Faulty used car purchase

Emsky76

Purchased a vehicle on 4/1/23 from a used car garage. 

On 17/3/23 the rear wheel looked like it was about to fall off. I took the vehicle immediately to the nearest garage for help. They assessed the vehicle and informed me that the rear suspension had collapsed due to severe corrosion & deemed it un-drivable. 

After further inspection a few days later, this garage deemed the car a write off due to being uneconomical to repair vs the age of the vehicle. I contacted the garage I purchased the vehicle from on the same day by phone (17/3/23) to inform them of what had happened. I followed this up with an email  asking them to put this right. They referred me to their terms and conditions highlighting that they would take off £1032.00 for mileage of 1700 miles as a minimum plus £200 admin fee plus their assessment of the condition of the vehicle. This I felt to be very unfair considering I’d only had the vehicle for 2.5 months.
I looked into the MOT history of the vehicle as I knew there had been a previous failure due to corrosion a few months before, but as it was followed by a pass with no advisories, I had assumed the issue had been fixed. 

In summary I would like a full refund and would like to know my legal position to do this as I believe I have been sold a faulty vehicle that was un-roadworthy at the time of purchase. 
I would like to know the best route to achieve this.

Aylesbury_Duck

I'll leave others to comment in more detail, but a full refund sounds unreasonable because you did have 2.5 months and 1700 miles of trouble-free motoring before this problem arose.

You have no firm evidence it was unroadworthy at the time of purchase. And the selling garage has the right to inspect the vehicle rather than taking a third party's diagnosis at face value.  In an ideal world, you'd have taken the car straight back to the selling garage.

Emsky76

Thank you, I should’ve added that the additional garage that reviewed it after the suspension failed said that there was no evidence that the corrosion had been fixed, The garage took photographs showing corroded original parts explaining that this could not have happened only in the past 2 and a half months. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Emsky76 said:

Thank you, I should’ve added that the additional garage that reviewed it after the suspension failed said that there was no evidence that the corrosion had been fixed, The garage took photographs showing corroded original parts explaining that this could not have happened only in the past 2 and a half months. 

That may be helpful in your negotiations with the selling dealer and if, ultimately, it ends up in court.  

Why don't you want the selling dealer to fix the car properly?  You certainly aren't entitled to a full refund, and a partial refund leaves you with the hassle of having to search for and buy another car, which might come with its own problems.

How much did you pay?  Age and mileage of the car?

Ayr_Rage

What is it, how old is it and how much did you pay ?

When were the fail/pass MOTs carried out ?

Were the MOTs carried out at the same testing station ?

Emsky76

I have discussed having it fixed with the selling garage but the garage have said we cannot fix it because they are a sales garage only and asked me to source parts at another garage so I spoke to another garage but they said it’s uneconomically viable and you can’t buy new parts for this car so it would be very difficult to fix and expensive. I then proceeded to explain this to the selling garage and they didn’t accept what the repair garage were saying but weren’t willing to source an alternative garage to fix it. I spent £4,200 and it’s a 57 plate.

Aylesbury_Duck

What model is it and what mileage has it done?  £4,200 for a 15 year old car sounds pricey, but depends what it is.

tightauldgit

I have to say 1200 deduction sounds like a lot for two months use of a 4000 car but on the other hand it is 16 years old so of an age where it could die at any time. Not sure what a court would think is reasonable in this case. 

I'd be tempted to go to the garage and see if they'll negotiate a bit on the deduction to save further hassle. 

TELLIT01

If the garage which looked at the car and said there is no evidence that the corrosion had been addressed is willing to put that in writing and provide the photographic evidence, you may want to inform DVSA.  It won't get your car fixed but may help to shut down somebody providing dodgy MOT certificates.

Emsky76

Thank you I’ve done that already and am awaiting a response 

Alderbank

Aylesbury_Duck said:

What model is it and what mileage has it done?  £4,200 for a 15 year old car sounds pricey, but depends what it is.

I reckon it's a BMW.

Example, Autotrader have a Z4, 57 plate, at £4209. They have 33 more assorted BMers of that age and price bracket.
All have upwards of 90,000 miles on the clock. Some have much more.