Good evening I filed a claim online today. BankFodder, I apologise I didn't request help with filing the claim. I am under huge pressure with work and had to spend 4 hours yesterday and 10 hours today solidly putting my claim together. I was overthinking about posting on here as I did not want to make anything public that would affect my claim and was worried by putting blow by blow preparation up here that Elite would have the details of my claim before I was ready to submit it. I read and worked through the pre action protocol and relevant practice directions. I think they were 16E and 7, I have them printed out upstairs if you need me to confirm. Now that I have filed the claim, Elite have immediately requested and been granted an extension of time to respond. I don't know what reason was given, but I see this would be the first thing a solicitor would advise their client to do I suppose. Stress levels are enormous, I feel so bad to have had to take this action and I just have a constant level of butterflies and feel like I am now going to be in big trouble for causing so much trouble to someone else who clearly feels agrieved. I just want what is fair. I would still like to get your support as I see this through as despite being terrified right now, I would like my experience to help others! Is there anything I can post up here in terms of details of the claim, or are there now confidentiality issues? Thanks in advance.

James_P thank you for letting me know about this. Incredibly upsetting to read but it is helpful to have seen it. BankFodder don't worry, I'm staying on course.

Will do thank you. That will leave me time to do some work and get the pre action protocol paperwork done. I hope you have a lovely weekend. Thanks.

Awesome! Thank you BankFodder. It will be collected on Tuesday pm and tested on Wednesday, I will know more on Wednesday and update here as necessary. I really do appreciate your back-up on this. What is helping me keep a cool head and not panic is because at the end of this I want other people to see it can be done and not to be put off by scare tactics. Thanks.

This is 1 of 3 updates. Could you please read and offer me your advice? Thank you. Update 1 I sent a letter before Action on Wed 24/7: Update 2. I sent an email on Wed 24/7 advising of additional costs. Update 3. I have just received this from Lawgisitcs by email:

Hi Chuffnut. Thanks for your interest in this. The symptoms have always been the same. I am getting an inspection carried out to document the fault and will update here when this has been done.

Thank you BankFodder - I'm learning a lot here. Funnily enough, in my effort to be as open as possible, I have caused confusion and not made things clear, so I am learning the benefit of being succinct. So I have emailed a letter before action and am following up with posted copies before 5pm today. I will email Elite today about my intentions to trailer the car to another vw indie specialist and get a written assessment and adding these to cost of claim. I will sign up to money claim and get the partics of claim ready to serve. I will be in touch with any developments or drafts to check. Thanks for your advice so far.

Thanks BankFodder. I also sent him the video when I rejected the car on 22/7. I will let Elite know now, my intentions and costs for next week. Shall I ignore the lawgistics or copy them in? I have the two detailed invoices, which I had also sent to Elite for their records. Yes it's all about the same fault. Thanks

Thank you BankFodder. After last week's several occurrences, I have an 11 minute video of me driving and the fault occurring. I used a Canon sureshot attached to the passenger headrest to film it. You can hear my voice, the lense is on the dashboard so my face can't be seen. There may be a slight reflection at one point but I believe I cannot be seen in this. Believe me the juddering is worse than it looks, but you can see the rev counter jarring up and down and I have kept a steady commentary of what I and the car is doing. I have just now spoken with a garage, a recommended vw specialist and have booked a recovery lorry for £50 to take it there for them to test it, plug it in to VAG and do a written assessment on Wed next week. They charge £25 for diagnostic and £40.00 per hour. They are a long established VW restorer/garage and come recommended by somebody I trust. Are you happy for me to post a link to the video on here? Thank you. I know I am so stressed and angry I feel so desperate and so stupid and utterly sick with worry.

Hi Bank Fodder, I'm confused and really concerned now. The problem first started 12 days after we bought the car - juddering, ABS and engine management light. I reported the problem and was told to go through warranty company. The fault kept happening every couple of weeks throughout the time it took to get it to 2 garages and agree a repair. I did ask the dealer what happens if the repair doesn't fix the problem. He said its down to garage to find and fix the fault if it does then it is the end of the matter. So he has taken on the repair but it hasn't fixed the problem. As it is happening every time it is driven and it doesn't feel safe to drive, I opted to reject the vehicle. I'm not sure what to do next. Do I go to another garage and pay them to assess and diagnose a fault. I am sorry if I haven't made this all clear. Please feel free to ask me more questions so I can give you the relevant info. Thank you.

Hi king12345 Thanks for your reply, it has been on a VAG machine and they couldn't find the problem. It has been intermittent, happening every couple of weeks, never when it's been in the garage typically. Thank you BankFodder I shan't respond. I will go through with the rejection despite their response through a legal representative. I am trying not to be intimidated and just keep telling myself to expect unpleasantness along the way. It seems like a lot of miles but it has been driven about 40 miles a day most days to and from work since it was bought and the fault has occurred intermittently, but getting worse. I need to get some work done - I have not been able to since Monday as I've been working on this. But I will register with Money claim this afternoon and get going with the particulars of claim ready to serve on Wednesday 7th August 2019. Thanks again.

Thanks Andyorch. I had checked them out previously as Elite use their PDI checklist form.

Hi, I sent a letter before action at 0928 and just now received an email letter disputing claim and dismissing it. Can you advise please? Thank you. Letter contents below:

Thanks BankFodder The vehicle loses power and starts juddering while being driven. It was diagnosed as the EGR valve. This was repaired. The fault has re-occurred. (Is this enough info?) I will include offer for him to inspect. Thanks for the heads up. I have use of another vehicle. This one has been off the road since 19/07/2019 and I've no intention of using it.

Hello BankFodder. Firstly thanks for your help with this. I do appreciate your candid response. Sorry my post was so long-winded. I am working on a 1050 character precis for the claim form! I only uploaded 2 pdfs in the end. One being the email of rejection. I will use this to send a letter and include 'after which I will sue without further notice' text. Can I keep using the vehicle after issuing the rejection? I don't want drive it to but would need to limp it to a garage to get assessments and quotes. I would have to borrow the money to get it trailered. I am 100% seeing this through. I cannot lose this much money. I want to get all the paperwork ready immediately so it can be issued on day 15. I will post the particulars of claim here for checking. Thanks again.

Hello dx100uk. Thanks for your attention and help with this. You had an even later night than me! I clicked on the 'letter before action' link which you kindly gave me. This took me to BankFodder's post 'Small Claims actions in the County Court FAQ - work in progress' which I have read through and also the 'Pre-Action Protocol' and 'Letter of Claim' links. I couldn't find reference to a Letter Before Action or is this the same as a Letter Of Claim? Also, my rejection letter already mentioned a 14 day period (taking us to 05/08/2019) for him to get back to me. Is it ok to send a Letter Before Action now? I only ask as I wouldn't want this to be viewed dimly by the court if it goes that far. I do understand that I need to take action as soon as possible so these are just a few clarification questions . I shall google for some Letter Before Action Templates and put something together. Thanks again.

Hello, It has taken me all day to put this together. I have just (yesterday) rejected a used car and the dealer has not responded although is active on social media and has previously been very communicative. Full details below and I've actually got about 14MB of attachments so will have to filter these down. I want to know if I can try and call him between now and the 14th day, just to try and resolve, or do I need to maintain silence. My view on this is that Elite may be feeling as much caught out with this as I am but that is the risk as a car dealer that Elite/JW takes and I pay to buy through a dealer so I don't have that risk. I think he should take the loss, deal with it professionally and he may even get a good review for handling a return as professionally as he handles sales. Nice thought but how do I bring him around to that way of thinking! Have I used the right channels to send them the rejection? I sent it by email and hard copies to their correspondence address and showroom address I would like advice in preparing for the next stage. Here goes. Please ask for more detail as required. I say them but the company is just one man and the money was paid into a bank account in his name. [I know big mistake] I prepared multiple supporting pdf attachments and there is limited file size. I have attached the rejection letter and one other. A list of supporting docs is below. Please let me know which ones you want or if dropbox links will work and I will put them all on dropbox. All pdfs have been redacted and I have inserted my user name 'Cho' or 'Cho Moglett' Thank you so much in advance for your help with this. Anxiety and stress levels are through the roof over this. Here goes. Monday 15/04/2019. I purchased the Volkswagen Touareg WU06 GOJ from James Whitcher of Elite Preowned Vehicles and paid by online bank transfer. (PDF R01. 150419 Sales Paperwork) At the point of purchase I paid £5350.00. The vehicle was sold with a 3 month warranty from A1 Approved. The advertised price was £5,500. We had agreed a reduction of £150 for a faulty parking assist sensor that Elite had stated that all I needed to do was find that sensor and replace it Elite also stated all the climate control needed was an air con re-gas due to the climate control system not blowing cold. I asked Elite, that as they were simple issues, if they would be willing fix these prior to the sale but they declined saying that for the cost of a new sensor it would not make financial sense for them to drive the car all the way back to Bromley to get their appointed garage to fix it and to drive it all the way back. it was implied that because there was a faulty parking sensor and that the air conditioning needed a re-gas that we agreed what both Elite and I thought was a fair reduction in price to reflect the expected costs to replace a sensor, circa £90. and regas the a/c circa £60. Since purchase I have found these issues to be more significant. I have left these issues out of this current issue as the fault for which I have rejected the car is entirely unrelated. In the sales process, the dealer used a video tour (see dropbox link:REMOVED AS NEEDS REDACTING! (I filmed the video on my pc in case the dealer deleted the youtube video. I also typed up a manuscript (PDF R28) and an 85 point check (see PDF R01) as a big part of his pitch saying that everything had been checked and there were no faults etc. The PDI form is a standard one from lawgistics. The point to this is that when I had the air con regassed on Wed 17/07/19 the engineer found the pollen filter was filthy, blocked and mouldy ( I managed to video the reveal as the engineer know something was up once he opened the access panel and debris fell into the front passenger footwell, I was able to get the camera out. (Dropbox link to this video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9abs4tayt8r29gw/WU06 GOJ blocked and mouldy pollen filter.mp4?dl=0) This item had been ticked as satisfactory in Elite’s pre delivery inspection. So it now also needs a new pollen filter. Wednesday 0730hrs 17/04/2019: Elite requested an Autotrader review. We had owned the vehicle for just over 36 hours at this point so I didn’t think I could give a fair review on the process until we had used the car for a bit longer and at least received the V5 and experienced some after sales customer service etc. I did not respond. Wednesday 17/04/2019 received Autotrader link to review Elite (PDF R08.) Friday 19/04/2019 received another Autotrader link to review Elite (PDF R09) Sunday 21/04/2019 received another Autotrader link to review Elite (PDF R10) Saturday 27/04/2019: In the afternoon while being driven the car started having episodes of power loss. This was accompanied by a juddering throughout the car and the ABS light flashing and the engine warning orange light coming on. After the events the engine warning light remained illuminated until the engine was turned off and back on again. When I got home I texted Elite (PDF R12) and as instructed by text contacted and left a message at the warranty company A1 Approved. Monday 29/04/2019: I spoke to A1 Approved who explained I needed to book it into an independent garage, have the fault diagnosed, have the garage contact A1 Approved with a quote to fix and A1 Approved would review and if approved would pay within half an hour of them receiving an invoice from the garage. I booked the car in to our regular independent garage. The earliest slot they had was 10/05/2019. 10/05/2019 Our garage said they did not have detailed enough diagnostic equipment to fully investigate this fault and we would need to find a VW garage with a VAG diagnostic machine. At this time, they reported that the parking sensors were all showing an open circuit and that they had checked and found this not to be down to the fuses. This would also require further investigation. I found a local independent VW garage that I had never used before. Whatlington Garage and booked it in for the earliest slot which was 23/05/2019. 23/05/2019 Whatlington Garage found the EGR valve flow was not as expected and it required further investigation by blanking off and re testing. I paid £72.00 for this and booked it back in on 28/05/2019 for further testing. I also updated the warranty company and Elite by email. 24/05/2019 A1 Approved confirmed update and asked that the garage contact them on 28/05/2019 when they had done further testing. 28/05/2019 Whatlington Garage blanked it off and took the valve out and cleaned it. They advised that this may fix it because it was really dirty and sticking. They couldn’t now recreate the fault and said if it happened again the EGR valve would have to be replaced. I paid £42.00 for this. I didn’t contact the warranty company as Whatlington Garage did not issue a quote as the issue was hopefully fixed. (See also PDFs R13. R14. & R15) I carried on using the car as normal. 17/06/2019 the fault re-occurred. 18/06/2019 I contacted Elite and spoke to James on the phone, letting him know that having read the warranty in full it would not cover the repair, but he said he would take care of it and bypass their terms, that he pays them so they will ring him for authorisation and he will authorise it. At this point I mentioned that the other issues for which there were deductions were turning out to be more significant than he had represented them to be. He did not want to talk about this and said we would get this issue fixed first. (See also PDFs R16. & R17) 19/06/2019 Quote from Whatlington sent to A1 Approved. (PDF R18.) 19/06/2019 Email from Elite saying it was a goodwill repair and he would not enter any further discussion about the parking sensors. (PDF R19) I did not respond to this although with gritted teeth as in my opinion a dangerous fault is not something that falls under ‘goodwill repairs’. 19/06/2019 I emailed Elite to ask them if they were sure this fix would fix the fault as Elite had explained that A1 Approved had technical knowledge which is what he paid them for. Elite responded to my question re the fix with a ‘who can say/lets wait and see’ (See PDFs R20, R21, R22 & R23) 19/06/2019 A1 Approved authorised the work. (PDF R24) 19/06/2019 Whatlington replaced the EGR valve and A1 Approved paid them. Monday 15/07/2019 the acceleration became sluggish, almost like it was trying to pull away in 4th gear. This occurred when turning left onto a busy A road. Thursday 18/07/2019 it lost power and began shuddering and struggling to move forward whilst being driven on a busy A road. Friday 19/07/2019 I decided to stop driving it as it was constantly juddering and losing power and I felt it was dangerous to continue using it. I managed to film the fault this day. Dropbox link to video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5j0g4h9a6vhcdyh/MVI_4356.MP4?dl=0 22/07/2019 I emailed the rejection to elite with links to videos and copies of invoices to date. I also posted copies of the email to Elite’s Correspondence address as it appears on Companies House and to his showroom address in Kent. The copy to the correspondence address was sent first class signed for. Unusually, this has not been signed for yet. The copy to the showroom address was sent just standard first class. (See PDFs R25, R26 & R27) Since I sent the rejection email, the dealer has not responded. He has been very communicative in the past. He is also still socially active on his business facebook page actually posting last night about his excellent customer service. I am wondering if he is not responding because he thinks I haven’t followed the correct channels by emailing him, how long does he need to check his post at his correspondence address. R01. 150419 Sales Paperwork R08. Email 170419 Elite asking for Autotrader Review R09. Email 170419 Autotrader Review Request R10. Email 190419 Autotrader Review Request R11. Email 210419 Autotrader Review Request R12. Text Sat 270419 notifying problem R13. Text Thu 230519 Elite following up R14. Email trail 240519 to warranty co R15. Verbal Record trail 240519 to my partner R16. Email 180619 to Elite as record of telecon R17. Email 180619 from Elite patronising R18. Email 190619 to A1 approved with quote R19. Email 190619 from Elite will pay out of goodwill R20. Email 190619 from A1 asking for cheaper part R21. Email 190619 from Elite that A1 to sort R22. Email 190619 to Elite asking if this will fix it R23. Email 190619 from Elite saying who knows R24. Email 190619 from A1 confirming go ahead R25. 220719 email and letter to Elite rejecting car R26. Posting receipts 220719 R27. 220719 ADDRESSED ENVELOPES R28. WU06 GOJ Elite Sales Video transcript R25. 220719 email and letter to Elite rejecting car.pdf R28. WU06 GOJ Elite Sales Video transcript.pdf

Hey all, I came across this forum today whilst investigating my rights with regard to a used car bought from a dealer that I am having to reject. I would like to post about it to get help along the way so would be grateful if one of you fine moderators/admins could point me to the right location to start a topic. Thank you.