Thread: Used car fault within 10wks of purchase

I am trying to help someone who has had a problem with a recentley purchased bmw from a independant car sales local to him

10 weeks ago the car was purchased and on the website of the car sales place every page with a used car on states clearly each car fully inspected and warranty included.

Car drives fine and everything ok but this last week he has to make a trip to a official bmw dealer where the car would be serviced in future but not the car sales place it was bought from. and asks the person working at the front desk about a DSC warning light that appeared on his dashboard, it turns out thats the traction control system and what controls the individual wheel braking when traction control in use. Person at the desk of the bmw dealership/repairs told him quite quickly its not something to worry about and carry on driving until he brings it in for service or "something noticable happens".

That was saturday morning he got by them. On sunday morning on his way home from a night shift in work at 6am he was travelling down a 50+mph road under the speed limit and on a roundabout something happens out of the normal with the car and collided with the pavement curb and buckled his wheel considerablly out of position and with the road being wet slide into the curbing on the other side of the roundabout exit road. It had been raining and with what he was told the day before was not driving stupidly but suffered this accident (noone else involved at all).

Insurance company contacted and car picked up, found where it was being kept ready for repairs and requested the official bmw dealers to do the work due to reputation of the insurance companys choosen repairers being a bit shoddy at best. Car transfered now and have been told by the bmw dealership that the insurance company should cover the £500 mechanical damage to under engine bay and whatever ends up being the price for bodywork/wheels repair but the fault with the DSC wont be touched and infact will cost him £1500 to get fixed at his own cost at a later date.

What i am not sure about is if he ok's the repairs to the car by the insurance company and then goes to the independant car sales he purchased it from and states the sales of goods act and either requests a refund or repair of the faulty component with or without any legal help at first will they have a right to refuse due to the crash and/or repairs?

Cheers.

There are two issues here. !. The accident and 2. The DSC fault.

1. Well done for insisting it went to a BMW dealer for repair. People often take the insurance co's suggested place as being ok when in fact they can be cut price and have been known to use used parts. At BMW you can be assured it will be repaired properly (well hopefully!!)

2. The DSC problem. I trust you are not trying to blame the accident on the DSC as this is nigh on impossible to do. The DSC works in conjunction with the ABS system and an electronic box called a yaw sensor. Can you give more details as to exactly what the BMW garage has said the fault is? The BMW garage is acting quite correctly here however the diagnosis at that price suggests the ABS modulator pump assy has failed.

I would suggest you get a very detailed quote from the BMW garage and present this to the selling garage giving them the opportunity to put it right. Watch out for the trick of bypassing the initial test on switching the ignition on and linking the warning lights in to the engine management system though!!!