Hi

Needing some advice and guidance, will keep this to the point and hopefully someone can help,

It was a 40th treat for myself which makes it even worse for me.

Viewed a vehicle on 04/11/18, at a Lookers dealer in Carlisle, 70+ miles from our home address, Paid full screen price, £12,500, paid £8000 on debit card and £4500 on finance, asked for a few cosmetic repair's to carried out as well as serviced, mot'd and fully valeted.

Got train back to dealer on 17/11/18 with wife and kids to collect vehicle, only thing was it hadn't been cleaned at all well apart from that happy with vehicle and service received.

Drove home, on returning home (82miles covered) not even 3 hours into ownership the vehicle has smoking badly from under the vehicle, the transfer box on the transmission had been leaking all over the exhaust and underside of vehicle causing the burning smell and smoke when arriving home.

So at this time on a Saturday night the dealership was closed so emailed the salesman. The workshop manager contacted us Monday to arrange vehicle collection as they wanted the option to repair the vehicle at the purchasing dealership (which turned into a joke), the vehicle was collected on a trailer (20/11/18) and took back to Carlisle. The oil leak was rectified and the vehicle returned to my place of work on 23/11/18.

I took delivery of the vehicle as the leak seemed to be rectified, when I left for work I tested the 4wd system which displayed a fault, contacted the general manager as it had been passed to him to deal with and verbally agreed he knew the 4wd was working prior to repair as he drove the vehicle when it was traded in, as I also knew it was working as I tested it before purchase.

He contacted me to let me know he had booked it into the Lookers Ford dealer nearer to my home, great, dropped it Monday 26/11/18 to be inspected Tuesday, this didn't happen, the inspection took place on Wednesday, they condemned the transfer box, the General manager from Carlisle contacted me to state a new one would be fitted and he had authorised the repairs.

Collect the vehicle 03/12/18 far dirtier than when I dropped it off and to discover a second-hand unit had been fitted not new, which has now shown a fault 1 day after the replacement transfer box.

I'm at the end of my tether. Now this is where my problem starts...…. and for my post needing help!! (sorry for the long post)

I don't think for one second they will challenge my rejection as he has already made this a evident to me over the phone. We have been more than reasonable and in turn they have been fine with us.

But.. Its a 63 reg vehicle and only had 44K miles recorded and had a very high spec. if I'm just to simply take my money back and finance cancelled there is not another vehicle on the market to replace this one for the same value, some are £2000 plus more, I may be being stupid but I don't see why I should now be without a vehicle because of Lookers incompetence or having to be another £2k plus deeper into a vehicle. Not including all the cost to collect the vehicle etc.

Is there any advice on how to progress with this? I want the vehicle that was described to me at initial purchase, however I have lost all faith in the one I have.

Are they obliged to find me one either from group stock or from an alternative source? and if they are and it is at a higher price - do I have any rights with them to ask them to price match for the one I bought? I don't see why I should be out of pocket and back to square one, after viewing a few vehicles before purchasing this one.

Thanks

I think you are absolutely right. You should be able to claim for a vehicle of equivalent value or else a refund of the value of the vehicle rather than the price.

We are talking here about fairly esoteric contractual principles – but I don't see why they shouldn't be enforceable.

However, we are talking outside the Consumer Rights Act.

Contract law doesn't protect people from making a bad bargain. This means that if the dealer sells you a £10,000 vehicle for only £5000 – and it fundamentally doesn't work, then you should be able to recover the value of the vehicle rather than the price you paid.

You can be sure that it will become complicated because the dealer won't understand this and am quite certain that it will lead to a court action.

Your problem here is that even to get a refund of the price, you are looking at claiming £12,500. You haven't told us what you think the value of the vehicle is – but on the basis that you seem to be suggesting that it is far more than your purchase price, it seems to me that you may be claiming £15,000 or more.

This takes you outside the small claims limit and this means that if you happen to lose, you will be liable for the other side's costs – as well as your own.

I think that this is something that you need to factor in when making your decision about what you want to do about the problem.

Furthermore, if you decide that you want to pursue the dealer for the value rather than the price, then I can fully expect that you will end up in a conflict which could last anything from six months to a year. On the other hand, you seem to be confident that they are prepared to refund you the price and in that case you may will find that the whole thing is over in a couple weeks and you will have your money to go and spend elsewhere.

Tell us what you want to do and we will help you. It's very lucky then that you have been here since 2012 and you have read our customer services guide and you have implemented the advice there. Well done

By the way, are the dealers - Lookers?

Thank you for your swift reply. I wanted to be armed with the best information prior to contacting the general manager again and you have been a great help so thank you.

Not wanting to over complicate matters if I was to return the vehicle, cancel the finance and receive a refund then submit a request for the balance of the £12500 purchase price and the circa £15,000 for a like for like replacement how would I stand?

Or does it all need to be dealt with as one issue?

I feel I am willing to take the long view on this as we have been more than accommodating and understanding, as I have a motor trade background, throughout the whole process.

Your red line should be that you recover all the money you have spent including any associated costs and interest. This puts you back into the position you would have been in if you had not entered into the contract.

The maximum that you can go for, as I have already explained, is the value of the vehicle plus associated losses so that you would be placed in the position that you would have been in if the contract had been executed correctly.

This does not have to be dealt with as one issue, so long as you don't put yourself in a position where it can be said that you have accepted some kind of payment or refund or replacement in settlement of the entire matter.

I suppose that if you manage to recover your outlay and then you wanted to proceed for the difference between your outlay and the value of the vehicle, this would have the advantage of bringing your claim well within the small claims limit if you decided to go to court.

Don't expect to make any friends

I expect like BF says, you would have to take them to court and sue them for the difference between £12,500 and £15,000. I dont imagine proving the vehicle is/was worth £15,000 will be easy. Cars are worth what someone is willing to pay for them.

I imagine what you may be better off doing is suggesting as a compensation for your inconvenience, that Lookers put you in a like for like vehicle at their cost.

Thank you, we are penning an email to the general manager now to see what his proposal is now that the vehicle has developed another fault on the drive home!

always better to write than email, gives you apapertrail

for extra impact send it signed for

shows you mean business

Hi, sorry I forgot to reply to bank fodder, yes the dealer in question is Lookers in Carlisle its the multi franchise site, Nissan Renault and Dacia I believe, not the VW on the same estate. Thanks for all the advice and points up to now you have been great as per!! Lets see what today brings. Thanks again.

This is shamefully bad advice, you cannot buy a product from a retailer and then demand more back because you think it’s worth more.

Where is the balanced sensible advice here ?

Great news, replacement vehicle should be with me early next week. The general manager has been absolutely great. Makes a change for good to have come from a bad situation.

Thanks again for all your help.