Hi everyone,
I'm hoping to get some advice on a tricky situation with a car purchased by a dealer in early October 2023.
We bought a 2019 Mercedes S-Class with 49k miles for £43,000 from a dealer and paid via bank transfer. This was a PCO registered vehicle for Private Hire use in London and was bought for the use in my father’s chauffeuring business. Unfortunately, the car started having issues on the same day we bought it. Here’s a timeline of events:
Timeline:
- 18 Oct 23: Car purchased
- 18 Oct 23 11pm: Engine management light came on
- Within that week: Got the car checked at a local garage as advised by the dealer - reported an AdBlue issue
- 6 Nov 23: Took car back to dealer, they said everything is fine
- 10 Nov 23: Collected car from dealer
- 13 Nov 23: Engine management light returned
- 25 Nov 23: Dropped car back to dealer; he said he'd been driving it and it's fine
- 2 Dec 23: Collected car again from dealer
- 3 Dec 23: Engine management light appeared again
- 13 Dec 23: Car went to dealer again
- 24 Dec 23: Car returned
- 29 Dec 23: Engine management light appeared again
- 9 Jan 24: Took car to Mercedes for a check; dealer advised using a local mechanic for cheaper repairs (verbally, no written record)
- 28 Jan 24: Engine management light came back after about 2 weeks of minimal driving
- 2 Feb 24: Car went to a different mechanic for repair
- 19 Feb 24: Got car back from mechanic
- 21 Feb 24: Engine management light appeared again
- 8 Apr 24: Car SORN’d and no longer in use
- 19 Apr 24: Sent letter before action via solicitor
Despite spending around £5k on repairs, the car still has faults and the engine management light remains on. Had the car been repaired, we would have called it a day and left it at that (regardless of the fact that the dealer has not reimbursed us for these repairs). The car has been used for private hire and therefore covered 10k miles between October 2023 and April 2024, but it hasn't been driven since April due to the ongoing issues.
The letter before action sent by the solicitor states that we want to recover the following monies as of 19th April 2024:
- £5k for repairs made
- £43k for the car and the car rejected
- £6k for loss of earnings as the car is a public hire vehicle and was supposed to be used for business
- £2k legal costs
- Total approx £56k
On 12th June 2024, after much back and forth, the dealer offered three options, none of which seem fair to us:
1. Exchange the car for another one of his cars and he will reimburse the £5k we paid for repairs (but he currently doesn't have a similar car in stock and god knows when he will).
2. We keep the car (still with engine management light on and therefore still not fit for purpose) and he reimburses £5k for repairs.
3. Dealer takes the car back, deducts mileage at 50p per mile, but does not reimburse the £5k spent on repairs.
All these options leave us worse off by a fair bit for something which was not our fault.
In my head, the next step should be a final offer to the dealer to try and settle the issue (we’d be happy with around £43k being reimbursed to us). However, if he rejects this then I don’t see any other option than to take the matter to court. However, I have not been through the process before so the costs involved are the main deterrent at the moment as we don’t know how much we’ll be able to recover from said dealer. The dealer is a mid size dealer and has been in business for about 12 years (has plenty of stock so isn’t going anywhere soon).
What would you suggest as our next steps? Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful!
Thanks in advance!
I'm hoping to get some advice on a tricky situation with a car purchased by a dealer in early October 2023.
We bought a 2019 Mercedes S-Class with 49k miles for £43,000 from a dealer and paid via bank transfer. This was a PCO registered vehicle for Private Hire use in London and was bought for the use in my father’s chauffeuring business. Unfortunately, the car started having issues on the same day we bought it. Here’s a timeline of events:
Timeline:
- 18 Oct 23: Car purchased
- 18 Oct 23 11pm: Engine management light came on
- Within that week: Got the car checked at a local garage as advised by the dealer - reported an AdBlue issue
- 6 Nov 23: Took car back to dealer, they said everything is fine
- 10 Nov 23: Collected car from dealer
- 13 Nov 23: Engine management light returned
- 25 Nov 23: Dropped car back to dealer; he said he'd been driving it and it's fine
- 2 Dec 23: Collected car again from dealer
- 3 Dec 23: Engine management light appeared again
- 13 Dec 23: Car went to dealer again
- 24 Dec 23: Car returned
- 29 Dec 23: Engine management light appeared again
- 9 Jan 24: Took car to Mercedes for a check; dealer advised using a local mechanic for cheaper repairs (verbally, no written record)
- 28 Jan 24: Engine management light came back after about 2 weeks of minimal driving
- 2 Feb 24: Car went to a different mechanic for repair
- 19 Feb 24: Got car back from mechanic
- 21 Feb 24: Engine management light appeared again
- 8 Apr 24: Car SORN’d and no longer in use
- 19 Apr 24: Sent letter before action via solicitor
Despite spending around £5k on repairs, the car still has faults and the engine management light remains on. Had the car been repaired, we would have called it a day and left it at that (regardless of the fact that the dealer has not reimbursed us for these repairs). The car has been used for private hire and therefore covered 10k miles between October 2023 and April 2024, but it hasn't been driven since April due to the ongoing issues.
The letter before action sent by the solicitor states that we want to recover the following monies as of 19th April 2024:
- £5k for repairs made
- £43k for the car and the car rejected
- £6k for loss of earnings as the car is a public hire vehicle and was supposed to be used for business
- £2k legal costs
- Total approx £56k
On 12th June 2024, after much back and forth, the dealer offered three options, none of which seem fair to us:
1. Exchange the car for another one of his cars and he will reimburse the £5k we paid for repairs (but he currently doesn't have a similar car in stock and god knows when he will).
2. We keep the car (still with engine management light on and therefore still not fit for purpose) and he reimburses £5k for repairs.
3. Dealer takes the car back, deducts mileage at 50p per mile, but does not reimburse the £5k spent on repairs.
All these options leave us worse off by a fair bit for something which was not our fault.
In my head, the next step should be a final offer to the dealer to try and settle the issue (we’d be happy with around £43k being reimbursed to us). However, if he rejects this then I don’t see any other option than to take the matter to court. However, I have not been through the process before so the costs involved are the main deterrent at the moment as we don’t know how much we’ll be able to recover from said dealer. The dealer is a mid size dealer and has been in business for about 12 years (has plenty of stock so isn’t going anywhere soon).
What would you suggest as our next steps? Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful!
Thanks in advance!
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