Can I claim against the car dealer?

[snapper41]

Hi all - this is my first post, so please be gentle! I bought a secondhand car in Feb, a 54 plate with 44k on the clock, and a 3 month warranty. At the time, I expressed concern to the dealer that the car had no service stamps in the book since 2007; I asked if he would move on price as I intended to get the car serviced straight away. He said no, and didn't offer to service the car himself before releasing it to me. I paid a deposit, and picked the car up a week later. I had it serviced by a reputable local specialist, who told me that the brakes were 'completely shot' and needed replacing all round; this cost me an extra £288 on top of the servicing, as they had to replace pads and discs, and free binding calipers. I rang the dealer, who agreed to refund the cost, but he has only refunded £118, as he claims I did not tell him that the discs needed replacing (I didn't know until I picked the car up after the service), and he doubted that they did. He told me that I should have taken the car back to him rather than have the specialst fix it, but my argument is that the brakes needed doing, and could have failed at any time; I wasn't prepared to risk driving it any further.

 

So - can I go to small claims court for the balance? Under the sale of goods act, was the car fit for purpose? I forgot to say that it was sold with an MOT which wasn't done by the dealer.

 

Grateful for your thoughts!

[raydetinu]

If you had a problem you really should of taken it back and given the dealer an opportunity to put it right! to minimise his costs etc.

getting it done elswhere without his prior agreement compromises your claim.

You are asking him to pay for the other garages profit/costs in the bill, which he would not have to do if the dealer had done repairs, also dealer costs would only have parts, labour would have come out of overheads or just lost.

Bear this in mind before taking any further, but you can always try and get more from dealer.

You can report him to trading standards for selling an unroadworthy car ( illegal ) and maybe use that in negotiations.

[Surfer01]

I doubt if you can claim any more as you never gave the dealer the opportunity to rectify.