Advice - returning a used car problem

varkdm

Hi, wonder if anyone can provide any insight as to what is going on with a faulty car return situation..

Bought a 2nd hand card from a specialist dealer that is highly rated (hundreds of reviews across autotrader and google, with a 4.8 and 5.0 overall rating) back In august. It was a second car for occasional use and the battery ran flat on the driveway after it had been left unused for about a week - we checked everything after jumping it, we had left no lights on anywhere etc.). Contacted the dealer and they very quickly provided us with a new battery, which seemed the most likely problem as it was after a cold snap that it went dead and the car was of an age where a battery replacement was likely due. 

It didn't fix it and a couple of weeks later it went dead again. This time they took the car in to look at it and said there was a fault with a boot alarm sensor that was probably causing a draw on the battery and they replaced it. 

Didn't fix it, a few weeks later it went dead again. They took it back and said they would send it to an electrical specialist to look at it and kept it in for a few days. The result of that was that the electrical specialist said it was the battery still and provided us with a new, higher spec one. We had told them at this point that if this isn't resolved we will want to exercise our consumer rights and get a refund. We left it unused for a week and when we next went to use it it started and since then it was in fairly regular use until Christmas where it wasn't used. Went to use it this Saturday, battery was flat. Final straw, we contact the garage and tell them they need to take it back and refund us for it. 

They have said they can't and I'm struggling to understand what the problem is. They have accepted the car is faulty (although at one point they suggested that a car that drains it's battery ever 1-2 weeks wasn't faulty, needless to say they didn't stick to their guns on that one) but are saying they can't refund us fully because of tax (non specific tax reasons to do with returning a car they have already paid tax on leaving them out of pocket) and that because of the time of year they don't have the cash available to refund us. This smells of BS to me, but they are engaging with us, calling us back etc and offering all manner of alternative solutions so I'm not really sure what to think. 

We reported the fault within the first 30 days and have given them 3 attempts to fix it. I have accepted that we are now 4 months down the line and that we may not get a full refund because of mileage, but the figures they have suggested being able to refund us are, frankly, ludicrous and amount to them trying to buy the car back at trade price. They have offered to fix the car (again) and claim the specialist they sent it to first time around didn't do what they asked and just drop tested the battery, rather than testing the car for unusual drains. Taking their claim about cash assets at face value I have offered to take a replacement instead (they have a similar car in similar price range currently) but they are talking about adjusted trade vs sale prices again leaving several thousand pounds shortfall that they would expect us to pay if they did that (effectively meaning if we did this we would have overpaid for the replacement car by several thousand pounds as its current list price is only £500 more than we paid for the original). 

They have also suggested all sorts of schemes to do with sourcing alternative cars, all of which still sound like we are going to end up out of pocket either in making up shortfalls or in taking on a lesser valued vehicle.

I'm facing small claims court as an option now, which actually seems surprisingly easy to do. But just a level of faff that I just find astounding. Especially considering how clear the law is on this and that this is a supposedly reputable dealer. Does anyone have any insight as to what exactly they are doing and why they aren't just refunding me or asking me to pay the difference between the slightly more expensive replacement car and this one?

Mark_d

The car has a fault which is current undiagnosed.  Someone needs to spend time waiting, spend money diagnosing the fault and then spend money fixing the fault.    The dealer doesn't want to waste their time and money...but neither should you.  And the law is on your side.

LightFlare

One of my previous cars (a 57 plate) did something very similar - partially due to drain from alarm system/tracker but also due to the way the alternator functioned.

Solution was to leave it on a trickle charge if I knew it wasnt being run for more than 5 days

I wouldnt have classed it as faulty

tacpot12

Do you have Home Insurance? If so, check to see if you have Legal Expenses cover. Many people have this valuable cover without realising it. 

If you have it, call the Legal Helpline provided by your insurer. They will help you exercise your consumer rights. 

Goudy

If it was mine, first thing I would do is try and find out if it has a parasitic drain or not and if so, to want extent.
With a multimeter it's easy.

Just undo the negative terminal from the battery, set the multimeter to read (small) amps, then bridge the gap between neg battery terminal and loose neg lead.

You need to do this with everything off, so doors closed, engine off, ignition off, lights off etc (window open in case it auto locks) and leave it 10 minutes before trying (to let any inhibited lives turn off)

This will give you an idea of the amps the car is pulley sat doing nothing.
Ideally it should read around 30 to 80 milliamps (0.03 to 0.08), depending on car.

There are certain constant lives that will pull a little power, basically keeping the cars "brains" alive, this is the 30 to 80 milliamps. Things like storing radio stations, the cars ecu and if it has an alarm/tracker, keeping that armed.

Anything higher than that and it has a problem will one or more of the circuits pulling power when it shouldn't or a circuit that is meant to be pulling a little is actually pulling too much.

There are various methods to move on from this, like pulling one fuse at a time until you notice the amps drop, but you need to remember the infotainment system/radio/cars brains etc fuses will normally pull a little power, so you're looking for the circuit that shouldn't.

But just knowing what it's actually doing might help resolve the issue with the dealer.
You can say, look this is the result of the problem, it shouldn't be doing this. The cause needs identifying and rectifying.

Normal culprits for these drains are aftermarket alarm/immobilisers and aftermarket head units, sometimes a bad diode in the back of the alternator can also cause an issue.

If it's the alarm/immobiliser the circuit it's on will be wholly or partly powered by the cars "brains" power supply so makes identifying the culprit a little more difficult as this circuit powering it powers more than one thing.

If you can safely say it has a drain, then see if you can get the selling garage to send it to a proper auto electrician.
They will be a local one, maybe mobile that should have no trouble identifying what's going on if they are competent. 

Baldytyke88

LightFlare said:

One of my previous cars (a 57 plate) did something very similar - partially due to drain from alarm system/tracker but also due to the way the alternator functioned.
Solution was to leave it on a trickle charge if I knew it wasnt being run for more than 5 days

I wouldnt have classed it as faulty

It's a minor fault which could be caused by the owner or the car, it's certainly fixable.