Faulty Brand New Car - Final Right to Reject

DisgruntledDadToBe

I bought a brand new MG ZS Hybrid less than 5 months ago and last Friday it totally broke down on whilst driving on the motorway with a complete loss of drive. It needed recovery on the back of an AA truck from the hard shoulder. I've had many issues with the dealership - a large, well known operation and official dealer - who wouldn't accept it onto their premises for investigation or repair, which is in breech of the MG warranty conditions. Long story short - I was persistent and got it to them - but they are now stating that the car is driving fine with absolutely no fault codes or issues and they want to give it back to me.

This is a 4 month old car which has totally lost all drive, breaking down on a fast road and putting myself and my heavily pregnant wife in a dangerous position. I am trying to pursue my Final Right to Reject under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 Section 9(3)(a)(d) unfit for purpose and safety and via Section 24 (5)(a) after one repair or one replacement.

Might the dealer argue that there was no repair required? We are both unwilling to accept this vehicle as fit for purpose because it was totally undriveable for days but is now ok, but without having a cause for the breakdown identified. I'm particularly worried about my wife driving it on her own and ending up in a similar positions stuck on the hard shoulder!

Any help/advice appreciated on my first post!

Thank you

DullGreyGuy

DisgruntledDadToBe said:

I bought a brand new MG ZS Hybrid less than 5 months ago and last Friday it totally broke down on whilst driving on the motorway with a complete loss of drive. It needed recovery on the back of an AA truck from the hard shoulder. I've had many issues with the dealership - a large, well known operation and official dealer - who wouldn't accept it onto their premises for investigation or repair, which is in breech of the MG warranty conditions. Long story short - I was persistent and got it to them - but they are now stating that the car is driving fine with absolutely no fault codes or issues and they want to give it back to me.

This is a 4 month old car which has totally lost all drive, breaking down on a fast road and putting myself and my heavily pregnant wife in a dangerous position. I am trying to pursue my Final Right to Reject under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 Section 9(3)(a)(d) unfit for purpose and safety and via Section 24 (5)(a) after one repair or one replacement.

Might the dealer argue that there was no repair required? We are both unwilling to accept this vehicle as fit for purpose because it was totally undriveable for days but is now ok, but without having a cause for the breakdown identified. I'm particularly worried about my wife driving it on her own and ending up in a similar positions stuck on the hard shoulder!

Any help/advice appreciated on my first post!

Thank you

You appear to be missing part of the story... so you gave them the one opportunity to fix the vehicle and it's now back with you so has the fault reoccured? Or are you assuming the fault is still there because they claim they've done nothing to the vehicle?

DisgruntledDadToBe

Sorry if it was vague.

I had a call from the dealership this morning advising me that they were unable to replicate the fault and haven't found any issues, so have not carried out any repairs. When the total loss of drive occurred, I had to pull over to the hard shoulder and since then 2 x AA recovery vehicles have seen the vehicle and found it had absolutely no drive at all - so I have independent witnesses/reports.

I have asked them to recheck and retest as I am unwilling to accept the vehicle back without a diagnosis of what caused the fault, with an assumption that it might happen again, in a 4 month old vehicle.

I am asking for advice to see if I am within my rights to reject it on this basis - they have had the vehicle and an attempt to repair, but I don't see a fix.

Thanks.

m0bov

I think you need to give them 1 chance to repair. It's more than 30days 

DisgruntledDadToBe

m0bov said:

I think you need to give them 1 chance to repair. It's more than 30days 

They've had one chance to diagnose/repair and couldn't find a fault.

This is my question. As they couldn't diagnose a fault, they could not carry out a repair. I experienced the car breakdown on the motorway and remain undriveable for 2 days. So am I within my rights to reject?

Alderbank

You are within your rights to reject if the seller agrees. If you can't agree it would have to go to court and the judge would decide on the evidence. The seller says they have investigated and found no faults. What evidence do you have?

Baldytyke88

DisgruntledDadToBe said:

They've had one chance to diagnose/repair and couldn't find a fault.

This is my question. As they couldn't diagnose a fault, they could not carry out a repair. I experienced the car breakdown on the motorway and remain undriveable for 2 days. So am I within my rights to reject?

What do you think the fault was, was the engine running normally, no warning lights, is it an automatic, clutch, what model, do these have a history of the same fault?

DisgruntledDadToBe

Alderbank said:

You are within your rights to reject if the seller agrees. If you can't agree it would have to go to court and the judge would decide on the evidence. The seller says they have investigated and found no faults. What evidence do you have?

I hope so, but feel the seller will not be agreeing, as they have not found a fault.

The evidence I have is my own and my wife's experience of the breakdown. I also have evidence that The AA attended on the hard shoulder, were unable to drive it and had to recover it to a safe place, and that they came out the next day and were also unable to drive the vehicle. So I hope that stands up!

DisgruntledDadToBe

Baldytyke88 said:

DisgruntledDadToBe said:

They've had one chance to diagnose/repair and couldn't find a fault.

This is my question. As they couldn't diagnose a fault, they could not carry out a repair. I experienced the car breakdown on the motorway and remain undriveable for 2 days. So am I within my rights to reject?

What do you think the fault was, was the engine running normally, no warning lights, is it an automatic, clutch, what model, do these have a history of the same fault?

I have no idea, possibly battery related? I was driving as normal on the motorway and getting up to speed when the car started decelerating and lost all power, with nothing coming no matter how far depressed the accelerator was, to a point where I had to pull onto the hard shoulder. It was running fine before this and has not displayed any warning lights throughout the whole episode.

It's an automatic MG ZS petrol hybrid, and my research doesn't show any similar issues.

Arunmor

I think to keep things simple you will need to go one more round with this and see if it happens again and then there will hopefully be no argument.

TELLIT01

I understand the concerns of the OP, but if the dealership can't replicate the problem they obviously can't fix it.  It's possible it was a one off issue and plugging their diagnostic kit was enough to reset the systems.  It's also possible they did a software upgrade before running their tests, and the upgrade fixed it.  Bottom line is that the car is now running normally.  

The best you can try, is to get the dealership to agree to take the car back if it fails in the same way again in the next x months.