Consumer Rights - Servicing info reset on car

DJM_kent

Hi all,

we are in need of some desperate help please.

We made the mistake of buying a car from a large used car supermarket.

We have a number of issues with the car but unfortunately we are out of the 30 day rejection window.

We still want to give the car back as they have been woeful at getting the issues resolved but I was hoping that the following may mean they have broken some sort of code of conduct.

Basically, I believe that the company we had brought the car from had reset the service information on the car itself to deliberately conceal that it had not up to date with its servicing.

The reason for this is that when we brought the car it did not come up with any warning to say the servicing was due as all modern cars do. In fact the car data stored said that the next service was due in just under a year. We also asked the sales rep numerous times who said the car had been serviced by them.

Having checked the oil a month or so later it was pretty apparent it hadn’t been changed so i checked the car data again and worked backwards to figure out when it had been reset. This fell  exactly on the day that they put on the records we received the car that they had conducted their 200 point check.

Knowing that some cars can be serviced every two years i also called the manufacturer who had been servicing the car since new and they confirmed that the previous owner had this car on a yearly plan meaning that as the next service was overdue by a couple of months and as such the car would have noted this whenever it was started.

Unfortunately, part of the paperwork that we had to sign when buying the car was that we understood the service history of the car however I do feel that this was a deliberate attempt to conceal the fact the car was not up to date with its services and that due to this we were signing on the understanding that it was up to date rather than being overdue.

I would also have never brought the car had it alerted us to the fact that the servicing was overdue.

I have written to the motoring ombudsman but revived an automatic response saying that it may take up to 6 months to get a response from them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

HampshireH

Was the service book stamped to say it had been done when you checked it as this would say who carried it out

Goudy

I very much doubt you'll be able to prove they didn't service it.
In fact they will stump up the 200 point check list and use that as evidence they did.

As these checks weren't carried out by an official dealer means it won't be on the manufacturers database as being serviced, but no one said it has to be, even the law (search Block Exemption Regulations).

The bulk of a normal car service is just checks, not actual replacement of parts or oil.
Most modern cars now have extended oil intervals, this means they don't always require an oil change every year/service but the manufacturer recommend a service in between which are just checks of components and fluids. 

My car is down for an oil change every two years or 18,000 miles, so the services between those oil services are just a list of checks and a cabin filter.

On this non oil change service I around 4 sheets of paper get long lists of ticks in boxes of what they have checked, like the thread depths and brake pads measured, then the service interval reset, that's it really unless it needs parts because it failed the some of the checks.

As written, they will say it's had that.
Whether this was completed to the manufacturers specification or not is another matter.

400ixl

Did you buy the car without viewing? I assume so if the service indicator was reset on the day you received the car. If you did view it, was the indicator on at that point?

They could have done the service on the same day you received it, especially if it was only needing an interim service. How you prove they didn't is going to be your challenge.

Typically a dealer will not service the car until it is sold. So if the old owner traded it in and by the time it had got through the auctions etc and onto the forecourt to be sold it could easily be a couple of months. There is nothing unusual in that.

Oil colour after a month is not really something you can pin the history on reliably. If its a diesel, oil can be black within a month.

You say the previous owner had it on a yearly plan, but don't say what the manufacturer schedule actually is. Is that a set mileage or yearly as a minimum, or is it a variable or longer schedule and the previous owner chose to do it more frequently. Mine for example is variable up to 18k or two years, but I have it done annually. Doing a professional oil test would be the only way to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they didn't do it.

Is it a vehicle that when you look in the menus system it says X days to next service and you have worked out that 365 - X days gives you the number of days ago it was serviced?

Personally, unless you go down the route of being able to prove they did not do the service at all (which would be unusual for one of the large car supermarkets) then I don't think you will get much success on rejecting it in this without real proof. Not hugely expensive to do fortunately https://www.theoillab.co.uk/product-category/oil-testing/engine/

DJM_kent

Hi all thanks for the quick responses.

I tried to give as much information as possible so apologies if I missed anything or it wasn’t clear however I have tried to answer the queries below:

We know that they didn’t service the car as they have emailed me confirming as much.

The car is a 3 year old petrol VW Tiguan which can be serviced every 12 months or 24 months but as I said VW have confirmed that this car was being serviced annually meaning it would have been due a service on the 22nd of July this year and from that point there would have been an alert on the car when starting it if it hadn’t been reset between then and the day we brought the car (29th August). 

Furthermore, even if it was on a 2 year schedule the dates shown on the car do not line up with when it would have been due based on the service history provided with the car. The only date the information on the car lines up with is the date they said they done their 200 point check (3rd August) meaning that was the date it was reset.

I’m fairly confident with the information on the cars system I can demonstrate that it was reset whilst in their possession despite the fact they have confirmed that they didn’t actually service it. To me this is a blatant attempt to conceal the fact that the car was overdue a service.

My question is, does this give me any right to return the car under something like the trades description act or something like that as I would never have brought the car had the service light come on when we test drove it.

Thanks again for the help

Stateofart

DJM_kent said:

My question is, does this give me any right to return the car under something like the trades description act or something like that as I would never have brought the car had the service light come on when we test drove it.

Only if the fault or the lack of warranty claim is a result of the car not being serviced can you really claim.  You can't prove they didn't service tbh.  I had an Audi that I'm convinced wasn't serviced prior to pick up despite the counter being reset.  There was a 10K fault and some minor despute about servicing times but really the tab was picked up by Audi because they had said it had been serviced, then the fault happened due to lack of servicing, so they picked up the bill.

boobyd

What did the email say " more or less ommitting"  they didn't service it?
Did you get their service check sheet with the vehicle?

tacpot12

Whether you have a remedy under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will depend on whether the dealer told you that the car had been serviced correctly. It's not clear that they told you had been serviced correctly. Also you agreed that you understood the service history of the car. You should not have signed this if you were not happy that you did understand the service history, i.e. that it was overdue a service by two and a half months (which isn't long and certainly wouldn't cause me not to buy a car). 

I'm not sure that a court would agree that you had been missold the car. It was your job to review the service history and decide if it gave you enough confidence that the car had been serviced adequately.

I don't think the fact that the dealer reset the service indicate gives you a reason to reject it. Clearly, they shouldn't have reset it; there was no valid reason for them to do so. But you had already bought the car when they reset it, and you had agreed that you were happy with the service history, so there is no logic to you asserting that they were trying to cover it up.

also, you are trying to reject the car for reason A when reason B is the real reason you want to reject it. Reason B being that they are being slow in resolving issues. You need to reject the car due to one of those issues being serious enough to allow it be rejected. 

Do you have Home Insurance? If so, do you have Legal Expenses cover? If you have this cover, you will have a legal helpline that you can call for advice on how you might reject the car for a refund.  

sevenhills

DJM_kent said:

We know that they didn’t service the car as they have emailed me confirming as much.

The car is a 3 year old petrol VW Tiguan which can be serviced every 12 months or 24 months

I’m fairly confident with the information on the cars system I can demonstrate that it was reset whilst in their possession despite the fact they have confirmed that they didn’t actually service it. To me this is a blatant attempt to conceal the fact that the car was overdue a service.

My question is, does this give me any right to return the car under something like the trades description act or something like that as I would never have brought the car had the service light come on when we test drove it.

The previous owner could have reset the service interval, not sure why you want to return the car, if you are saying that a service every 24 months is ok.

A service is just a few hundred pounds, a very small sum compared to the value of a three-year-old car.

You haven't shown us what the dealer has done wrong, yet you want to return the car!

Mildly_Miffed

Just get it serviced, and move on with life.

It's not as if there's any warranty left to be void.