Approximately 11 days ago a friend of mine purchased a Peugeot 206cc from a local a local garage for £1195.00 with a full MOT.

In those 11 days the following has happened

1] handbrake cable snapped and had to have them replaced (not by the garage)

2] Total electrical failure due to blown fuse (which the garage bypassed)

3] Engine immobiliser failure which was cured by reprogramming the key code

4] and now Terrible shrieking noise from drive belts or tensioners.

Friend took the car back to the garage and I followed in my car as expected to have to give him a lift back. Garage basically washed their hands of the problem and told him its his problem now.

He mentioned the CRA but owner not interested and when I chipped in he took me aside and told me to F**k Off and barred me from the place.

I must also mention that there was another car sales place there the previous year which shut down/disappeared as it was getting loads of really bad reviews on the web. I suspect that this is the same person trading under a different name and although the reviews for this new garage are fairly good (reviews posted in a short time period and not from verified purchasers) there is the odd bad review creeping in.

SO, what does my friend do now and how does he go about it.

Stop faffing around.

s.20 Consumer Rights Act 2015 rejection (assuming you're within the 30 day time limit), write to explain that you're rejecting, the car can be collected by them.

Ask for a refund of all monies, failure to refund, issue a Letter Before Claim and then after 30 days, issue a County Court claim against the company.

If you're within 30 days to 6 months, then you can offer an opportunity for them to repair, they get one chance at this, failure to rectify the issue means you can reject.

That car sounds like a complete lemon to be honest. And bypassing the fuse is a complete bodge job that may end up with your friend having an unexpected bonfire. Hopefully not while they're driving it!

I'd be rejecting it immediately and getting my money back. With those problems in just 11 or so days, it's very much time to walk away and find a better one.

Out of interest, how did your friend pay for the vehicle?

Rejection letter with a time to reply limit (recorded delivery)

Wait for specified time limit for reply if none then Letter Before Claim again recorded delivery

Then if still no joy go County Court route after 30 days as elapsed from issue of the LBC

and once the rejection letter is in he has to stop using the car immediately.

My understanding is he paid cash

and I agree I would have walked away already after the fuse problem

Absolutely. Once you've rejected, stop using the car immediately, it's their obligation to pick the vehicle up at their cost, don't be fooled into thinking otherwise.

I run a small business in the motor trade, any self respecting car seller will stand by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, unfortunately a large number of businesses think their customers are gullible and will swallow the costs of any repairs.

Yes, so you send a letter and email rejecting the car, stating why (I.e. The problems listed), that you reject inaccordance with s.20 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and that the vehicle is available for them to collect.

If they fail, then issue a Letter Before Claim giving them 30 days to pay the money you're owed, outlining that a claim will be made.

Failure to pay after 30 days, go straight into MCOL and file a claim against the company.

Be aware , if its a shady dealer, chances are they will shut the company down upon receipt of a claim and then reopen as a new business.

Why don't you tell us the name of the garage – or are you trying to protect them?

You should certainly reject the car – and in writing. However, I wouldn't hang onto the car. It will become a complete liability to you – apart from anything else you will have to worry about insurance, vehicle licence et cetera.

The best thing you can do – within your 30 days – is to reject the car in writing and to deliver the car to the dealer and leave it on the forecourt. Take lots of photographs of the car as you leave it so that there is no dispute about the condition. When you take the car there should also be a witness. Don't get involved in any conversations – especially not the witness because that will just lead to aggressive behaviour. However, have a recorder running and make sure everything is recorded and may be videoed if you can do it discreetly in order not to provoke any more trouble. At the same time as leaving the car there would also leave another letter explaining that unless you get your money back there will be a court action. Assume that you're not going to get your money back and bring the court action immediately.

However, you do have the problem of the disappearing garage. If the garage is no longer there to sue then you have a problem. If the garage is not limited liability company then you can simply sue the owner as a sole trader or in a partnership – but of course you will need to be up to tracking down once you get your judgement in order to enforce it.

If you are extremely worried about the garage not being there to enforce the judgement then I suppose you would be better off simply keeping the car, getting it repaired and then suing for the repair cost. At least if you then are unable to enforce the judgement you will have the car even though you will have taken some loss.

From the sounds it, don't expect any of this to go smoothly – but you probably know that

Hi there Bankfodder.

I have not put the garages name on here as I thought it may well be against forum rules and I most certainly am not going to protect them as they have got my back up.

So, the garage is called Adam Motors (Stoke) Ltd which is trading on the site of a previous car trader called SUN Street Cars whose reviews clearly showed what type of garage Sun Street was.

Although I have no proof I believe Adam Motors and the now defunct Sun Street Cars may be owned by the same person trading under another name. So, it may be exactly as you

say and that Adam Motors may well do a vanishing act once the letters/papers are served.

I do think your suggestion of getting the car repaired and getting them to pay for it is the lesser of two evils here as the last thing this friend wants is rejecting car, them collecting it

and then disappearing so he ends up with nothing but a empty wallet and no car.

Will be talking to friend tonight so will discuss this with him.

Although I have no proof I believe Adam Motors and the now defunct Sun Street Cars...

Seems about right. Autotrader reviews of Sun Street Cars. But read the first one https://www.autotrader.co.uk/services/car-dealers/uk/west-midlands/staffordshire/stoke-on-trent/sun-street-cars-stoke-on-trent-dpp-631177/reviews/true?sort=reviewdatedesc

Prob ran by the same people. Then just switched identities.

This is the director.

Safa Kamal Sola SHEKHANI

Only started the company last October

Did a little more digging into this and found this review on Auto Trader.

By Sandeep S on 12 July 2017 | PURCHASE NOT VERIFIED

This is a great secondhand car dealership in Shelton Stoke On Trent Adams cars are reasonably priced and in good clean condition and he is an honest and fair guy to deal with I would certainly buy from him again and he looks after you and his cars

Nothing really out of place here until you realise that this review was left for Sun Street Cars but mentions Adams cars.

Does seem funny that Sun Street Cars stopped trading to be replaced by Adam Motors within a couple of weeks.

As to my friend he as decided to go for the repair and then bill the garage for it as he does not want to be left without a car and his money if Adam Motors do disappear. He most certainly will be leaving a truthful review of his experience with this dealer.

Thanks to everyone for their advice,

If anything else happens I will update this post.

Did a little more digging into this and found this review on Auto Trader.

 

By Sandeep S on 12 July 2017 | PURCHASE NOT VERIFIED

This is a great secondhand car dealership in Shelton Stoke On Trent Adams cars are reasonably priced and in good clean condition and he is an honest and fair guy to deal with I would certainly buy from him again and he looks after you and his cars

 

Nothing really out of place here until you realise that this review was left for Sun Street Cars but mentions Adams cars.

 

Does seem funny that Sun Street Cars stopped trading to be replaced by Adam Motors within a couple of weeks.

 

As to my friend he as decided to go for the repair and then bill the garage for it as he does not want to be left without a car and his money if Adam Motors do disappear. He most certainly will be leaving a truthful review of his experience with this dealer.

If he has the car repaired by another garage he loses all his rights under CRA 2015 and will be stuck with the car and the garage can refuse to pay the bill as they were never given the opportunity to carry out any repairs. An argument on a forecourt will not be acceptable in a courtas it has to be in writing.

Hello Surfer01

My friend approached the garage concerning the shrieking noise to which the garages response was WD40 sprayed onto the belt. This made it quieter for about 5 minutes then the noise returned.

During my friends conversation with the owner the owner actually called him a f***ing idiot and that it was a known fault so was his problem.

The thing is that my friend now feels that this garage could not be trusted with any sort of repair (the actual mechanic was sitting on the floor fixing the brakes on another car (using the cars own jack to lift it) as the garage does not even have the basic ramp car lift you would expect. He just feels that if he did get them to put it right the car would come back worse than when it went.

He really wants to keep the car as it is fairly decent and it's exactly what he wants. So, he may just say to hell with them and get it fixed BUT, He is going to trash the garages reviews with a truthful account of what has happened and the treatment he has received if only to stop someone else suffering this treatment he has had.

Will see what he says about your post concerning losing his CRA rights by getting it fixed elsewhere.

My own feelings concerning the shrieking noise is that it's a misaligned tensioner and it's that misalignment that is causing the edge of the belt to run against the groove slightly at an angle and so cause the shriek.

There is also the possibility the car has been involved in an accident and the pulley is out of alignment. I am not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. IMHO this car is going to be a money pit and he should get rid of it as soon as possible. He has the law on his side.

the fuse bodge job is the telling bit here rather than all the other faults which may just be coincidental on an older car. They knew there were problems and they failed to point this out to you so misrepresentation.