Used car not as described in advert

[debt_mountain]

I just purchased a used car from a small independant dealer (Hyundai Coupe v6 - with manufacturers 5 year warranty) he has been in business for over 10 years.

When I bought the car I told the dealer it had the 5 year warranty as it has a full service history, he agreed, also his adverts (autotrader and his website) said it had a full service history. I have kept a copy of both.

When I got the car home I found that the 3rd service was not in the book, thus the service history is not FULL as advertised. This also means the warranty will be null/void.

I have only had the car for 1 week. I have informed him of this and he is currently trying to get the missing service details.

On looking at the oil filter I doubt it was actually done, the filter is very rusty and it is 16 months 16000 miles since the last service.

Assuming he can't obtain the correct service info do I:-

1 - Force him to give a refund? Can I do this?

2 - Force him to pay for a 2 year warranty (About £1000) as that is what the car would have had if his claims were true?

3 - Force him to cover all repair costs for the next 24 months? Difficult 1 if he were to go bust etc.

I am going to give him 10 days to get any info together then take further action.

thanks in advance.

[alexifa]

I would ask him for a goodwill payment in the first instance as the vehicle was not as advertised with the missing service. Make it clear that this is not a final settlement and you will be pursuing him if there are any later defects that cannot be fixed under warranty.

[chesham]

Originally Posted by debt_mountain

I just purchased a used car from a small independant dealer (Hyundai Coupe v6 - with manufacturers 5 year warranty) he has been in business for over 10 years.

When I bought the car I told the dealer it had the 5 year warranty as it has a full service history, he agreed, also his adverts (autotrader and his website) said it had a full service history. I have kept a copy of both.

When I got the car home I found that the 3rd service was not in the book, thus the service history is not FULL as advertised. This also means the warranty will be null/void.

I have only had the car for 1 week. I have informed him of this and he is currently trying to get the missing service details.

On looking at the oil filter I doubt it was actually done, the filter is very rusty and it is 16 months 16000 miles since the last service.

Assuming he can't obtain the correct service info do I:-

1 - Force him to give a refund? Can I do this?

2 - Force him to pay for a 2 year warranty (About £1000) as that is what the car would have had if his claims were true?

3 - Force him to cover all repair costs for the next 24 months? Difficult 1 if he were to go bust etc.

I am going to give him 10 days to get any info together then take further action.

thanks in advance.

If the seller was acting in the course of a business (that is as a 'vendor') and you were acting as an individual (that is as a 'consumer') then you are legally entitled to cancel the contract and give him back the car and demand a refund - or, as he has breached the contract, the courts could award you damages, if you wanted to go that far.

The Sale of Goods Act (1979) As Amended does not provide the same protection within contract entered into within private sales or businesses - the contract is bound by the maxim 'caveat empor' - which means buyer beware !

However, the aforementioned piece of law (Section 13) implies that if the goods do not comply with the description by which they were offered, then there is a breach of condition and the buyer is legally entitled to repudiate (i.e. cancel or end) the contract in which he has entered.

So, in short, yes you can demand a refund!!

[debt_mountain]

Never got round to updating this but

when I went back to the garage with a copy of the letter he said he would call me the next day, which he did.

He said the manufacturers warranty would be ok but if it wasn't he would take the car back and give a full refund.

I had to hand the car in to the manufacturer to get the alarm replaced as the remotes didn't work and they had no issues with the missing info in the service history.

The garage who sold the car also made good all the other issues I had and he also let it slip that the markup on the car was from £6800 to £8450. Not bad as he had around 50 cars of a similar sort of value.

so it pays to go armed with the law but keep a level head and talk calmly.