used car purchase, small claims court

UncleFoss

Hi,
would welcome the forums advice.
I bought a used car in December from a 'private seller' who advertised in auto trader. It checked out fine for MOT (only done October prior), previous ownership etc. It had a full service history from a private garage rather than dealer which seller sent through before I went to see the car. The advert basically said I'm selling my super low mileage car which is in very very good condition with Full service history a long MOT and not a single issue.  All the tyres and brakes are in great condition with plenty of more miles before changing. It drives flawlesly with absolutely no faults. Being low mileage all the issues are on the higher mileage cars and come in at around 80/90,000 miles so need to worry about any issues for a very long time!
I met the seller at his parents house (he still lives there), he is in the trade working for a mainstream dealer and in his words was selling the car as a sideline (his Facebook page suggests he's sold a couple more cars similarly over the last 2 years). He told me that he'd had the tyres replaced with part worn tyres and that one of his mechanics at work had given the car a good look over and there were no issues. I drove the car, no issues with the drive - interior was in very good condition, there were a few cosmetic things  and the aircon didn't work but I assumed just needed recharging.
A few weeks later I took it to my local garage to get a price for the cosmetic stuff and found that the front subframe was severely rusted, the front tyres were in need of replacement with the rears not far behind, one of the rear shock absorbers was rusted and had snapped, the aircon was broken. There's a fair amount of spend required to repair.
I've tried to get a response from the seller but he's not responding to texts, phone calls, formal letters.
Citizens advice have guided me towards taking the seller to small claims court through sales of goods act due to the advert being so different to the actual car; Are there any other routes I should pursue to get my money back or get him to foot the repair bill?

Mark_d

Quite simply - No.  The seller gave you incorrect information about the car.  He tricked you.  He's not simply going to say sorry and give you your money back.  You need to take legal action against him.

Maybe he'll change his stance once issued with a court summons, but otherwise I can't imagine he'll do anything

Spikeygran

I hope you get somewhere with your case.

Just for future reference I would have flagged the advert as a possible scam because of the overly glowing description. The chap not living at his own address, and openly admitting his sideline would have made me walk away.

For most without mechanical knowledge it really is better to ask about and find a local dealer with a good reputation (that they want to protect) or a known dealership.  You will pay a bit more but I think its a safer situation.

RavingMad

Re the tyres, you would've seen how worn they were when you went to view the car?

facade

I can't add anything to what has been said except for future reference, if the aircon doesn't work on the test drive, assume that it is unfixable (without spending many hundreds of pounds). You are unlikely to be wrong.

If non-working aircon is a dealbreaker (it is for me) walk away and find a car where it is working, never believe that "it just needs a regas", same as you never believe that anything wrong is "an easy/cheap fix, I just haven't had time to do it" It isn't- if it was they'd have fixed it and made the car easier to sell.

born_again

UncleFoss said:

Hi,
would welcome the forums advice.
I bought a used car in December from a 'private seller' who advertised in auto trader. It checked out fine for MOT (only done October prior), previous ownership etc. It had a full service history from a private garage rather than dealer which seller sent through before I went to see the car. The advert basically said I'm selling my super low mileage car which is in very very good condition with Full service history a long MOT and not a single issue.  All the tyres and brakes are in great condition with plenty of more miles before changing. It drives flawlesly with absolutely no faults. Being low mileage all the issues are on the higher mileage cars and come in at around 80/90,000 miles so need to worry about any issues for a very long time!
I met the seller at his parents house (he still lives there), he is in the trade working for a mainstream dealer and in his words was selling the car as a sideline (his Facebook page suggests he's sold a couple more cars similarly over the last 2 years). He told me that he'd had the tyres replaced with part worn tyres and that one of his mechanics at work had given the car a good look over and there were no issues. I drove the car, no issues with the drive - interior was in very good condition, there were a few cosmetic things  and the aircon didn't work but I assumed just needed recharging.
A few weeks later I took it to my local garage to get a price for the cosmetic stuff and found that the front subframe was severely rusted, the front tyres were in need of replacement with the rears not far behind, one of the rear shock absorbers was rusted and had snapped, the aircon was broken. There's a fair amount of spend required to repair.
I've tried to get a response from the seller but he's not responding to texts, phone calls, formal letters.
Citizens advice have guided me towards taking the seller to small claims court through sales of goods act due to the advert being so different to the actual car; Are there any other routes I should pursue to get my money back or get him to foot the repair bill?

So, just how many weeks & how many miles had you covered?

eskbanker

UncleFoss said:

The advert basically said I'm selling my super low mileage car which is in very very good condition with Full service history a long MOT and not a single issue.  All the tyres and brakes are in great condition with plenty of more miles before changing. It drives flawlesly with absolutely no faults. Being low mileage all the issues are on the higher mileage cars and come in at around 80/90,000 miles so need to worry about any issues for a very long time!

[...]

I met the seller at his parents house [...] He told me that he'd had the tyres replaced with part worn tyres and that one of his mechanics at work had given the car a good look over and there were no issues. I drove the car, no issues with the drive - interior was in very good condition, there were a few cosmetic things  and the aircon didn't work but I assumed just needed recharging.

As above, the wording of the advert is suspiciously effusive, pretty much to the point of being beyond credibility, once in the context of all the red flags visible to you prior to committing, so it may not be a given that a court would find wholly in your favour for a private sale (it would be different if a dealer was to pull stunts like that)?  Was the October MOT fully clean or were there any advisories?

UncleFoss

Many thanks for feedback to date. Answers to questions raised:
I bought the car in December, it’s probably done a couple of hundred miles since bought but mostly been sat on my drive.
Re the October MOT, it originally failed on one of the tyres and had advisories on other tyres. No other advisories. The MOT had been done before seller had bought the car. This was done by the same garage for many years I assume by previous owner. 

Arunmor

Spikeygran said:

 The chap not living at his own address

He lives with his parents!

jimjames

Arunmor said:

Spikeygran said:

 The chap not living at his own address

He lives with his parents!

But presumably not the address on the V5!

UncleFoss said:

Re the October MOT, it originally failed on one of the tyres and had advisories on other tyres. No other advisories. The MOT had been done before seller had bought the car. This was done by the same garage for many years I assume by previous owner. 

front subframe was severely rusted, the front tyres were in need of replacement with the rears not far behind, one of the rear shock absorbers was rusted and had snapped

How old is the car? He said it was "his car" but was his name and address on the V5? Did it ring alarm bells that it wasn't his car if he had only just got it from work and was immediately selling?

If a shock absorber was snapped then you'd know about it without needing to seek a garage. Was it really the shock absorber or a spring? Quite different and a spring can easily be seen as rusty but not automatically a safety issue and could fail at any point with our roads. Shock absorber snapped would be a major safety problem but would also be very obvious. The tyres were advisories at the MOT so not surprising they were then close to needing replacement. The air con as above is probably correct but "air con just needs regassing" is almost never the case. The list of issues does strike me as the garage seeking to get a lot of work from you, I don't know how well you know them but the list seems potentially excessive and maybe giving you a scary bill that isn't completely required. 

UncleFoss

Car is a 58 plate, has done 46000 miles, upper bodywork and interior in pretty good nick. It's the subframe that's the problem, tyres I was prepared for changing at some point but not as soon as has transpired. He was up front about him buying the car to move it on, V5 had previous owner name and address on it, have seen this before with purchasing a used car from a franchised dealer so didn't ring any large bells. HPI checks flagged nothing and v5 transfer without issue. 
Yes, correction, it's a spring that's rusted and snapped. He'd said that he'd replaced the tyres with some part worn ones but clearly not the case. Have taken it to a couple of garages, both concluding the same fault list. There's also an oil leak that is yet to be investigated.
My conclusion from all of your input so far is that it's still worth pursuing the seller through small claims.
Do I get the work done, move on the car and pursue for the repairs and any loss on the resale or keep hold of the car, don't fix it, hold out for the refund?