Bought new car from EBAY then broke down 4 weeks later help !!!!!

[mikeyboy197663]

Hi, im very new to this and this is the first thread i have started.

 

I purchased a used car from a trader on ebay selling cars from his house. i paid £500.00 for a used rover and the description is as below:

 

We are currently having a clearance sale of p/ex's, which are good used cars, with long mot's and many have service history, (see others on this web) This Rover 416 has had the head gasket/water-pump/timimg-belt replaced recently and drives extreemly well. It come with a good MOT, and has the added luxury of air-con There are a few dings and dats around the body, but generally, this car is in a good sound condition ! IT'S HERE TO BE SOLD ! ! NO RESERVE !! CAN BE VIEWED/DRIVEN ANYTIME, SUBJECT TO A PHONE CALL

 

i drove the car home from his house and all was fine, but then 4 weeks later the clutch went and the car was bunny hopping and also the front shocks were making a strange noise. i tried to contact the seller through ebay, he did not answer, i then tried to email, and he did not answer, i then tried to text him, and he did not answer, i then tried to call him, and he did not answer. after about 8 days he then answered with the following comment:

 

Hi, take a long hard look t the feedback you left me on this 500 pound motor car, and decide jut how a court of law will see it, however, I am prepared to send you a new a cutch kit as a gesture of goodwill this will be a FINAL OFFER, rgds john.

I then explained to him that i am not a mechanic and do not know how to fit a clutch and a local garage would charge me £200.00 to fit it, and i also explained that there was other faults with the car. i said that i could have the car towed back to his house which is about 25 miles away, and he replied with the following comment:

 

It will be here for an awful long time if you do.

i then asked him if he was refusing to fix the car, and he replied with the following comment :

Go away, I gave you a a more than generous compromise, there is little more now I can do, or more to the point, prepared to do

can anyone help with what i can do now, not sure what rights i have. even though he sold it from his private house it was sold through a business account and his trading name through ebay.

Thank you for all your help.

[/font][/font][/font]

[welshperson3]

I think you might be expecting to much for £500 in terms of a car,

you get what you pay for. If you had it couple of days then fair enough but after a month on a £500 car you cant really expect a warranty.

[mikeyboy197663]

hi,

 

Doesnt matter what i paid for the car, it was sold to me with defects. so was not fit for the purpose it was sold for ?

 

£500.00 might not be much money to you but it is a lot for me, it is not so much the money it is the point that he refuses to do anything about it.

 

Please tell me if you think i am asking to much, i bought a car for £500.00 and it broke down 4 weeks later, should a car not last for longer than that ?

[welshperson3]

how long do you think it should last ?

you don't say the mileage or the age, but if your car is say 10 years old and 100k miles, then any one living in the real world will expect to have some problems now and then.that is why they sell for £500.

the clutch is a wear item the same as brakes and Tyre's.

at what point in time after you bought it and it goes wrong would you say is fair, maybe the same as manufactures warranty 3 years?

[welshperson3]

Your point about £500 not being a lot to me is not true it is, The relevant point is that £500 will only buy you a car that is well used and going to need work some time soon.

[mikeyboy197663]

hi,

 

i would expect at least 6 months fault free driving. do you not think this is fair ?

 

As you can see in the auction details, he says there are no major faults with the car, do you not think worn shocks , failed clutch and various other faults are a fair point for me to argue.

 

If he would have said that he was not sure of the faults and i could buy sold as seen, then fair enough, but i have just noticed that on the ebay auction he has listed the mileage as 73000 miles but on the mot certificate issued 1 month before me buying it states that it has done 84000 miles, surely this is illegal ???

 

also he had this car for 7 months but did not register it in his name or company name as it states the last registered keeper as apolish man in scotland ???

 

Is this legal ?

[mikeyboy197663]

hi welshperson3,

 

when you say sometime soon surely this should be longer than 4 weeks ????

[welshperson3]

You say it was moted i month before you bought it, but now the shocks have gone, so a mot station with qualified mechanics cant tell at which point in the future a mechanical item will fail.

 

my point is if it was in the first few days then the seller could have known about the problem but after 4 weeks then any thing can go wrong .

 

example.

have you been rallying the car

do you live 5 miles down a dirt track on a farm

do you go to cruse meetings and do burn outs

 

put your self in the sellers shoes

[mikeyboy197663]

the car was bought for my 64 year old diabetic father in law, who lives on a perfectly tarmacced road and only done 136 miles since buying this car, and why would the seller liar about the mileage ?

 

Im quite sure he does not go to rally meets lol

 

so do you think that the seller was fair in telling me to go away ?

 

Regards

[Conniff]

It is true that you can't expect as much from a £500 car as you can from a £5,000 car, but the regulations are specific in that it must be fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality given it's age and mileage.

 

The regulations also state that a fault is assumed to have existed at the time of sale if it appears within the first six months.

 

Even taking into consideration the age, mileage and price paid, 136 miles isn't a lot and You should mention the sale of goods act to him.

 

You can try rejecting the car, but it must be done in writing.

[mikeyboy197663]

Thank you conniff,

 

Do you have any idea as to what the letter should state ?

 

Thank you for all your help.

[Conniff]

Do you want to keep the car or get your money back?

 

this car is in a good sound condition

 

The car has been misdescribed.

 

Was there a sign saying something like 'sold as seen'?

Edited February 8, 2010 by Conniff

[mikeyboy197663]

Hi Conniff,

 

I would like to keep the car, but am worried that if i let him carry out the repairs they will not be done to a sufficent standard.

 

The full description from the auction is as in the 1st post, it never said anything about "sold as seen"

 

Regards

[Conniff]

What model of Rover is it mike? (just out of interest).

 

If he has a number of cars to sell, then he will probably have some sort of garage premises somewhere as he said 'We'.

 

Were you given a proper receipt with the name, address and phone number of the seller or was this on the ebay page? If you would like to pm me a link to the ebay page that would be very helpful. I am just trying to establish if he has complied with the regulation so you have some ammunition to assist with getting what you want, and make things easier.

[Joijo]

You cannot buy a car off eBay without expecting something to go wrong. It stated in the advert that you can go and drive the car. If the car had an MOT prior to you buying it then its down to you to fix the car.

 

You have it in your head that the seller owes you something but in the hard light of day he doesnt. He has tried to compromise with you about the cluth by sending you a clutch kit. This in itself is expensive. A clutch can go at anytime, it is normal wear and tear of a car.

 

You have more chance of getting something if you had bought it from a garage.

 

The police will state that you buy the car as it is, lumps, bumps and all mechanical faults. You cannot go back to the previous owner and try to claim something back. There is no 'sold as seen' anymore. You had the chance to say no to buying the car.

[Conniff]

This has nothing whatsoever to do with the police so I cannot see why they have been mentioned.

 

Irrespective of the age and price paid, there are still consumer protection regulations that cannot be taken away from the buyer even if they signed a declaration to that effect.

 

This car was bought from a dealer (garage) and ebay is used as an advertising medium only.

[Joijo]

I stated about the police because more often than not they get mentioned later down the line.

 

I was speaking of my personal eBay, yes it was a garage, experience.

 

No harm intended to anyone

[Conniff]

All posts are welcome post Joijo.

[dazzadub]

i think the seller has some sort of responsibilty but there argument will be youve had car and was fine, and was described as that in advert,,

 

i personally dont think u got leg to stand on, its like buy a second hand car from paper if it breaks down its your prob,

 

and this applies to ebay aswell im sure of it, he has a made a responable offer to give a clucth kit,

 

a cluctch can go any car at any time and because u have driven the car for 4 weeks theres no legal come back on the seller,

[Conniff]

Hi Conniff,

 

I would like to keep the car, but am worried that if i let him carry out the repairs they will not be done to a sufficent standard.

 

The full description from the auction is as in the 1st post, it never said anything about "sold as seen"

 

Regards

 

You list the faults and say that under the sale of goods act 1974 (amended) and the sale and supply of goods act, you are rejecting the car for a full refund.

Post it by recorded delivery giving him14 days in which to respond.

[borisbeaver]

If the clutch was fine when the card was picked up then it was as described. Mind, you, my wife managed to burn the clutch of my new car within a couple of weeks.

 

A car that has done 100K plus and still on the original clutch is really good.

[Conniff]

Sorry boris, but you seem to be saying as much as the seller did in that it's 'hard luck' when it is not. You can't just sell something and then take no responsibility for what happens or deny someone their statutory rights.

[borisbeaver]

What I'm trying to say is that the seller possibly didn't know that the clutch was about to go.

[Conniff]

Maybe he didn't, but that doesn't absolve him from his responsibilities and the consumer regulations.

[welshperson3]

Sorry boris, but you seem to be saying as much as the seller did in that it's 'hard luck' when it is not. You can't just sell something and then take no responsibility for what happens or deny someone their statutory rights.

 

When you come to sell your car give me a shout

 

It would be nice to know the seller is going to pay to put everything on a old car back to original and also that if the engine blows that he is going to pay the 5K for a new engine even tho i totally abuse it.