one owner, they also confirmed to me multiple times that it had only the one owner, I agree I should of probably done a check there myself as confirmation. 

As I stated above, it was advertised as 1 owner, hence me not ‘running’.

Mikej92

Grumpy_chap said:

Was this car a remote purchase, or did you view in person?
The time to verify the number of previous owners, service history, etc. is on viewing the car before purchase.
Did you do any due diligence such as HPI check?  Check MOT history on line?
Did you do a test drive?
Was the price paid "bargain basement" for the age and condition, or was it Skoda main dealer price?

Some of your dates don't align, but this may become significant if looking to reject the vehicle:

Mikej92 said:

car I’ve bought on finance around 40 days ago.

I chased the dealership from middle of November 2022,

I also can’t do anything for another 25 days.  although I’d been chasing him for 2 months almost, he is still telling me it’ll be an extra 25 days.

Why was it that you desperately wanted this car, and not any other of same type?

Mikej92 said:

So, point one, the dealer and I agreed a price (verbally), I paid a deposit for the car as we’d agreed on a price, 2 days went by, and dealer ignored my calls, finally managed to contact the dealer, in which they replied, we cannot sell you this vehicle for the agreed price, we will need an extra £350 to come to a deal, which was no skin off my back really, as I wanted the car.

If I'd agreed a price on a car and then the price increased, I'd be seeing that as a red flag and seeking refund of the deposit and cancel the order.
Did the dealer sense your desperation for the car?

Thanks for the reply.

it was indeed a remote purchase/distance purchase.

I had faith in the dealer , as they sent me a hpi check showing 1 owner, I did MoT check it, and was all good there.

 I as above I didn’t manage to test drive as it was a online/distanced purchase, and the dealer offered to get it transported as ie as a fair distance away.

the car wasn’t a bargain buy, but it was the only one available in the spec and engine model that I wanted, the others were diesel (I don’t do enough mileage per year to comprehend having a diesel), so maybe he did see a bit of desperation as I was wanting this particular model of car, and it was the only available at the particular time on the car buying sites I was looking at.

dates align okay, as I said 2 months, it was the middle of November, it is now the middle of January, and I only had a reply 2 days ago.

Mikej92

macman said:

Why did you contract to buy the car without checking the service history and V5C first?
If it was advertised as one owner, and has had five, then you clearly have a case to sue for misrepresentation. I'sd reject it on thos grounds, rather than any defects in it's condition.
I trust you have written proof of the misrepresentation in the no. of owners (copy of the ad etc)?

As above, it was a distanced sale, I bought the car online, and the dealer offered a transportation service.

I have indeed still got the advert saved to my phone/a email from the finance company with the advert for too, and multiple screenshots of said advert, and description.

Grumpy_chap

macman said:

Why did you contract to buy the car without checking the service history and V5C first?
If it was advertised as one owner, and has had five, then you clearly have a case to sue for misrepresentation. I'sd reject it on thos grounds, rather than any defects in it's condition.
I trust you have written proof of the misrepresentation in the no. of owners (copy of the ad etc)?

Mikej92 said:

They sent me a hpi as showing one owner, they also confirmed to me multiple times that it had only the one owner, I agree I should of probably done a check there myself as confirmation. 

As I stated above, it was advertised as 1 owner, hence me not ‘running’.

Adverts may not count as most of the portals have a disclaimer.

What exactly did that HPI report show?  What was the date on it?  Very odd that it showed one owner and you now find five previous owners.

As others said, five owners on a 5 yo car is a massive red flag.  It is a massive discrepancy though between 1 owner and 5 owners.  It is quite common to see "1 owner" where actually that means "1 previous owner" making the current owner the second and the purchaser the third.  There is no way that "1 owner" and "5 owners" can be squared off in a similar fashion.  

I ma not exactly sure on process, but the misrepresentation (not as described) line seems to be the one to follow as others suggested.  

Did you buy the car in person, or remote purchase?

Mikej92

Grumpy_chap said:

macman said:

Why did you contract to buy the car without checking the service history and V5C first?
If it was advertised as one owner, and has had five, then you clearly have a case to sue for misrepresentation. I'sd reject it on thos grounds, rather than any defects in it's condition.
I trust you have written proof of the misrepresentation in the no. of owners (copy of the ad etc)?

Mikej92 said:

They sent me a hpi as showing one owner, they also confirmed to me multiple times that it had only the one owner, I agree I should of probably done a check there myself as confirmation. 

As I stated above, it was advertised as 1 owner, hence me not ‘running’.

Adverts may not count as most of the portals have a disclaimer.

What exactly did that HPI report show?  What was the date on it?  Very odd that it showed one owner and you now find five previous owners.

As others said, five owners on a 5 yo car is a massive red flag.  It is a massive discrepancy though between 1 owner and 5 owners.  It is quite common to see "1 owner" where actually that means "1 previous owner" making the current owner the second and the purchaser the third.  There is no way that "1 owner" and "5 owners" can be squared off in a similar fashion.  

I ma not exactly sure on process, but the misrepresentation (not as described) line seems to be the one to follow as others suggested.  

Did you buy the car in person, or remote purchase?

As previously stated, remotely purchased, and the dealership transported it to me.

Yeah, I could understand if I was the third owner, but I’m the 5th.

1 previous owner would mean I would be the third as you say.

but to be 3 owners out is a bit of a kerfuffle! 

Okay, I’ll pursue that side of it then.

even though when I brought it up with the dealer, he replied “ah well you’ve had the car 2 months now”.

you can probably guess how awkward the encounters are.

Grumpy_chap

You may have grounds to pursue a claim against the finance company under S75 as well as direct against the dealer.  Was it finance linked to the car or unconnected bank loan?