Thread: Car Sold by Garage unfit for purpose

A friend has a problem with a vehicle he purchased about 6 weeks ago.

He saw the car on ebay, and bid for it, but didn't win. It stated on the ebay advert car had a problem with a wheel bearing and was for spares or repair.

Buyer dropped out & the garage contacted him to ask him if he wanted the car. He did, and paid (outside of ebay) by Visa debit card. On the invoice from the garage it does not mention spares or repair, or sold as seen - just standard garage invoice. They also got there mechanic to check the vehicle out (as he was worried the wheel bearing fault was actually the transmission) and they said vehicle was fine.

2 weeks later car broke down with major engine fault - all 4 camshafts need replacing and the quote from a VW dlr is nearly £3k.

He has written to them to ask for a repair or his money back, but they are refusing saying that because he bought outside of ebay they won't help him, however he is not trying to claim back through ebay - just the sale of goods act and the vehicle not being fit for purpose.

Couple of questions:

Can he pursue this or his wasting his time?
If that fails, can he do a charge back through visa?

Thanks for any help

bump

Originally Posted by tiaposy

A friend has a problem with a vehicle he purchased about 6 weeks ago.

He saw the car on ebay, and bid for it, but didn't win. It stated on the ebay advert car had a problem with a wheel bearing and was for spares or repair.

Buyer dropped out & the garage contacted him to ask him if he wanted the car. He did, and paid (outside of ebay) by Visa debit card. On the invoice from the garage it does not mention spares or repair, or sold as seen - just standard garage invoice. They also got there mechanic to check the vehicle out (as he was worried the wheel bearing fault was actually the transmission) and they said vehicle was fine.

2 weeks later car broke down with major engine fault - all 4 camshafts need replacing and the quote from a VW dlr is nearly £3k.

He has written to them to ask for a repair or his money back, but they are refusing saying that because he bought outside of ebay they won't help him, however he is not trying to claim back through ebay - just the sale of goods act and the vehicle not being fit for purpose.

Couple of questions:

Can he pursue this or his wasting his time?
If that fails, can he do a charge back through visa?

Thanks for any help

Wrote to whom? The garage or ebay.

As he didn't win and the garage contacted him, then the whole deal is outside ebay and thus SOGA applies to the sale in ther normal way.

Print off the ebay advert before it disappears.

Car was listed as spares or repair, which indicates that it is not fit for use on the road unless you repair it. Sounds like cambelt has snapped which would cause that sort of damage. Something that should have been checked by the purchaser to see when it was last changed.

Sorry, I am on the garages side this time. A car sold for spares or repair does not fall under the same protection as a car sold fit for use.

patdavies: He wrote to the garage. They said on the ebay advert that the wheel bearing was faulty. He asked them to check the whole vehicle before he bought it and they only came back with the wheel bearing fault.

Wheelergeezer: The cambelt has not snapped - nothing to do with the fault. Apparently, the camshafts wearing is a common fault on these vehicles. The invoice he has from the garage says nothing about spare or repairs and he bought directly from them so he has written back rejecting the vehicle under the SOGA. He paid £3.5k for the car so a wheel bearing problem is o.k, but replacing 4 camshafts after 2 weeks???

Conniff: VW garage confirmed fault with camshafts. It didn't actually Breakdown, but the engine was very noisy, which is why he had it recovered,

Thanks for the replies. He has written to the garage now rejecting the car and asking for his money back. Alternatively he will do a chargeback on his visa card.