Hello, I wonder if any of you may be able to offer me any advice on the following. I bought a VW Golf, 2 months ago at a local dealership (non-affiliated to any brand) in Dorset. I paid £7,000 on my debit card. When I purchased the car, the salesman told me that if there was anything wrong with the car, I could return it in the next 3 months, no questions asked. At the same time, I was also heavily pressured into purchasing an RAC Warranty. This would cover any mechanical failures to the car within the first year, and I duly paid the £50 for this cover, purely for peace of mind. Within the first 2 weeks, there were minor issues with the car, wiperblades, that kind of thing. I took the car back, and the guy fixed them on the spot, and of course I assumed that this was part of his '3 month' duty of care! Within the month, the gearbox completely packed up on the car. I managed to return the car to the dealership, quoting the 3 months no-quibble return policy given my the salesman. The owner of the dealership told me that the salesman has been 'fired', and why would he have sold you an AA Warranty if you had a 3 months no-quibble return policy. He basically told me that I was on my own. The car duly went off to the AA approved garage. They diagnosed the problem and said that it would cost £1,300 to fix. £1,000 would be covered by the warranty, but I would have to pay for the excess (£300). I was not happy about this, but duly paid and now the car is back and all fine. I contacted Consumer Direct, who gave me the full list of legal points supporting the misselling of this car. As suggested, I wrote a letter to the dealer, stating these points requesting repayment of the £300 excess. If I didn't receive a response, I would be pursuing this through the small-claims court. The letter was never signed for, and on my 4th attempt, it was signed for. There was no response from the seller to me! After more than 14 days, I submitted a moneyclaim online. This was for the £300 excess, and a variety of other reasonable charges including time off work, and travel costs to travel by train when my car was out of action. The retailer has offered a defence, a counterclaim of more than my original claim for the 'work' that he did free on the wiperblades at the beginning! If he won this case, I would lose £5k as this is how much he is counterclaiming for! What do I do?!!

Many thanks for this. I have full diagnosis of the issue and receipt for the £300, so there is no issue there. If I take this down the Small Claims Court route, how does it work if he just doesn't respond to the letter that the court send him? Also, what would be the exact law behind the fact that he has to prove the car was in perfect order when he sold it?

Hello, I wonder if any of you may be able to offer me any advice on the following. I bought a VW Golf, 2 months ago at a local dealership (non-affiliated to any brand) in Dorset. I paid £6,000 on my debit card. When I purchased the car, the salesman told me that if there was anything wrong with the car, I could return it in the next 6 months, no questions asked. At the same time, I was also heavily pressured into purchasing an RAC Warranty. This would cover any mechanical failures to the car within the first year, and I duly paid the £50 for this cover, purely for peace of mind. Within the first 2 weeks, the gearbox completely packed up on the car. I managed to return the car to the dealership, quoting the 6 months no-quibble return policy given my the salesman. The owner of the dealership told me that the salesman has been 'fired', and why would he have sold you an RAC Warranty if you had a 6 months no-quibble return policy. He basically told me that I was on my own. The car duly went off to the RAC approved garage. They diagnosed the problem and said that it would cost £1,300 to fix. £1,000 would be covered by the warranty, but I would have to pay for the excess (£300). I was not happy about this, but duly paid and now the car is back and all fine. I contacted Consumer Direct, who gave me the full list of legal points supporting the misselling of this car. As suggested, I wrote a letter to the dealer, stating these points requesting repayment of the £300 excess. If I didn't receive a response, I would be pursuing this through the small-claims court. I sent this by recorded delivery in an unmarked envelope with no return address. The dealership refused to sign for the envelope and the letter was returned to me. What are the next steps? Should I continue to pursue this through the Small Claims Court, based on the fact that this is the kind of person who will not sign for a letter, even though they don't know what it will be! In addition, what happens if I take this through the courts, and he just doesn't respond? Further notes to this case. Using false names to illustrate the example, the car dealership trades as "London Car Sales", and has only been in operation 2 months (the car dealership before 'disappeared'). The receipt for the car shows not "London Car Sales", but "P. Jones and J. Spencer"... Any thoughts? How should I tackle this going forward?