Brought a second hand car...now have issues

[Kamatari]

Hi guys,

 

brought a car from a trader about 3 weeks ago now, about a week ago it developed a fault and i had to be recovered and has now left me without a car for about a week

 

The seller is saying that all he will do is give 5% of the purchase price which is classed as their warrenty, so this means ill only see £85 to get the vehicle transported to a garage, diagnosed and repaired.... but does this go against the SoGA or is £85 the best ill see?

 

if i had the car longer than 2 weeks when it developed the issue then i wouldnt be as annoyed but 2 weeks is silly!

 

any help would be great

[sailor sam]

Can we have a bit more info please.

 

Make/model/age/mileage/purchase price and the nature of the fault will help.

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Kamatari]

sure, its a grand vitara 2002 with 63k on it, paid £1700, basically engine light came on, car started over revving and initally i switched it off, tried to start it after and wouldnt start, it would try and if it did start it would cut out straight away and if it does manage to run it just cuts out

[sailor sam]

So it's a Suzuki? Well as far as the SOGA goes, the seller should have the opportunity to inspect and rectify. Within the first 6 months of ownership, it is for the seller to prove that any defect (excluding fair wear and tear) was not present at the point of sale. So basically in your case, the seller should rectify at no cost to you as the car should be fit for the purpose and be of satisfactory quality.

 

You have obviously taken the first step by reporting the problem to the seller. Now he should rectify at NO EXPENSE to you under the SOGA. Any warranty provided is merely an extension of your statutory rights. Is the car currently being repaired? If so, who has arranged the repair? If it is you, you must not authorize the repair unless the seller has refused to agree (in writing) to pay for it. You also may have a good case to reject the car all together and demand a full refund.

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Kamatari]

At the moment the car isnt being repaired as im trying to find out what to do, from reading around the net which mentions about the sales of goods act, ive tried speaking to the garage about it and the best they are saying is they will pay £85 towards the repair

[sailor sam]

Well it sounds like that they are not up to speed with the SOGA. They cannot decide what they will or won't pay for, especially after such a short time after purchase. The car must be fit for purpose, it's as simple as that. You mentioned that the car has been 'recovered'. Does that mean it has been taken back to the seller?

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Kamatari]

The car was recovered back home has i was driving and broke down at night. I would say they arent upto speed with the SoGA as theyve told me ill get nothing from them now and should go to trading standards

[sailor sam]

Ok, lets up the game then. Write a formal letter to them explaining the problem and invite them to recover the vehicle to inspect and rectify within 7 days of your letter. Refer to the SOGA 1979 (as amended) and include the purchase date in your letter. Give the alternative that you will either arrange repairs yourself, in which case you will pursue the seller for the cost of repairs plus recovery OR you will formally reject the car in which case you will require a full refund plus the cost of recovery.

 

Unfortunately, this is all you can do at the moment. Post the letter using recorded delivery and let us know what happens.

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Kamatari]

Ok will do, i was also looking at giving trading standards a call (which i believe is phoning the CAB?) just to start it off that way aswell or is that not needed yet?

[crem]

no harm in pre-notifying CAB I think as, although you are just sending the formal letter to the dealer, he has already intimated that he will reject your claim.

[sailor sam]

Ok will do, i was also looking at giving trading standards a call (which i believe is phoning the CAB?) just to start it off that way aswell or is that not needed yet?

 

Yes, it won't do any harm getting their advice as well.

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[heliosuk]

Hold on here.

 

Seller has agreed to pay towards the costs. So what is the fault?

 

Don't forget that you are not entitled to a new car.....just one that works.

 

Sellar so far has agreed to pay towards the repair costs and it is indeed a used car. As usual the SOGA brigade have jumped in.

 

It is important to remember that anything fitted to the car which is new and OEM that could be deemed to to add to the longevity of the car irrespective of the fact it fixes the problem, will be seen as betterment for which the difference you would be liable.

 

Don't think SOGA is your friend here.

 

You need to give further details about the exact fault and what has been found before any subjective comment can be made. Embark on the SOGA route me thinks at this stage will cause more problems than it's worth!

[sailor sam]

Obviously we don't know what the fault is and neither does the seller by the looks of it. But the point is the seller is saying bluntly that all they will contribute is (or was) £85.00. If the repair does no exceed that then fine. But what if it is more serious?

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[heliosuk]

Missing the point Sam.

 

You don't know what the fault is and are assuming the sellar does not know which is something we do not know.

 

As ever, don't just jump in with SOGA. Forget the 5% figure as well, it's somewhat irrelevant until we know exactly what is wrong and the full details. It could be from the post that the offer is actually quite reasonable once in posession of the full facts.

 

And don't forget.........the buyer is only entitled to it being put right so it works and is safe. It does not entitle the buyer to a full re-work of the car so it is like new and if they insist then they have to pay a betterment figure.

 

SOGA is not what it seems on used cars despite some people steaming in that you are protected by it.

 

Those advocating SOGA should make the OP's aware exactly what the situation with SOGA actually is before advocating it's use in a Court of Law.

[Kamatari]

Hold on here.

 

Seller has agreed to pay towards the costs. So what is the fault?

 

Don't forget that you are not entitled to a new car.....just one that works.

 

Sellar so far has agreed to pay towards the repair costs and it is indeed a used car. As usual the SOGA brigade have jumped in.

 

You need to give further details about the exact fault and what has been found before any subjective comment can be made. Embark on the SOGA route me thinks at this stage will cause more problems than it's worth!

 

The seller Originally agreed to pay £85 towards the repair of the vehicle, given that the car is pretty undrivable if it manages to start, a main dealer is not very local to me, so if something was to happen on the way its another recovery call out...

 

Once getting it to the garage it is £55 for a half hour diagnostic meaning if it takes longer than that there will be more charges so £85 towards the repair potentially wont even cover the cost of the diagnostics let alone the repair... When the car was originally recovered there was not an error showing up but the car was unable to start/drive.

 

So for a car that at the time i had owned for 2 weeks to break and need recovery, i would not expect to be spending hundreds of pounds to fix a car i just spent nearly £2k on from a garage...

 

Obviously we don't know what the fault is and neither does the seller by the looks of it. But the point is the seller is saying bluntly that all they will contribute is (or was) £85.00. If the repair does no exceed that then fine. But what if it is more serious?

 

To expand on this, we took the car to one garage which apparently could do deep scans etc we gave them all the details we had, informed that there was no error codes etc, we got a call back from them saying what they think the problem could be and was looking at abut £700 to fix it through them, although they werent sure if that was the problem, we didnt use them and also contested the bill they was charging (which would have been £100)... We changed the part they thought might have been an issue (although the basis would mean that the suzuki service manual is wrong) and it made no difference... Since then the car has been at another garage with someone apparently fixing the problem which charged us £65...few hours later the car was broke again with exactly the same problem...

 

So from spending the money on the car...then money on alternative travel to work due to the car being off the road, some money on parts and then the money for god knows what... i seem to be losing money pretty fast on everything and if i had recieved £85 i would be no closer to a fixed car

 

I'll edit this instead of a new post: With all this that has gone on, if it was a few months down the line then i would have a different feeling towards all this but when i have only had it (at the time) for two weeks and gone through just tank of fuel...i dont think anyone would be happy. I've usually only brought sub 1k cars privately before which have lasted years...but spending nearly 2k from a garage and to have it break straight away is not really what you expect

Edited January 30, 2013 by Kamatari

[sailor sam]

Lets re-wind to my post (#4). I asked; Is the car currently being repaired? If so, who has arranged the repair? If it is you, you must not authorize the repair unless the seller has refused to agree (in writing) to pay for it. You also may have a good case to reject the car all together and demand a full refund.

 

So i'm assuming from you last post that the seller refused to pay/arrange repairs and as you have had work now carried out, that you have decided on a repair rather than rejection. Personally, I would not of spent a bean other than transporting the car back to the seller so I could reject it.

 

Have you done what I suggested in post #8?

 

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 face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Kamatari]

Lets re-wind to my post (#4). I asked; Is the car currently being repaired? If so, who has arranged the repair? If it is you, you must not authorize the repair unless the seller has refused to agree (in writing) to pay for it. You also may have a good case to reject the car all together and demand a full refund.

 

So i'm assuming from you last post that the seller refused to pay/arrange repairs and as you have had work now carried out, that you have decided on a repair rather than rejection. Personally, I would not of spent a bean other than transporting the car back to the seller so I could reject it.

 

Have you done what I suggested in post #8?

 

 

At the moment the car isnt being repaired, whilst intially the seller offered £85 towards the repair they have since refused anything (repair or reject) whilst not in letter but via text, we've taken the car to a garage to try and assess what the problem is which so far as not been identified, the second garage who took a look (which was a friend of a friend) to try and find out what the issue is was also unsucessful

 

Whilst i'd be looking at about £200 to get the car transported back to the people and im then assuming i have to then wait for them to give me my money back... i've been 3 weeks without the car and whilst sending a letter to them and waiting for perhaps a response i've got an expensive drive ornament and a lack of transportation.... If the people who was trying to diagnose the fault found what it was and said its like £20 part to replace and your sorted then i'd just get that done and end of but its not looking like its going to be that easy...