Letter before action - used car purchased 4 months ago

[Jadelina]

Good evening

I wonder if you can help me.

myself and my husband purchased a four year old used car at the end of April this year.

We have done around 3.5k miles on the car since purchase and have recently had some problems with loss of power and EML coming on this weekend.

We took the car to our local Mazda dealer for diagnosis and they have informed us that our suspicions were correct and the smaller of the two turbos have failed. We initially paid £95 for this diagnosis but they require an additional £150 for further investigation to see if this fault has caused any other damage to the engine etc.

we asked them to hold fire on the additional diagnosis whilst we spoke to the private garage we had purchased the car from.

upon discussion with the dealer yesterday they originally accepted no liability for the issues with the car and informed us they would not be prepared to do anything to help us with repair or costs of repair and claimed the onus was on us to prove these issues were present at the point of sale, we did explain that according to consumer law this was incorrect and it was actually down to them to prove that the issues were not present at the point of sale.

they have since come back to us this morning via telephone to inform us that they have spoken to their turbo specialists who have priced the job for replacing the faulty turbo with a reconditioned unit would be £950 and that they would be prepared to contribute 50% of the cost of this. We asked them to put this into an email which they have done.

we replied to them basically stating that we would not be prepared to spend the best part of £500 repairing a car we had only purchased 4 months previous at a cost of £9500.

we advised them that we would like to seek further legal advice and they told us if we decided to do this their offer would be withdrawn.

having spoken to citizens advice they have advised us that we are not liable to pay a penny and the garage is solely responsible.

i just wondered what the next steps would be on our pat and how we should proceed with this matter.

would a Letter Before Action be our next step? And how likely would we be to be successful if we took this matter to court in your experienced opinion?

thanks in advance, please do let me know if I have left out any information which is required for accurate advice!

Jade

[des8]

You are correct in that as the vehicle is within the first six months following purchase any faults are deemed to have been present when purchased.
You are entitled to require the garage repair the vehicle at their cost and with as little inconvenience to yourself as possible .

Consumer Rights Act 2015 sec 23 (2)If the consumer requires the trader to repair or replace the goods, the trader must—
(a)do so within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, and
(b)bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage).

Write and tell the dealer about this exciting new statute, and mention that if they don't agree you will exercise your right to reject the vehicle and claim a full refund plus damages through the courts

[Jadelina]

Thank you so much for your speedy reply.

Should we just include this information in an email and give them a chance to respond or include as part of a letter before action formatted email?

If we proceed in preparing a letter before action is there anything we specifically need to include? Are there suitable templates available anywhere that people have found successful?

Thanks again

[des8]

I would just send them an email at the mo.
Whilst awaiting their response you can spend the time preparing a more formal letter before action.
Hopefully they will be sensible and respond positively so you won't need to send the LBA.

[Supplier's address]

Dear

Reference: [a single sentence summing up your claim]

As it has not been possible to resolve this matter amicably, and it is apparent that court action may be necessary, I write in compliance with the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct.

[Provide a summary of the facts of the dispute]

From you I am claiming [state what you want ]

In accordance with the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct I can confirm that I would be agreeable to mediation and would consider any other system of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in order to avoid the need for this matter to be resolved by the courts.

I would invite you to put forward any proposals in this regard.

In closing, I would draw your attention to paragraphs 15 and 16 of the Practice Direction which gives the courts the power to impose sanctions on the parties if they fail to comply with the direction including failing to respond to this letter before claim.

I look forward to hearing from you within the next 14 days.

Should I not receive a response to my letter within this time frame, then I anticipate that court action will be commenced with no further reference to you.

Yours faithfully,

[Jadelina]

Sorry to be a pain but is your drafted response a draft Letter before action to send at a later date or a draft of the response you think we should send at this present time?

Thanks!

[Jadelina]

Below is the latest email we received from the garage when trying to come to an amicable agreement

‘I'm sorry that you have incurred some consequential losses but as previously stated we do not accept liability for the fault on your vehicle as it was not present at the time of sale and as discussed you are now outside you warranty period.


Unfortunately as is with most warranties diagnostic's whilst required to diagnose the fault with a vehicle are not covered by the warranty.


Please note that when requesting if we could make a good will gesture you had already booked your car with a main dealer without our instruction so we would have no liability to this cost.


Thank you for your comments in relation to our reviews and staff and as i hope you can see, even when not liable we do our best to help our customers, hence the offer.


In regards to the offer made yesterday this is a good will gesture. The parts would come with a 12 month guarantee and the costs do include parts and labour but not VAT as we can pay this on your behalf.



If you would like to take advantage of this offer then please let us know. If you decide to take a different route then please note that the offer would be withdrawn.


Yours
*managers name removed*

*we did not ask him to cover the cost of the diagnostics via mazda*

[des8]

I would be sending an email as in post 2.
The letter in post 4 is a draft template to assist you when writing an LBA if necessary.
You are welcomed to post it up prior to posting so we can check it over for you.

ref that email :
"the fault on your vehicle as it was not present at the time of sale".... should read "was not evident at time of sale" as CRA2015 deems the vehicle was unsatisfactory.
"you are now outside you warranty period".....so what?.

[Jadelina]

Have emailed the following:


Morning ***

Having sought further legal advice and after speaking to the Citizens Advice Bureau they have advised me that as the vehicle is within the first six months following purchase any faults are deemed to have been present when purchased. As such you are required to repair the vehicle at your own cost and with as little inconvenience to ourselves as possible .

Also that I make you aware of the following information for your reference:

Consumer Rights Act 2015 sec 23 (2)If the consumer requires the trader to repair or replace the goods, the trader must—
(a)do so within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to the consumer, and
(b)bear any necessary costs incurred in doing so (including in particular the cost of any labour, materials or postage).

If you still decide not to carry out the repair or replacement I will exercise my right to reject the vehicle and claim a full refund plus damages through the courts.

Regards

[Jadelina]

We received a phone call today from the dealership who stated they were prepared to replace the turbo in the car at no cost to ourselves with a second hand turbo from a breakers yard which would come with a 3 month warranty.

Or that our second option would be that we contribute £300 towards a reconditioned turbo which would be guaranteed for 2 years.

In addition he has agreed to a courtesy car that we can collect once we have made a decision and he will get the job booked in for Saturday.

This is certainly progress! So I thank you so much for your advice and support in this matter.

my only question now is, if we accept the free repair with a second hand turbo... where do we stand if it all goes tits up in the next 3 months or beyond that?

thanks again!

[Jadelina]

We received a phone call today from the dealership who stated they were prepared to replace the turbo in the car at no cost to ourselves with a second hand turbo from a breakers yard which would come with a 3 month warranty.

Or that our second option would be that we contribute £300 towards a reconditioned turbo which would be guaranteed for 2 years.

In addition he has agreed to a courtesy car that we can collect once we have made a decision and he will get the job booked in for Saturday.

This is certainly progress! So I thank you so much for your advice and support in this matter.

my only question now is, if we accept the free repair with a second hand turbo... where do we stand if it all goes tits up in the next 3 months or beyond that?

thanks again!

[des8]

If the replacement fails within 6 months of the repair your rights are as per CRA 2015 :
within the 30 days you have to prove it was unsatisfactory at time of installation
within the next 5 months it is deemed to be unsatisfactory at time of installation

The remedies are the same