I would be grateful for any advice on this, I bought a used car from a garage and the next morning I went to use it and the engine management warning said there was an issue with the coolant system. I called the garage where I purchased it from and explained that the car was loosing all the water through the bottom of the car. They went straight on the defensive saying the car would have to be recovered at my cost and I would be better off taking it to a local garage to diagnose the problem. They stated that the car had a new MOT on day of purchase so anything that had gone wrong with it was not their problem. I'll cut a long story short a mechanic diagnosed the problem as a blown radiator but it took hours of work as the front end of the car had to come off, so I told him to repair it as I would of had to pay for the work already done as it took hours. I have since sent a letter to the garage I bought it from who said he did not authorise the work and is therefore not paying. What are my rights in regards to this as the repair cost £700 to put right. I would really appreciate any advice you can give Thank you

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me. I bought a car three months ago from Toyota, on the day of picking up that car, it broken down and eventually the battery went flat within a month. As a preapproved car they are meant to be fully serviced, have have their preinspection checks and any MOT advisory issues on the MOT to be rectified according to Toyota. Ive asked for the preinspection checks which the garage don't have, and when I went through the servicing documents the car was due for a service the week after I picked up the car, and on the day of receiving the car I found that two of the tyres had advisory items which means I need to get them replaced soon. They've lied to me before when I requested an engine oil change because it was a dirty brown color and they stated that the car was not due for service on an invoice in september which is a month after a service was due. They have only agreed to change the tyres if they see fit which is ridiculous as I paid extra for a preapproved car on the understanding that cars are fully serviced and MOT issues are rectified. I know that they have breached contract in the SOGA and OFT unfair selling regulations. They've said that this is the most they will do for me seeing as I've had the car for three months even though I stopped using the car since the start of october and I've told them this in correspondence. They are refusing to accept any fault, and even though I've highlighted my concerns many times they are not dealing with me seriously. I don't want to have to take this to court as it has wasted enough of my time trying to get through to them. I have also contacted head office who refuse to deal with it as I purchased a preapproved honda from them rather than a toyota. I'd be grateful for any advice, thanks!

In order to reject a used car, do I take it back to the dealer, even if we are in dispute about how much he will refund me? I am planning on taking him to court for the full amount I paid, plus compensation for repair costs, as it broke down after one week and was not as described. If I take the car back, do I sign the car over to him while I let the court decide how much he should refund me? If I keep the car until the issue is resolved, do I have to insure it, even if I don't use it? The car tax is due to run out, can I claim back the cost of this, since I am not able to use the car due to the dispute? I have asked the dealer to collect it, but our negotiations have been going on for almost 3 months and he keeps changing his mind about what he is prepared to offer me. Meanwhile I have a car that I can't use.

Here we go then: 20.3.13: sign a finance agreement, pay a deposit and take delivery of 05 Citroen C5 auto diesel, 77k on the clock 21.3.13: having driven c140 miles, the STOP warning light appears on the dashboard. I stop the car immediately. I wait a few minutes, and start the car again. Plumes of white smoke emit from the exhaust. I switch off and wait a few more minutes. Repeat the exercise with the same result. I'm no mechanic, but have enough lay knowledge to suspect this is a blown head gasket. I call my recovery company. Upon arrival, he repeats the exercise. He tells me that he too suspects either a failed turbo or a failed head gasket. He confirms that the cannot be driven. On the job sheet, however, he only mentions the turbo, rather than or in addition to the head gasket, but does mark the job as 'urgent'. I ask him to recover the car to the dealership from whence it came yesterday. The car is delivered as requested. I leave a note on the dashboard, with my mobile phone number, asking someone to call me. I also leave a copy of the recovery agent's report. 25.3.13: I have heard nothing from the dealership. I call them. The sales guy tries to fob me off, suggesting I should be speaking to servicing. I insist on speaking with him, and that he finds out what's going on with the car. He speaks to servicing and returns to tell me that they're looking at the car, and suspect that a head gasket has blown. I advise him that with that news I'm now considering my options, as my view is that the care is not fit for purpose under SOGA. 1.4.13: Hand delivered a letter to the dealership giving them 14 days to refund all monies. See attachment. 2.4.13: Called finance company to inform them of my action. They advised ongoing dialogue with dealership. 2.4.13: Called dealership, spoke to another sales guy (whom I'd met) to ask if they've read letter. He said the letter had been passed to the director 2.4.13: Later, surprise surprise, I receive a call from the original sales guy to say that they've checked the car, and can find nothing wrong with it. This is clearly in contradiction of his previous information given to me on 25.3.13 that their servicing department suspects a failed head gasket. I advised him that I'd be taking legal advice. 3.4.13: Called the finance company. Explained the dealership's response. They suggest they're going to get an independent engineer's report. 3.4.13: Faxed a second letter to dealership and copied to finance company. See attachment. 12.4.13: Call from finance company to say that the independent engineer has completed his inspection, and found nothing wrong with the car. The finance company suggest that accordingly, the car is ready for collection. I suggest to the finance company that the engineer's report is in respect of the car on the day that he saw it, not on the day it broke down, when unambiguously, the car was not fit for purpose, as confirmed by the recovery agent's report. He suggests that from the finance company's standpoint, my complaint has been finalised. I said that I will await a copy of the engineer's report. So.....facts and opinions: 1. the car was unfit for purpose from day 2. opinion 2. the symptoms clearly suggest a blown head gasket or turbo - neither of which could simply rectify themselves without mechanical intervention opinion 3. the dealership told me on 25.3.13 that their servicing department suspected a blown head gasket fact 4. an independent mechanical report can only report on what they find on the day of inspection, not on the day the car failed opinion 5. under SOGA I have a right to return goods that are not fit for purpose fact What next? I fully intend to sue. But I need to be clear. I've now come to realise (I think) that my contract is with the finance company for the entire purchase price, including the deposit I paid direct to the dealership, including fuel left in the car by me. It is the finance company against whom I should be issuing Proceedings. Am I right? Any further observations? Thanks, Caggers, in advance for your advice and guidance.

On the 14th of November I purchased a 2007 Mazda 6 Sport 2.0L Diesel (143bhp) from a car dealership. On the day of purchase I drove the car away and found that there was no power being produced by the car and it struggled to get up to 80mph. At first I thought maybe I was imagining the problem so I put it to the test. The listed 0 to 62mph of the car is 9.5 seconds so I tried this and could only manage 21 seconds so right there and then I knew it was broken. When I got home I emailed the dealership telling them it was broken and that I would like my money back as the dealership is 65 miles away and would be a nightmare to get home from using public transport. I told them I was not happy and wanted a refund. They told me that I could not have a refund and that I must allow them to try and fix it. Reluctantly I agreed as I have been getting conflicting advice on what my rights are. So I asked if they would be able to give me a loan car while the car was being looked at to which they replied no we do not give loan cars. They have offered me no help what so ever and I have been left without a car for who knows how long. So the next day I drove the broken car the 65 miles back to them. The salesman agreed to take me to the train station in the Mazda. As soon as he started driving it he said it is definitely broken. I then had to catch 4 trains home at a cost of £30 and 4 hours. So anyway the salesman assured me that the car was booked into a local garage for 9am the following day and that he would call me as soon as the garage had diagnosed the problem. The whole day passed with no contact from the salesman so at 5pm I rang him. He told me that the garage could not identify the problem and that an auto electrician was going to take a look the following day (Saturday). This further annoyed me as I have had to call them at extra cost to me when he promised he would call me. I did a little research and I found some info on the Trading Standards website stating that I don't have to accept the offer of repair and that I can reject the car. So I emailed the dealer stating my position again and they emailed back saying they will let know when the auto electrician has looked at the car. So this morning (Saturday) they told me the auto electrician could not find a problem with the car and that an "expert" was going to look at it on Monday. They said I could not have my money back again. I had a big argument with the owner of the company but we got nowhere. This is causing me a great deal of stress. Not once have they offered me any kind of assistance or compensation. The car is clearly broken and was that way when I bought it. They will not budge on their position so I need to know what I can do. What are my rights and what can legally be done to reject the car? Do I need to let them try and fix it? Or can I just demand my money back? I have been told by various sources that because I asked for a refund straight away then the dealer should have given me one. He has bullied me into repairing the car. Hopefully someone will know the exact things I need to to know. Thanks for your help guys!

Hi, We recently bought an 08 C4 picasso (just over 50k miles) from a local dealer. Paid £7500 (£1000 part ex, £6500 balance). Took no extra warranty (my bad). We recently had a trip to scotland and while in a car park the braking system failed, warnings for braking system failure, handbraking system failure, ESP failure and depolution failure all at the same time. I had to contact a local garage as we were stuck. He said to leave it a while and try switching the engine off/on etc to see if it clears as he couldnt help at all. He advised we should get it to citroen. We only had the car 3 weeks so I spoke to the car dealer we bought it from explaining the situation and he said I should get Citroen to look at it. I said he should take the financial hit for that and after some back and forth with the dealers mechanic they have agreed to get the codes read at their own garage. Where exactly do I stand her regarding Sale of Goods and what should I expect from the dealer? Any help is appreciated. Dave

I'll summarise to keep this as short as possible: Bought car and collected on Monday. On Friday, thought I had a flat tyre, took to tyre garage, alloy wheel cracked in many places. Garage said cracks looked old. Also, had a weld, showing signs of previous repair. Called garage i bought car from. Salesman initially very helpful, asking me to email photo of wheel, so he could replace. Sent email saying "I am sourcing a wheel for you" Chased up later - boss refused to replace wheel (cost of £530, plus tyre at £300) I stated this wasn't acceptable. Wouldn't budge. Offered instead to collect the wheel and "repair" It has many cracks, tyre garage says repair is impossible / unsafe Also, no spare wheel (car has runflats) - so sending wheel obviously renders car un-usable. Car was sold with MOT put on car a day before I collected it. Tyre garage asked an off-duty VOSA inspector to take a look - he said it shouldn't of passed MOT and to appeal the MOT cert (he was off duty- but that is his job) I've informed the garage of my position. Basically, that I believe under the sale of goods act, the garage has a duty to replace the wheel, since repair would be impossible. What should I do? They're asking for the wheel back, but i need VOSA to inspect first to see if MOT is invalid?

Hi all, Many many thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully help. I found a previous thread posted by someone else and the advice within it was great so I thought I'd ask for your opinions, help and advice. I found a car on eBay a couple of weeks ago, looked good, nice condition and so on 'engine as sweet as a nut' was one of the comments. I won the auction and arranged to travel to Birmingham to pick it up. The listing was then removed from eBay, I had set up a new account, was trying to sell my car as well and eBay suspended the account due to wanting evidence I owned the car. I mention that as it's proving difficult to get the original listing details, live chat with them last night ended up in requiring a solicitor write to their legal team however... I went to Brimingham to meet the seller who at the time I thought was private, I get there and it's a trader called TRT Engine Importers LTD. I look at the car, go for a drive and all seems well. 70k miles and they tell me they've just serviced it. The engine being worth £3000 alone and how it was in good condition was mentioned a few times. Although, when I got there the guy I had been dealing with 'bob' wasn't there, he sent a message saying he was in hospital and that 'rav' would complete the sale. I was a touch edgy and wanted a reciept and so on. It did seem like a semi professional place. I handed over the cash, got a receipt on letter headed paper from TRT (They were also registered keepers of vehicle on V5) and drove away. A couple of hours later the engine started tapping, something fell off, tons of smoke and that was the end of that adventure. I pulled over, oil everywhere, even up the back of the car. Engine was unresponsive and I had to call breakdown to recover the car. I hadn't actually made it home yet, 4 miles away -.- The breakdown guy didn't want to comment, we took it to Kwik Fit, not the best place but I was out of options, my garage was shut and if I took it home I then had no way of getting it to a garage. The mechanic / boss at KwikFit had a look and refused the work saying it was beyond their capabilities. He referred us to an Engine Specialist Centre and thats where we left the car. It was shut so it's patiently sitting on their forecourt, I will be speaking to them today asking for diagnosis and quotes. I've sent 'Bob' a message explaining what happened, he asked to be updated shortly after the car broke down adn I've heard nothing else since. I've since sent hima nother message asking for a refund and again waiting on a r eply. I did some digging around on the web to try and get as much info as I could. The seller name on eBay is MRNS ARORA, Google ties a Mr Narninder Singh Arora as being a director of TRT. A similar search for TRT and Bob finds a Bob Andrews to also be a Director of TRT. I found addresses for both and the contact details match up. I intend on sending my 'official' letter to the address of TRT, the address of both previously mentioned and by email to all as well. I expect I won't get a response, I expect it will go through a small claims court and I suspect they won't make an appearance. I'm not saying they knew the engine was a dud but I do still think I'm covered. My main concern is them not paying and waiting for the next steps. The car was 3600, pretty much my savings, I've already arrange to sell my car on Tuesday and can;t really afford to be without a car for months. I will of course manage but is there a way to speed this whole process up? Can anyone offer any similar experiences, help or advice please? Many thanks for your time.

we bought a used car back in february which we bought for from a used car dealer for £3800 with 3 months warrenty, it was serviced and MOT at the time we only had it a week or so before we started to have problems with it so we took it back to the place we bought it and they said they would repair it, while it was under warrenty we had it back to them several time because we kept having problems with it, loss of power, electronic fault on dash etc, etc each time we took it back they said it was fixed when we went back to pick it up when we kept getting problem with it we told them we werent happy and the fact that we had paid money for a car with problems, in the end we took it to renault and paid for them to do a diagnostic to find out the problem was several faults came up so we took it back to the dealer they didnt offer us our money back just said they would sort it and continue to repair while it was under warrenty, the last time we got it back which was just before the warrenty ran out it seemed to be all fixed, then about 2/3wks after the warrenty ran out electronic fault came on dash board so we took it to the garage we use and trust who found it was the pencil coils needed replacing even though they had already been replaced under the warrenty, so we paid for them replacing and hoped that would be the end that was about 2 weeks ago well that wasnt the end of it electronic fault has been back on the dash board since, so now we are going to have to take it back to our garage again to find out whats wrong with it at our cost. we are at a loss as to what to do because we dont know if we have any rights regarding the used car dealer who has obviously sold us a pig in a poke and we feel we have been ripped off, so what can we do ? help please.

On 1st September 2010 I purchased a Land Rover from a local dealership (not a Land Rover dealership) for £11,200 cash purchase; I had, ten days previously, put a deposit on the car allowing plenty of time for a full service and clean. I had used the dealership previously - and happily - but didn't know that it had changed hands (and not continued its membership of SMMT). After five days, during heavy rain, water began flowing freely down the front passenger and driver seat-belt housings. I also noticed oil on the road where the car had been parked. The car went in to the dealership's garage for repair on an oil leak and water ingress but the repairs were unsuccessful; it went in for repair three more times for the same faults, again without success. During a very heavy spell of rain, water began dripping into the rear of the car from the sunroof. After a heated exchange the md of the dealership said the leaks had been repaired and there was nothing further he would do. I rejected the car by phone on 14th October and on 1st November in a recorded delivery letter, giving ten days for a response and citing SOGA. I received a reply, eventually, in which the original two faults were acknowledged but not the third (and most expensive). The dealership said the only remedy it is willing to consider (after I suggested several alternatives) is diagnosis of the faults by a LR garage and then repair by its own workshop. My confidence in the dealership's ability to fix the faults after four attempts is nil and an admitted inability to diagnose the faults suggests incompetence. What are my responsibilities with regard to allowing the dealership another go at repair when I've already rejected the car? The stress is making me ill as I run a small business and need a car urgently; I haven't used the car since rejecting it.

Hi folks, Im looking for some advice about a very serious issue Ive had with a used car. Here's the background.. 3 weeks ago I purchased a 06 plate Mondeo from a car dealership (i think its a family business). The advertisement I initially saw for the garage stated "A1 condition, drives superb. All our cars are sold HPI clear, prepared to a high standard and are faultless". I went and saw the vehicle and purchased it. Up until last week I had only ever driven the vehicle with me in it. Last week I took my family (4 in total) for a drive and as I approached a junction the brakes failed to stop me effectively and the nose of the vehicle ended up in the junction. Luckily the oncoming driver was aware and took evasive action. I took the vehicle to a garage the following day to have it inspected and I was told ALL brake discs and pads, all the way around the vehicle, were substantially worn to the point they suggested it would have failed and MOT and should not have been driven on until its repaired. Considering I purchased the vehicle in the midlands and live in Devon and also noting what the mechanics said about safety, I had the work done there and then and kept all paperwork showing the inspection result. It cost £363. I am absolutely horrified this has happened as it could have been a serious accident. To add insult, as my car crossed into the junction, even by a few feet, I activated a red light camera and now have recieved a penalty ticket from the police! Can anybody please tell me where I stand on claiming my money back from the dealership? Maybe under the Sale of Goods Act? Thank you for any help