Faulty 2nd hand car from dealer within 30 days. Need to know the correct steps to take

SirGingerwig

Hi everyone,

Brief overview of the events:

So I bought a 2nd hand Citreon C3 VTR 2014 plate from a car dealer on the 11/01/2025.
On the 29/01/2025, whilst I was driving on its second motorway journey the engine management light came, with a warning that the engine needed repair. That evening a family member came around to check what codes had been produced, there were two:

P0014 Camshaft Position B – Timing Over-Advanced or System Performance (Bank 1)

P0420 - Engine Control Module (ECM) has identified a decline in the efficiency of the catalytic converter on Bank 1

 

There were no obvious other symptoms to go with the warnings. It didn’t go into limp home mode or start running badly. Perhaps a little sluggish in 5th gear.

 

I visited my local mechanic the day after for advice. As with what I found online, there could be a wide range of causes for these codes, none of which were cheap to fix. I rang the dealer on his advice, told them about the problem and he said to bring it in, which I did on the 30/01/2025. Spoke to them on Saturday and he said the mechanic had been working on something to do with the exhaust and was test driving it to see if the warning light comes back on.

I need to know what I should do to protect myself. I need the car to go back into the office at the start of March, so I can’t afford for this to drag on needing to constantly take the car back to fix the problem.

The car was £3795. I paid a deposit on Credit card of £100, the rest was a bank transfer, so I believe I am covered by Section 75.

I am currently inside the 30 with a right to reject (Consumer Act 2015).

 

They have been perfectly reasonable so far. My worry is, I take the car back and the warnings come back after the 30 day period with a more serious problem.

I guess I could do with advice on what I should do to best protect myself.

Where do I stand with the 30 day period considering I have notified them of the problem within that 30 days? What happens if they say they have fixed it and it comes back after 30 days? Do I then lose the right to reject the vehicle?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

paul_c123

If they "say they fixed it" you'll be able to verify - no EML on and normal performance. They don't need to do anything more than that within the 30 days short term right to reject. If its still faulty you could reject it but since its fixed now, its too late (unless there's some other fault).

So, if it occurs after 30 days, they have to repair/replace/refund, they get ONE chance to do so (its a fresh chance, because they "fixed" it before) and they get to choose which of those avenues to go down. In other words, you lose the short term right to reject it.

In any case, they are entitled to make reasonable deductions eg mileage, valet, additional damage, additional owner. You'll end up with less money and no car. So if they offer to try fix the issue if it reoccurs, I'd bite their hand off. Oh, and there's no obligation to provide a loan car in the meantime either.

BlueHarbourBouy

If the car was purchased from BIG Motoring World you might get problems honoring  their Warranty. Look up Facebook site Big Motoring World complaints Unofficial.

Mildly_Miffed

Is it a 1.6 petrol?

These had the BMW "Prince" engine, as used in Minis and smaller BMWs, which has some well known issues with the cam chain. The cam timing fault code could well be linked.

It's not exactly unexpected for the cat on a 10yo car to be nearing end-of-life, so that would be unlikely to be grounds for return.

sheslookinhot

Do a 50/60 mile round trip when you get the car back. Get some confidence in the car, if the light comes in during that journey take it back and formally reject the car. The vendor has had one attempt to repair the car.

Okell

SirGingerwig said:

... Where do I stand with the 30 day period considering I have notified them of the problem within that 30 days? What happens if they say they have fixed it and it comes back after 30 days? Do I then lose the right to reject the vehicle?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Note that the clock on the 30 days short term right to reject window is "paused" from the date that you agreed to a repair attempt, and only starts again the day after you get it back.

The 30 day window then ends on the later of either (1) 7 days after you get the car back from repair, or (2) the original 30 days plus the time it's been in for repair.

I haven't expressed that very well but this is the wording of the relevant parts of s22 of Consumer Rights Act 2015:

"(6) If the consumer requests or agrees to the repair or replacement of goods, the period mentioned in subsection (3) or (4) [30 days] stops running for the length of the waiting period.

(7) If goods supplied by the trader in response to that request or agreement do not conform to the contract, the time limit for exercising the short-term right to reject is then either—

(a) 7 days after the waiting period ends, or

(b) if later, the original time limit for exercising that right, extended by the waiting period.

(8) The waiting period—

(a) begins with the day the consumer requests or agrees to the repair or replacement of the goods, and

(b) ends with the day on which the consumer receives goods supplied by the trader in response to the request or agreement."

So the 30 days is extended by however long they have the car in for repair.  If it fails again within that extended 30 days you can still exercise your short term right to reject.

(NB - The above assumes that the car is faulty and that the fault in question is sufficient to justify rejection in the first place)

SirGingerwig

BlueHarbourBouy said:

If the car was purchased from BIG Motoring World you might get problems honoring  their Warranty. Look up Facebook site Big Motoring World complaints Unofficial.

No, it wasn't BIG Motoring World. I won't name the dealer, as of yet they have been reasonable in attempting to sort the problem.

SirGingerwig

Mildly_Miffed said:

Is it a 1.6 petrol?

These had the BMW "Prince" engine, as used in Minis and smaller BMWs, which has some well known issues with the cam chain. The cam timing fault code could well be linked.

It's not exactly unexpected for the cat on a 10yo car to be nearing end-of-life, so that would be unlikely to be grounds for return.

No, it's a 1.2 petrol. Though I believe it has one of those wet timing belts which come with their own problems. Wish I'd have learned that before buying as I might not have gone that route, though there seems to be a lot of cars using those nowadays.

SirGingerwig

sheslookinhot said:

Do a 50/60 mile round trip when you get the car back. Get some confidence in the car, if the light comes in during that journey take it back and formally reject the car. The vendor has had one attempt to repair the car.

Think that' decent advice. I get the car back tomorrow dinner time, so I can give it a good run this week.

SirGingerwig

Okell said:

SirGingerwig said:

... Where do I stand with the 30 day period considering I have notified them of the problem within that 30 days? What happens if they say they have fixed it and it comes back after 30 days? Do I then lose the right to reject the vehicle?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Note that the clock on the 30 days short term right to reject window is "paused" from the date that you agreed to a repair attempt, and only starts again the day after you get it back.

The 30 day window then ends on the later of either (1) 7 days after you get the car back from repair, or (2) the original 30 days plus the time it's been in for repair.

I haven't expressed that very well but this is the wording of the relevant parts of s22 of Consumer Rights Act 2015

"(6) If the consumer requests or agrees to the repair or replacement of goods, the period mentioned in subsection (3) or (4) [30 days] stops running for the length of the waiting period.

(7) If goods supplied by the trader in response to that request or agreement do not conform to the contract, the time limit for exercising the short-term right to reject is then either—

(a) 7 days after the waiting period ends, or

(b) if later, the original time limit for exercising that right, extended by the waiting period.

(8) The waiting period—

(a) begins with the day the consumer requests or agrees to the repair or replacement of the goods, and

(b) ends with the day on which the consumer receives goods supplied by the trader in response to the request or agreement."

So the 30 days is extended by however long they have the car in for repair.  If it fails again within that extended 30 days you can still exercise your short term right to reject.

(NB - The above assumes that the car is faulty and that the fault in question is sufficient to justify rejection in the first place)

Good to know. So I guess the last day of the 30 days would have been the 10/02/2025. They've had it 5 days, so I have till the 15th.

Ideally, I would just like the car to be fixed. Don't need the hassle of trying to get a refund and then having to sort a new one out. 

Mildly_Miffed

SirGingerwig said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

Is it a 1.6 petrol?

These had the BMW "Prince" engine, as used in Minis and smaller BMWs, which has some well known issues with the cam chain. The cam timing fault code could well be linked.

It's not exactly unexpected for the cat on a 10yo car to be nearing end-of-life, so that would be unlikely to be grounds for return.

No, it's a 1.2 petrol. Though I believe it has one of those wet timing belts which come with their own problems. Wish I'd have learned that before buying as I might not have gone that route, though there seems to be a lot of cars using those nowadays.

It's not a Puretech in a 2014 C3. They didn't come until the new model in 2016.