Used car - Sale of Goods Act and Wear & Tear

[pbas]

I bought a 4 year old second hand Vauxhall Signum on 1st August (19 days ago) for £6,500 and on Tuesday the "exhaust emissions" light came on. The car came with a 12m RAC Warranty and yesterday we took the car to their approved repairer only to be told that the repair would not be covered under the warranty as the exhaust has "carboned up" as a result of wear and tear, the cost of the repair is c.£600.

I have called the garage where we bought the car and the owner was less than impressed with our call, he is going to contact RAC to see if he can "sort something out" but i won't hold my breath!

I have carried out some research online and it seems that there is a 6 month period in which we can claim under the Sale of Goods act for faulty goods. However there is so much conflicting information on this "wear and tear" issue that i am completely confused!

There is no doubt that the problem is down to "wear and tear" but, seeing as we only bought the car 19 days ago and the service book says it was serviced a month ago (by the garage we bought it from), is it reasonable to make a claim under the sale of goods act on the basis that the seller knew the problem was there at the time of sale and that it was therefore not of roadworthy condition at that time?

If the seller denies all responsibility I would like to do all we can to get him to pay (cost of replacing exhaust is £600 plus £55 diognostic check we have already paid for) but don't want to quote "sale of goods" act and "trading standards" if we do not have a leg to stand on. I know its not a fortune but I don't see why we should have to pay when the car is so new to us.

Also, as I don’t have a car now (sitting in the garage waiting for repair) can I pay for the car to be repaired now and claim the cost back from the garage or will I jeopardise any claim we might have under SOGA if I do this?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

[geoff1248]

Did the garage put a new MOT on the car when you bought it? If so maybe it should have fail on emissions.

[postggj]

Simple Answer

Sale Of Goods Act

Be Quick

 

Tell The Garage To Fix The Prob With Immediate Effect Or You Are Rejecting The Car Under The Sale Of Goods Act

 

Forget About The 12 Month Rac Warinty

 

By Law, The Garage Who Sold You The Vehicle Has To Give A Min 3 Month Warrinty

 

Take It Back And Demand A Refund Including The Rac Warrinty

 

If They Give You Any Crap Tell Them You Are Contacting Trading Standards And Do It

 

but Time Is Not On Your Side And The Sales Man Knows This

[pbas]

Re MOT - it was done in March 2009 so expires March 2010. I'm now wondering if he didn't do full MOT at time of service because he knew it would fail!

[postggj]

demand to see if you were not given it the

 

pre delievery inspection report

 

if i were you i would cut and run and get another car from a main dealer

 

refute the car under the sale of goods act

[Conniff]

 

By Law, The Garage Who Sold You The Vehicle Has To Give A Min 3 Month Warrinty

 

 

Where did you get that from pj?

[postggj]

hi conniff

 

my local trading standards

it was a while ago

 

as usual, it was a piece of crap welcome supplied

 

ill double check again as ime collecting from the council this afternoon and ill drop into trading standards

[Mrs_Jeeps]

Bernstein v Pamsons motors 1987 would be applicable in this case.

[heliosuk]

Without doubt, the garage selling is responsible and should handle it all for you, whether they or the RAC is liable. One thing is for certain, you are not.

 

Wear and tear usually cover items such as trim, where there is no real control over the use the trim is put to, clutches, brakes and exhausts the same. Most reputable garages will rectify faults or potential faults identified prior to sale and adjust price accordingly.

 

Your claim I'm quite sure is with the selling garage at the moment.

[postggj]

with out doubt

go back to the garage and return the vehicle under the sale of goods act and demand all money back as unfit for purpose

 

send a letter rejecting the car by recorded delievery also

 

time is running out

 

do it

 

now

[JML453]

Hi have just joined forum, hope my recenet experience helps. We recently bought an 6 year old Audi A4 for £6000 from a car supermarket. We bought the car in November 08, the car suffered with a condensation problem and we decided to contact the car supermarket again about this in Feb 09 (3 months after purchase) I contacted Trading Standards and they told me that when you buy anything if it goes wrong in the first 6 months after you buy it is up to the retailer to prove there is nothing wrong with it and you should write to the retailer telling them what you want them to do about the problem. Our problem was that the car needed a new heater control unit which was going to cost £689 to repair, we wrote to the dealer and told them we wanted the car repairing, their reply was that the car was fine when we bought it but they would offer us £50 as a goodwill gesture, we pointed out to them about them proving there was nothing wrong with it, we offered arbitration (they refused) We were told to do this by Trading Standards to prove to the courts that you have exhausted all the options. anyway to cut a long long story short, we took the retailer to the small claims court and it ended up costing them £817, we added on costs for getting the problem diagnosed, costs for brining the small claim and costs for getting the mould out of the car and the car valeted.

 

My advice is to look on the net for BERR (British Enterprise Regulatory Reform) look at the bit about sale of goods act and cars and talk to Trading Standards.

[heliosuk]

Well done but just as a matter of interest watch for this fault again. I would alledge that there are two possible problems here.

1. VAG heater matrixes are notorious for leaking, but the second one is not well known.

 

Be aware.

 

2. Between the bulkhead and engine compartment at the top end is a tray that houses the interior fan motor and wiper system. This has a plastic cover to block out sight of the mechanisms. There is a drain hole for water as is below the screen and another two at the edges which go down the wings. However, they block up and the first sign is condensation in the car as water builds up to the extent that it rises to a level that floods over the air intake and seeps inside the car.

Another common indicator is windows dropping for no reason overnight as the water has seeped in, found it's way into the footwells and corroded the connections on the body electronics control module which just happens to be located in the passenger footwell under the carpet.

This draining problem has been around for donkeys years and can't work out why VW goup has not sorted it out.

I have a disticnt feeling that the Bentley Continental suffers from this as well as this is essentially a VW Phaeton with similarities to the Audi range.

[Conniff]

Are you any further with this pbas?

[flub1976]

1 Garage should repair the exhaust, 19 days is not a satisfactory period for it to last they wouldnt have a leg to stand on wear and tear is irrelevant unless car bought very very cheaply.

 

2 MOT details can be checked though vosa web site if you have V5C to hand and you will see if he did MOT it and couldnt get it through emmisions.

 

3 RAC warranties are not the best and I dont think they are really the RAC (imho) often most things covered will be excluded under wear and tear clause

 

4 There is NO requiremnt for any warranty to be given by a car dealer, thats why we have soga