Rejected Car Issue - not what you might think!

Spride

Hopefully someone can advise on this issue! My daughter bought a used car from a dealer, within 2 days it developed a bad misfire and a local specialist diagnosed an engine issue that would cost £2000 to fix. She rejected the car, however the dealer refused a refund and to add insult to injury refused to even consider a repair. Our only recourse was to contact the bank and clawback the payment which luckily has gone through as they were in breach of the consumer rights act. My problem is that 2 months on the dealer isn't responding to email and not taking her calls, even messages sent via Whatsapp are no longer being received leading me to believe her number has been blocked. 
My issue - what am I meant to do with the car?? It can't live on my drive forever!

Alderbank

It might have to live there a little while longer.

The Chargeback might have gone through but unfortunately that is not the end of the matter.
Probably the dealer tried to dispute the chargeback with the banks but failed, however he and his legal advisor are now considering bringing a civil court action against your daughter, and potentially they have several years to do this.

Your daughter has a very strong case for rejection but dealers really do not like taking cars back. I suspect that following legal advice they will have second thoughts and start making offers to fix the car in the hope that she will agree to keep it. They would have to fix the fault anyway to have any hope of a success in the courts.

Is the car driveable and road legal? If so I would consider taking it back to the dealer's premises.

born_again

Spride said:

Hopefully someone can advise on this issue! My daughter bought a used car from a dealer, within 2 days it developed a bad misfire and a local specialist diagnosed an engine issue that would cost £2000 to fix. She rejected the car, however the dealer refused a refund and to add insult to injury refused to even consider a repair. Our only recourse was to contact the bank and clawback the payment which luckily has gone through as they were in breach of the consumer rights act. My problem is that 2 months on the dealer isn't responding to email and not taking her calls, even messages sent via Whatsapp are no longer being received leading me to believe her number has been blocked. 
My issue - what am I meant to do with the car?? It can't live on my drive forever!

So how was the car paid for?
As Chargebacks do not cover breech of CRA.

Simple answer is to take car & leave at dealers site, making sure you change owner back on dvla site.

mr_stripey

I would be cautious about this. there's a good chance the dealer will dispute the chargeback, especially since you are still in possession of the vehicle.

eskbanker

Spride said:

Our only recourse was to contact the bank and clawback the payment which luckily has gone through as they were in breach of the consumer rights act.

Just to be clear, was this processed as a chargeback or a section 75 claim (credit card only)?  If the former, then as above the matter may not yet be closed, but the latter would be final....

Spride

Thanks all - a little more information, firstly, no, I wouldn't consider the car driveable, it needs all 4 injectors replacing and at best misfires and fuel economy is non existent! Secondly, the DVLA do not have the car registered to my daughter, it would appear that the dealer either didn't have a V5 (according to DVLA themselves, they told her she needs to buy a new one) or haven't sent it off. The payment was a chargeback, however from a little research the vendor only has 20 days to appeal, it took around 35 days from the chargeback claim submission to the money being refunded to her account.

born_again

Spride said:

Thanks all - a little more information, firstly, no, I wouldn't consider the car driveable, it needs all 4 injectors replacing and at best misfires and fuel economy is non existent! Secondly, the DVLA do not have the car registered to my daughter, it would appear that the dealer either didn't have a V5 (according to DVLA themselves, they told her she needs to buy a new one) or haven't sent it off. The payment was a chargeback, however from a little research the vendor only has 20 days to appeal, it took around 35 days from the chargeback claim submission to the money being refunded to her account.

Retailer has 45 days to contest. But that is card issuer timeline, & bank can take longer to get back to you.

No V5 should have been a red flag. 
Ownership can be done online at time of purchase. This is how mine was processed by dealer. They asked for my email & I got a reply from DVLA confirming I was now the registered keeper of the new car & also did my P/X confirming I was no longer registered keeper.

Alderbank

The fault might not be as serious as you fear.

The engine was running smoothly on all cylinders when she test drove it, when she brought it home and at least for a day or two.
An 'expert' like your Mercedes Main Dealer might dismiss it as £2,000 but I would just ask someone you know who is good with cars to have a look. Going from all injectors working OK to every one of them failing at the same time sounds unlikely.
OTOH if one glow-plug has failed the engine will start up sounding rough but that would be very different to fix.

Can you confirm that the car is taxed to your daughter? It is illegal for a dealer to allow a consumer to drive away in an untaxed vehicle.

To reject a vehicle the fault(s) have to be significant. Significance in any particular circumstance depends not just on how easy the fault is to fix but also on the age, price, condition and make & model.

Could you share those details with us?

Spride

born_again said:

Spride said:

Thanks all - a little more information, firstly, no, I wouldn't consider the car driveable, it needs all 4 injectors replacing and at best misfires and fuel economy is non existent! Secondly, the DVLA do not have the car registered to my daughter, it would appear that the dealer either didn't have a V5 (according to DVLA themselves, they told her she needs to buy a new one) or haven't sent it off. The payment was a chargeback, however from a little research the vendor only has 20 days to appeal, it took around 35 days from the chargeback claim submission to the money being refunded to her account.

Retailer has 45 days to contest. But that is card issuer timeline, & bank can take longer to get back to you.

No V5 should have been a red flag. 
Ownership can be done online at time of purchase. This is how mine was processed by dealer. They asked for my email & I got a reply from DVLA confirming I was now the registered keeper of the new car & also did my P/X confirming I was no longer registered keeper.

Thanks, she got the new owner slip from them from the V5, they evidently never did their bit! we are up to around 60 days in total now since the claim was made.

Spride

Alderbank said:

The fault might not be as serious as you fear.

The engine was running smoothly on all cylinders when she test drove it, when she brought it home and at least for a day or two.
An 'expert' like your Mercedes Main Dealer might dismiss it as £2,000 but I would just ask someone you know who is good with cars to have a look. Going from all injectors working OK to every one of them failing at the same time sounds unlikely.
OTOH if one glow-plug has failed the engine will start up sounding rough but that would be very different to fix.

Can you confirm that the car is taxed to your daughter? It is illegal for a dealer to allow a consumer to drive away in an untaxed vehicle.

She taxed and insured it at the point of purchase, the injectors are £400 each (thanks BMW!) plus labour. The specialist has looked after her cars previously, as this would have been her 3rd BMW and has always been fair and honest. 2 failed but they should really be replaced as a matched set due to supersessions. I think in early discussions with the dealer when they would still communicate they expected her to claim on the warranty which incidentally doesn't kick in for the first 30 days as the warranty company expect the vendor to cover issues in the first 30 days.

sheslookinhot

If you have received your money back, get the car to the dealer quickly. I would even ask him to collect it within 7 days.

cancel the road tax and suspend the insurance or cancel it. Inform the dealer of those actions.