Faulty van

Zambi

I purchased a 2018 plate van from a local Trader on 20-12-23. On the 6-1-24 I had the engine management light appear and information to say I have an engine fault.

I asked my garage to do a diagnostic test and 5 faults appeared.
 

The trader where I brought the vehicle from agreed to repair it, which I gave them the benefit of the doubt to do.
They had the vehicle for 6 days and said they have repaired the vehicle.
(no receipt given to date).
 On the 16-1-24 (4 days after collecting it) the engine management came back on, I contacted the trader and sent a screenshot of the information. 

Once again I took this vehicle to my garage to get another diagnostic, 3 of the same fault’s appeared plus 6 more!. The trader didn’t respond until a few days later.

At this point, I’ve seeked advice from trading standards, and the ombudsman, who both have said I’m entitled to a full refund within my 30 days.

The trader has refused to refund me.
They want to fix the vehicle again but I don’t trust them to do so.

I have given them 14 days to respond to the letter Trading standards advised me to send, asking for a full refund, including the photos of the diagnostic reports.

The trader didn’t respond, so I went to speak to them face to face and still all they are saying they won’t refund me.

The van is currently sat on my drive in limp mode. 

I’m not the first person they have sold bad vehicles too, as 5 people have contracted me after posting on Facebook.

Where can I go from here?

Bradden

First thing that comes to mind is whether this was a business purchase? In which case consumer rights might not apply.

Alderbank

It's expensive for a trader to have to accept a rejected vehicle back so they will do their best to challenge your rejection.
I am seriously impressed that within 30 days you have had a considered response to your case from both Trading Standards and the Motor Ombudsman.

Can you share a little more about the 5 year old van and the fault messages?
What make and model is it? Petrol or diesel?
What mileage has it done?
What do the error codes actually say?
Some faults, such as replacing spark plugs or glow plugs, are relatively easy to fix. Many apparent engine faults are sensor failures rather than actual faults. These things matter because whether they are obliged to accept your rejection might ultimately come down to the extent to which the fault(s) are 'significant'.

Okell

Alderbank said:

I am seriously impressed that within 30 days you have had a considered response to your case from both Trading Standards ...

He probably hasn't had a response from TS.

There was a thread a couple of months ago where somebody was absolutely adamant that they'd spoken to TS and got quite shirty when other people doubted they had.

What they'd actually done was visited the CTSI website (CTSI - The Chartered Trading Standards Institute, UK) and thought (not unreasonably) that that was TS.

If you click on "Consumer Help" it takes you to another page that purports to put you into contact with your local TS office, but simply puts you through to... CAB consumer helpline 0808 2231133.

I suspect the OP has simply had dealings with CAB.  

Like you I will be seriously impressed if he's managed to deal with TS and not CAB.

(I think it's very misleading.  Ironic, ain't it?   )

Zambi

Thanks for your responses.. We’re going through the courts now 👍

forgotmyname

Blocked DPF will sometimes cause fuel pressure related issues.  If you goto court their first question maybe why have you not allowed the
car to do a regen to clean the DPF.

It's overloaded,  but what are the soot and pressure readings?  There maybe maultiple of these and the figures may not match or they may
have reached a point where it failed because you stopped mid cycle and it didn't like that and having a sulk not wanting to try again until you
reset the values and do a regen.