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Consumer Rights on a faulty used car
Tillymint_77
Posts: 3 Newbie
in Motoring
Looking for some advice on anyone who has exercised their consumer rights on a used car:
Background: I bought a car from a dealer on October 23rd 2024. Within 6 months I had alerted him to a major engine issue which turned out to be blown head gasket. He didn't end up doing the repair till Feb 2025 (although he did not delay us in carrying it out). The dealer repaired this car at his cost and instead of fixing the engine he replaced it with a used engine as said it would be cheaper. At this point he was reasonable and dealt with the matter fairly quickly.
Once we got the car back it ran a lot better. We asked for details of the replacement engine so we could inform DVLA and he struggled to give us anything. The only paper trail I could get was an invoice stating the replacement engine had 57K miles on it (we'd initially bought the car with 42k miles). We watched the coolant levels carefully having had so many issues with it when we bought it. We had to add a lot of coolant within the first 6 weeks as levels dropped considerably and I got in touch with the dealer at this point to alert him to this fact. The levels then stabilised and it led us to the conclusion that when the engine was switched over it may not have been bled and there had been air locks. But we left it at this point as thought it was ok.
Then in September 2025 the engine started to overheat and we had bubbling coolant levels and levels dropping considerably. We now can't drive the car as not safe really and only manages about 10 miles before overheating. My mechanic has confirms combustion gases are present in the coolant so the engine has a leak.
I went back to the dealer on the advice from my mechanic who said under consumer rights act the repair isn't satisfactory, and the dealer has 1 chance to repair otherwise we can request he refund us. The dealer immediately shut down the conversation (this was on whatsapp) and said 7 months had passed since he'd replaced the engine and he wouldn't do anything and then blocked me on whatsapp. He indicates we're out of our initial 6 months since purchase and he's not liable for the repair.
Having read up on the consumer rights act, I'm thinking we have a right to return this car based on the fact that the repair isn't satisfactory. It was a used engine and there's no evidence of any paperwork to suggest any checks on it, and it clearly isn't durable having developed a fault quickly. Anyone any experience of a similar situation or any advice on proceeding with small claims court if we do decide to go down this route?
Background: I bought a car from a dealer on October 23rd 2024. Within 6 months I had alerted him to a major engine issue which turned out to be blown head gasket. He didn't end up doing the repair till Feb 2025 (although he did not delay us in carrying it out). The dealer repaired this car at his cost and instead of fixing the engine he replaced it with a used engine as said it would be cheaper. At this point he was reasonable and dealt with the matter fairly quickly.
Once we got the car back it ran a lot better. We asked for details of the replacement engine so we could inform DVLA and he struggled to give us anything. The only paper trail I could get was an invoice stating the replacement engine had 57K miles on it (we'd initially bought the car with 42k miles). We watched the coolant levels carefully having had so many issues with it when we bought it. We had to add a lot of coolant within the first 6 weeks as levels dropped considerably and I got in touch with the dealer at this point to alert him to this fact. The levels then stabilised and it led us to the conclusion that when the engine was switched over it may not have been bled and there had been air locks. But we left it at this point as thought it was ok.
Then in September 2025 the engine started to overheat and we had bubbling coolant levels and levels dropping considerably. We now can't drive the car as not safe really and only manages about 10 miles before overheating. My mechanic has confirms combustion gases are present in the coolant so the engine has a leak.
I went back to the dealer on the advice from my mechanic who said under consumer rights act the repair isn't satisfactory, and the dealer has 1 chance to repair otherwise we can request he refund us. The dealer immediately shut down the conversation (this was on whatsapp) and said 7 months had passed since he'd replaced the engine and he wouldn't do anything and then blocked me on whatsapp. He indicates we're out of our initial 6 months since purchase and he's not liable for the repair.
Having read up on the consumer rights act, I'm thinking we have a right to return this car based on the fact that the repair isn't satisfactory. It was a used engine and there's no evidence of any paperwork to suggest any checks on it, and it clearly isn't durable having developed a fault quickly. Anyone any experience of a similar situation or any advice on proceeding with small claims court if we do decide to go down this route?
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Comments
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I had a similar issue with a lawnmower, it went faulty within 6 months and was fixed, it then went faulty again with the same fault after 18 months, they then replaced the mower.0
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