Car dealer false advertising refused refund

born_again

Aylesbury_Duck said:

sheramber said:

Acedrive said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

What I don't understand is why, having taken CAB advice, rejected the car and then prepared to write the letter, you have now retrieved the car and are debating the situation with us, a bunch of strangers on the web.

Reject the car and write the letter.  I suspect the dealer will fold and either fix the problems or refund you.  If they don't, you can then decide whether you want to go to court.

Sorry I thought thats what a forum is for, asking questions, getting advice, positive or negative.
With the dealer already refusing to give a refund and offering no resolution to this problem, apart from suggesting its our fault for not reading their disclaimer 

This forum will give you opinions of random strangers who offer their  personal advice. 

That advice is the same as CAB gave you but you have not followed it through.

If you told the dealer you would take legal action then your option now is to do that or  give up. 

Exactly this.  

In which case companies house might be a good place to check to see if there is a history of them closing up shop & setting up again.

Acedrive

At the end of the day, there is a problem with the car's functions, yes I have asked for a refund, they refused, but they have the opportunity to put things right of which they have not offered, looking back at my thread title it is misleading, they actually have not advertised the car falsely, their description was accurate, it physically has heated seats, but they do not work because of an aftermarket unit that they have had fitted, of which they knew but failed to tell us before purchase, and we only found out after looking into this, perhaps I should have asked do they have an obligation to correct this?   

Alderbank

Acedrive said:

At the end of the day, there is a problem with the car's functions, yes I have asked for a refund, they refused, but they have the opportunity to put things right of which they have not offered, looking back at my thread title it is misleading, they actually have not advertised the car falsely, their description was accurate, it physically has heated seats, but they do not work because of an aftermarket unit that they have had fitted, of which they knew but failed to tell us before purchase, and we only found out after looking into this, perhaps I should have asked do they have an obligation to correct this?   

For my daughter, like you, heated seats are a 'must'.
The first thing she does on a test drive is to seek out and press the 
                                                                                                     button. If no warm bum then no sale.

The Government's legal guidance to the Motor Trade on the Consumer Rights Act includes:
You are not liable:

- for fair wear and tear, where the vehicle broke down or fault emerged through normal use

- for misuse or accidental damage to the vehicle by the consumer

- if the consumer examined the vehicle before buying it and should have noticed the fault.

You had the opportunity before making the purchase to discover that either there is no heated seats control in the car, or if there is that it did not work. It's a car which has had a fair amount of use, that is the condition of the vehicle when you agreed to buy.

Even if you had pointed this out before purchasing, they still don't have an obligation to correct it.

Acedrive

Alderbank said:

Acedrive said:

At the end of the day, there is a problem with the car's functions, yes I have asked for a refund, they refused, but they have the opportunity to put things right of which they have not offered, looking back at my thread title it is misleading, they actually have not advertised the car falsely, their description was accurate, it physically has heated seats, but they do not work because of an aftermarket unit that they have had fitted, of which they knew but failed to tell us before purchase, and we only found out after looking into this, perhaps I should have asked do they have an obligation to correct this?   

For my daughter, like you, heated seats are a 'must'.
The first thing she does on a test drive is to seek out and press the 
                                                                                                     button. If no warm bum then no sale.

The Government's legal guidance to the Motor Trade on the Consumer Rights Act includes:

You are not liable:

- for fair wear and tear, where the vehicle broke down or fault emerged through normal use

- for misuse or accidental damage to the vehicle by the consumer

- if the consumer examined the vehicle before buying it and should have noticed the fault.

You had the opportunity before making the purchase to discover that either there is no heated seats control in the car, or if there is that it did not work. It's a car which has had a fair amount of use, that is the condition of the vehicle when you agreed to buy.

Even if you had pointed this out before purchasing, they still don't have an obligation to correct it.

Providing consumers with important information prior to the sale You must give consumers the information they need to make an informed choice before a sale is made� You must not omit or hide such information, or provide it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner�

As taken from 
Car traders and consumer law

So the dealer failed to tell us they had changed the info screen, which is causing the heated seats/USB port not to work.

Car is 7 years old, 44,500 miles.

Aylesbury_Duck

In summary, you think you have a case to reject the car for a refund, or that the dealer has an obligation to fix the functions that don't work.  The dealer appears to consider that they've sold a used car in good faith, your grounds for rejection are weak and they're not inclined to implement a solution to the non-working functions.

So six pages in, and the advice is still: letter before action.  It's the only way you're going to find out who's going to blink first.

sheramber

You don't need to convince us.

You need to convince the dealer or the court.

Grumpy_chap

Acedrive said:

Providing consumers with important information prior to the sale You must give consumers the information they need to make an informed choice before a sale is made� You must not omit or hide such information, or provide it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner�

As taken from 
Car traders and consumer law

So the dealer failed to tell us they had changed the info screen, which is causing the heated seats/USB port not to work.

Car is 7 years old, 44,500 miles.

You seem to have missed the point that was being made.

If a heated seat is a "must have" feature for an individual buying a car, that individual might well be expected to test the function of that "must have" feature at the test drive and if the feature is not working as it should either require that it is fixed and properly operating before purchase or not purchase that car.

You seem to have decided after the purchase that the heated seat is a "must have" feature and, hence, grounds to reject the car in its entirety because the heated seat is not functioning.  OR, there is some buyer's remorse and the "must have" need for heated seats is now being created as a fictitious reason to return the car.

Why did you not check the "must have" features were present and correctly operating prior to purchase?

The thing is, with a used car, right to reject the vehicle in full is moderated by the age and condition of the car.  Many purchasers of a 7 yo car would be largely indifferent to heated seats or not.
How did you demonstrate to the Dealer prior to purchase that you were very much concerned as to the heated seats or not?

lincroft1710

The key word in rejecting a car is significant fault. The dealer may well argue that heated seats are not a significant feature in the ability of a car to be used as a car i.e. getting from A to B.


One thing to be aware of is that if you reject the car by returning it to the dealer and he refuses a refund, it will take months for the case to come to court. 

TELLIT01

Apologies if this has already been asked, but is the OEM  unit still available?  If so it would seem that the problems could be eliminated by the dealer purchasing and fitting that.  I suspect I'm missing something.

Aylesbury_Duck

TELLIT01 said:

Apologies if this has already been asked, but is the OEM  unit still available?  If so it would seem that the problems could be eliminated by the dealer purchasing and fitting that.  I suspect I'm missing something.

I don't think you've missed anything.  From the account, I don't believe this solution has been proposed.  OP wanted to either reject the car for a refund or have the dealer investigate why the functions don't work with the aftermarket screen.  OP did once mention seeking a resolution, by which they might mean they'd be happy with the dealer purchasing and fitting an original screen, but that wasn't explicit.

Reading between the lines, I think another poster got it right when they suggested that OP has buyer's remorse and is trying to pin justification for rejection on the consequences of the new screen.  It started with a lack of radio stations and phone integration and some hints at some (unspecified) missing safety features, and having done some more research, OP has realised that the heated seats can't be controlled from the replacement unit and they've suddenly realised that heated seats were an essential requirement of theirs.

The dealer owner seems to have got fed up with the OP after having already dealt with some stone chips and has told OP to see them in court if needs be.  To me, that sounds like there's no further negotiation to be had, which is why several of us have advised OP to send a LBA to see if it instigates a different approach from the dealer.