Used Car Sale Woe

sassy_one

Hi


I am sure of the answer however wanted to get an opinion from others incase I'm being too expecting.


Purchased a used car a few weeks ago, with a 30 day warranty for engine and gearbox.


Last week the automatic gearbox sent the car into limp mode with a warning to take it to a garage.
Turning on and off cleared this fault.

Today the engine management light and glow plug light came on, started flashing and the car was limited to 30 mph (this happened on the motorway, so dangerous).

Turning on and off at the next junction it cleared.

Called my garage first to see if they could take a look and luckily could, drove 30 miles back and no lights.
Until it went again, engine management light permanently on this time and engine fault displayed.
In limp mode, wouldn't rev past 3k.


Called the garage I got it from, no offer of them paying the diagnostics.

Plugged in, EGR valve failed and automatic box has intermittent fault reading - will need to go to a specialist. 

Quote is near 1k for repair as entire subframe has to be dropped to change the egr valve on this model (madness!)

Used car dealer saying they'll pay the bill for that but the gearbox is likely to just be a sensor and it'll be fine.


My garage is concerned about the box could fail as its common (dsg) and by then it'll be out of warranty, I have literally days left on it.


Should I reject the vehicle formally and request a full refund? I will already lose £600 on a major service and other things like air con regas etc but I feel if this box goes outside of warranty that'll be it, as I'm told it's around 3-4k to recon it.


I know the answer but just looking for others to give a view.

Also how do I formally reject, via letter or can I do it over messaging?
I imagine the dealer is going to put up a fight as he hasn't offered a refund yet on it - he's also 200 odd miles away from me.

HillStreetBlues

As clearly faulty you can reject the car under Consumer Rights Act 2015 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/20/enacted
You will be enacting the Short Term right to reject and should get a full refund as within the 30 days.
So you will give notice to the dealer that is what you are doing.
They have no right to get you to agree to repair,  this can only happen after the 30 days.
What method of payment did you use?

You can inform them via e-mail.

sassy_one

HillStreetBlues said:

As clearly faulty you can reject the car under Consumer Rights Act 2015 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/20/enacted
You will be enacting the Short Term right to reject and should get a full refund as within the 30 days.
So you will give notice to the dealer that is what you are doing.
They have no right to get you to agree to repair,  this can only happen after the 30 days.
What method of payment did you use?

You can inform them via e-mail.

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it.

I paid via BACS transfer, this was to a personal account because apparently hrs business account was having problems, and his card machine was sent back for maintenance. 

HillStreetBlues

Having the those Rights and getting them enforced are different.
TBH  issues with the bank account and also card machine should have set the alarm bells ringing, I know that's water under the bridge, but it shows that getting the refund might not be a easy task.
All you can do is try,  but if it's a limited company, it might well be in trouble with the bank account closed and card machine withdrawn, if that is the case then you are unlikely to get your money back.

[Deleted User]

Wow, that sounds dodgy. You may find them to be somewhat unwilling to return your money, and because you didn't pay by card you have fewer ways to claw it back. Let us know how you get on.

sassy_one

There's more to all this than I've realised....


I transfered the monies by BACs as I said, and those funds went to a personal account.

8 days after sending them my bank contacted me out of the blue, and told me they were giving me 60 days account closure notice for an account I've had flawless for 10 years.
No reason given, and I was shocked.
This account was the one I transferred the funds from to him.


I appealed this and didn't expect anything back, but they told me within hours it had been a mistake and that they were investigating but my account would very much remain open and they removed the temporary block on certain actions immediately. 

Tonight while attempting to find the companies VAT registration, which I can't  I've found horrific news paper articles.
This person has been in prison, 3 times at least for fraud.
One last last year alone for attempting to defraud the council for a Covid grant for a car dealership he never had at the time and falsified invoices.
He also has sold dangerous vehicles, doesn't refund and has changed his company name over 10 times one article states.


I'm now at a lost what to do, I don't think he'll refund me and this guy seems to have it all wrapped up to cover himself.

I'm going to have to think my next steps as I don't fancy this guy at my door.

I'm not even convinced the guy will pay the repair, the garage have refused to start work unless he pays upfront so remains to be seen what happens next all I know is I wish I had known all this before ever going there!

HillStreetBlues

I think you will have to write it off as a lost and salvage as much as you can as might be other faults as well.
EDIT I don't mean a total loss, it's a loss that what you paid and what the car is actually worth.

LightFlare

What car,age,mileage,cost etc as that may affect your next steps

Goudy

All might not be lost with the car yet.

A EGR fault will cause misfires and eventually, after it's had enough, limp mode.

This all effects the DSG and it tends to go into a slow, sloppy change mode and can report a problem of it's own regarding limited power.
As certain DSGs have a reputation, owners do worry.

It's quite common with VW's and it's not always a failed EGR but often it's one of the hoses has split.

If you end up stuck because you can't get a refund, try a VW specialist, I have seen them remove EGR's and coolers without dropping the subframe on 1.6 tdi's.