Bought 09 car from a car garage and have now been told it's unsafe.

[GKWelding]

Ok, I'll try and keep this a brief as possible.

 

My partner and I bought a car from a second hand car garage about 6 months ago. Recently we noticed a knocking noise coming from the underside of the car. We have a 3 year old daughter and a 6 month old son and so we don't really like to take any chances with this kind of stuff and so we booked it in to our local garage to get it checked out.

 

Needless to say we were shocked to find out that the car had been involved in a major accident and that some bodged repairs had been done to the vehicle that were inherently unsafe. The total bill to fix the work is somewhere between £1000-£2000 and we bought the car for £7500.

 

I believe that it is well within my rights to either get a complete refund from the dealer as they are considered professionals and should have inspected the car before resale, or, have the work done and be able to invoice the garage in full for the repair work. However, I know sometimes this stuff can be iffy at best.

 

Does anyone have any advice and guidance on what I can do about this?

 

Thanks in advance.

[postggj]

do one of those hpi/vehicle checks

 

any accident damage would be recorded

 

on that sort of damage it will prob be a cat write off

 

then the dealer is at fault and you will get your money back

[GKWelding]

A HPI check was done at the time and it was clean. It would appear that the vehicle has been repaired 'on the sly' and then fobbed off onto the dealer as a part-ex.

[ArnoldHelper]

As this was present at the time of sale you should get your money back. might have to take him to court though.

First inform the dealer of this, demand your money back.

When he refuses, use moneyclaim online.

It may be significant whether you discovered this within or after the first 6 months regarding the burden of proof - read up on the sales of goods act.

Remember, review the dealer here: ** mod edit, since you ignored our requests to stop spamming you're now on a 7-day ban; any further registrations under your IP address will also be banned. **

[GKWelding]

We bought the car in November last year. The damage was caused by an accident prior to us owning the car, the repairs have been bodged, very dangerously according to the garage that reviewed the car, the rear axle was snapped and welded back together. I can get the garage to provide an independent report stating what the problems are, however, the axle was not mentioned in the service a few months after we purchased the car although I'm not sure a person servicing the car would even be looking for such a thing. It's only since we asked the garage to investigate this knocking noise that we have discovered this problem. Any advice on how I would go about proving the car was in this condition at the time of sale? Will an independent review by the garage and some kind of proof that we have had no accidents in the car (minus a very minor fender bender my missus had in the car, she shunted another car so it was the front end not the back end and our car suffered no damage) be enough to prove this?

[sailor sam]

Hi and welcome to CAG.

 

Your first step is to contact the seller and see what he has to say. Let him know about your garage's opinion and a report can be made available if necessary. My advice is to play it cool at this stage as it is possible (although unlikely) that the seller may be unaware of this issue. As previously been mentioned; if the car had been involved in a signifitant accident then it will be recorded somewhere so this info may be a key issue. In your original post you say that you bought the car about 6 months ago then you say (in post #5) that you bought the car in November last year which is a signifitant difference. Your problem may be that you will need to prove the damage occured prior to you owning the car which is why you need to do some research. Obviously as it's under 3 years old, there won't be any MOT history to rely on. However, if you have boughtt from a reputable dealer, then they will be keen to assist you I would of thought. See what happens when you contact the seller. He should offer to inspect the car himself in the first instance. If he refuses point blank then I would start getting suspicious. Hopefully Conniff and others will come in to cast their opinions but it may help if you let us know the make/model of the car and the mileage.

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

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[GKWelding]

Cheers for responses. I have contacted the seller and I am currently waiting to hear back from one of their team.

 

I originally said 6 months as I was unsure of when we bought the car, I knew it was sometime before our second child was born and he's now 6 months old, however, after checking my bank account transactions I can see that the money for the car was taken out of my account in November 2009. It's amazing how time flies when you have kids...

 

One other bit of good fortune was that I also paid for £500 of the car on a credit card, so I should also be able to get some assistance from the credit card company too.

[GKWelding]

The car is a 2009 Kia Ceed with 16,500 miles on the clock. Double checked the HPI and it's definitely clean.

 

However, I now have a new problem, it turns out the dealer we bought it off went bust shortly after selling us the vehicle. Anyone know what options I have now? I think it was the original owner of the vehicle who passed on the car damage to the dealer, the dealer obviously did not check the vehicle properly and sold it on in an unfit state. Is my only option to pay to have the damage repaired then chase either the garage owner, or the original owner of the vehicle in court?

[MrShed]

If the company have gone bust I would persue with the credit card company, as they are equally liable.

[GKWelding]

Ok, is that Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act? Is the time limit on that 13 months if I remember correctly? Because we're currently on about 11 months.

[MrShed]

Never heard of this 13 month timescale. Would imagine it would be the same as the trader (i.e. 6 year statute of limitations).

 

Read here how to claim etc:

 

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

[GKWelding]

ok, cheers, I think I just mis-read an article on Section 75 to get that 13 month time scale. I'll try and keep this topic up to date with what happens, thanks to everybody that's helped out currently.

[Dragons Dennis]

Car hire companies tend to insure 'in house' ie they swallow the cost of repairs and thus major damage is never recorded on HPi as the car never gets claimed or repaired through an outside insurer. This is to keep costs down. The hire company makes enough in 6 months to throw the car away in effect. The car is repaired to a cosmetically acceptable level and the car usually auctioned off. All quite above board if not a tad sneaky on the end buyer like yourself.

 

The dealer who sold it to you is ultimnately resposible for ensuring the car is roadworthy. I would suggest that whilst welding an axle back may not be ideal, it doesn't necessarily make the car unroadworthy. The key issue is whether the dealer was aware of the damage or not. If they were not, they are not very good at inspecting vehicles IMHO. If they were, then a small avenue opens up for you as misdescription, ie not decalring the true condition of the car.

 

So, we move on to the dealers current status. If it was a sole trader then you still have redress against that individual. If however it was a Ltd company which has ceased trading, you have no redress at all unless you can show that the directors acted deliberately and knowling to defraud you (a crminal act) by selling a car at a higher price than its true value based on its true condition, which they deliberately concealed from you.

 

The last problem is the timescale. 6 months is a long time to discover a problem. I totally accept that you are unlikely to inspect the underside of the car. Howeever, if an AA/RAC ispection had been done you would have recourse against them for failing to mention/notice the significant damage.

 

HTH