appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

[skilganon]

Hi All,

I would appreciate some advice, or my youngest sister would, regarding a recent car purchase.

My youngest sister recently purchased a car from a garage, the garage told them that the vehicle came with a 3 month warranty.

she has had the car just 8 weeks !

after having driven the car for just 3 weeks approx. , the oil light came on, having checked the oil levels it was found that the dipstick was completely clean, so clean you could wipe it on your shirt ! having topped up the oil to the recommended levels she continued to drive it.

just 2 weeks later the oil light came on again ! this time she took it to a local tyre dealer who have a few good lads who are mechanics in their spare time to look the vehicle over, they found that there was no oil again !!! , they also found that there was no coolant in the engine either ! but could find no leak ???

she took the car back to the garage who said they would look at it, and apparently found a leak in regards to the coolant but could find nothing wrong in relation to the oil ? They are now saying that the warranty does not cover the oil problem as it is ' wear and tear ' so she will have to pay for any work done !?

this does not sound right !

any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Tools]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

Make, Model, Year, Fuel Type & Mileage please [MENTION=46588]skilganon[/MENTION]

It does sound as if the oil is being burned off internally rather than an external leak, this could also be responsible for the loss of some coolant, for example id the cylinder head gasket is leaking.

Other possible causes of oil loss are worn piston rings, worn valve stem oil seals, worn turbo oil seal etc which is why I have asked for the vehicle details above.

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

thank you for your reply tools,

i will endeavour to have your questions answered as soon as possible,

i will try and ascertain the mileage at purchase and the mileage on the clock as of now.

also answer your other questions

[Tools]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

Mileage doesn't have to be exact, just to see if it is low/average/high

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

ok ,

just wondered if the mileage she has travelled between purchase and current ,might have a bearing on the fact that it has used 2 engines full of oil therefore was sold ' not fit for purpose ' from the outset ?

will do my best to get your questions answered

[des8]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

Oil and coolant levels and tyre pressures : good advice is to check weekly no matter what the handbook says.

Anyway the three month warranty is meant to be in addition to your sister's statutory rights which basically are the vehicle must be fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality.(Sale of Goods Act 1979)
This means that if it fails on these points in the first six months she is entitled to have it repaired or replaced or get a full or partial refund.

Await reply to Tool'squestions

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

HI @ tools @ des8

have now received more information regarding this:

Vauxhall Astra Estate Twinport
1st registered 07/11/2005 (55)
Petrol
Mileage when purchased- 98033
Date of purchase 27/3/15

on picking the car up, was informed a service had been carried out and an MOT.

the service book was stamped, but no details of any work just a stamp.

the oil light came on not long after purchase, then the emissions light came on. Rang the garage and was told this was ok as long as the lights didnt start flashing. !?

the garage also told them that the emissions light came on because they hadnt used a known brand of fuel such as shell or esso!! ( not true anyway ) and all it needed was for the fuel to be drained and new fuel put in.and that they could bring it in to be looked at if they liked ! this was 14th april.

we couldnt take the car back on this date and by 18th april the oil was almost bone dry. At this point we also noticed the engine coolant was also empty,we are now on 4th may, by 17th may the oil had gone yet again, so got straight back onto the garage who said they could take it in to be looked at.

they say they have found and fixed the coolant leak but cannot find an oil leak, they now state that to find the oil problem they need to strip the engine and this will not be covered by warranty as it is wear and tear and it will cost my sister £500 plus !!

[ostell]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

Can your sister do without the car? If so then take it back to the garage, leave it on the forecourt, and tell them that she is rejecting it under the Sale of goods and services to consumers regulations. Letter to that effect is also desirable.

She should be able to get all her money back if she hasn't done an excessive amount of miles. Small claims court proceeding will follow if no money.

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

@ Ostell

appreciate your reply, i will try and find out the answers to your questions (mileage and manage without the car)

could you point me in the direction of the sale of goods and services consumer regulations section which would apply to this situation ? I have no problem reading it and formulating a letter myself

[des8]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

HI @ tools @ des8


they now state that to find the oil problem they need to strip the engine and this will not be covered by warranty as it is wear and tear and it will cost my sister £500 plus !!

B*****Ks .
Vehicle is faulty and not fit purpose.
As per Ostell reject under rights given by Sale of Goods Act 1979 (see Sec 14, & sec 48 A-E)

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

@ des8

thank you for that, will have a look at the sections you have quoted, i have also just found out that the car is actually with the garage at the moment so my sister doesnt have a vehicle.

just need to find out one more thing as my father came round earlier and he believes that they part exchanged their old car along with making a cash payment. I need to confirm this with my sister.

shall post up my findings

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

[MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION] and anyone else who may be able to offer advice,

sorry not kept this thread updated, have been ill recently and had a short spell in hospital

to fully update,

yes the car was bought with part ex. , the garage said that they had found and fixed the water leak but could not find anything else wrong nor could they find an oil leak so requested my sister take the car back to ' see how it goes' so she took the car back and as expected within 2/3 days the oil light came on and so did the transmission light !

again she contacted the garage who said that they didnt have a mechanic available until the 29th june!! but said it would be ok to drive with the light flashing as long as it didnt stay on !?

she agreed to keep the car until 29th june, ( which incidentally was the last date for the warranty ), but the car then became unusable, it chugged jumped and jerked so she parked it up and could not use it. She tried contacting the garage owner who would not take or return her calls, eventually she got through and he dismissed everything refusing to look at the car, or to take it back and his last words were " well ill see you in court "

i helped her to write a letter which she sent recorded delivery, a copy of which i will attach to this post ( not the exact copy of what was sent but almost ) the letter was received and signed for at 10am on the 6th July.

any help or advice would be, as always, greatly appreciated

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

Couldnt for some reason attach the document so have copied and pasted the letter here


Dear Sir, ( I would put his name here rather than sir )

We recently brought a used car from you on 27th March 2015, we paid £2,000 cash and part exchanged our Peugot 307 to the value of £795.
The vehicle in question (the one we purchased) was an Astra Estate, Silver, Reg No: CK55 XVY, mileage 98,033.
We inspected the car ourselves , the bodywork was fine and the interior was good, there was wear and tear on the upholstery as was expected and acceptable for a 10 year old car. The engine visually was fine, looked cleaned and sounded ok. We went ahead with the purchase on that day being 27/03/2015.

As you are aware, and have been made aware on several occasions during a number of telephone conversations between ourselves, you and members of your company, that we have since found in the short time that we have owned the car it has many faults:
The vehicle is burning oil at an alarming rate.
The emissions light keeps coming on, as it has done consistently since within a few days of purchase
The oil light keeps coming on, as it has done consistently since within a few days of purchase.
The coolant fluid is disappearing, as it has done since consistently since within a few days of purchase.

We have brought these points to your attention on many, many occasions the first being on the 19/05/2015 when Mark spoke to Luke at 9.15am that morning. Luke spoke to the owner Darren who suggested we bring the vehicle into the garage, which was then brought to you on 22/05/2015 3.30pm, the mileage on the car when returned was 99,352.

We informed you of all the issues and what we had done, oil topped with over 2 Ltrs of oil as the dipstick was bone dry (after 4? The dates you show make it 6 weeks ? weeks of purchase). The engine coolant fluid had to be topped up as that was about empty and there seemed to be a blockage of some sort as the car chugged while being driven.

As requested by yourself, the car was left with you for 2 weeks over the bank holiday period. On collecting the car, you assured us that the coolant had been fixed with a new hose, which we had not been charged for, which in all honesty should have been the case as we purchased the vehicle in good faith and with a 3 month warranty. However we were told no problems were obvious with the oil and if we wanted to have a full engine inspection we would have to pay, which could be up to £500 ! we would not agree to having to pay due to the fact that the vehicle was purchased with a 3 month warranty.
To remain in honour, and to also give you the benefit of any doubt, we agreed to collect the car, and run it to see how things went , as your mechanic could find no problem in relation to the extremely high usage of oil.

On Monday 01/06/2015 we collected the car under the instruction we drive it around to see if the problem with the oil continues, we did as requested and found that the problem was still the same and had to top the vehicle up with more oil within 3 days of having it back! And once again the engine emission light came back on, on Thursday 04/06/2015.

On Friday 05/06/2015 we again informed you about the issues occurring, this time we spoke to Derek. Over the weekend we were in touch with you again letting you know that again we had put more oil in and the emissions light was back.

On Monday 08/06/2015 Mark spoke yet again with Darren and told him all that had happened, Darren asked if we could hold onto the car until he could get an onsite mechanic to take a further look at the problem, we were not at all happy when Darren informed us that a mechanic would not be available until the 29^th June, after much deliberation we agreed to allow this to happen as we just wanted the car fixed, we have 2 young children,we both work and need a car. We also informed you that the emission light was still on and you stated it was ok to drive until it started to flash?.

Since we agreed to this the car has got worse and worse and is now not driveable and the emissions light is flashing, we stopped using the car as of Friday 26/06/2015.

We have tried throughout our problems to contact you on a number of occasions whereby you would not return any of our calls. Since we have been unable to use the car it has been increasingly difficult to make contact with you at all.

In all the time we have had the car we have done exactly what you have asked of us, we have done our best to remain in honour throughout, and now unfortunately we can't seem to get any response from you at all. We have requested on many occasions for the car to be repaired, we bought the car in good faith, and are now being told that any repairs that are needed in relation to the oil or engine issues that we would have to pay. We would not and will not agree to this.

We can no longer use the vehicle, and with a young family this has been very stressful and we cannot manage without a car.

With respect to the aforementioned, you leave us no alternative but to return the car as being faulty upon purchase and not fit for purpose.

For the avoidance of doubt we are rejecting the vehicle as not fit for purpose under our rights given by the sale of goods act 1979 sections 14 and 48 respectively, and we require a full refund.

We require a response to this letter within 7 days of receipt to avoid further action.

I look forward to hearing from you.



Yours faithfully

[des8]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

If you could post up your letter, that would be good but you should now be taking steps outlined in posts 8 & 10, but instead of delivering the vehicle tell the garage where it is for collection as it cannot be driven.


Crossed with posting of your letter which now reading!

Now read.
Await response, if any, from dealer

[skilganon]

Re: appreciate advice on rights after purchasing a faulty vehicle

[MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION]

thank you for your response, no response whatsoever so far from the garage, i have calculated their 7 days are up on weds 13th July , will give them until then then post up further,

my sister has logged all phone call times and dates, logged all conversations, has logged all events and has also taken photographs of the mileage readings and of the dry dipstick,

she holds a lot of evidence including a copy of the service book where it was simply 'stamped' no details as to what was actually done during the service just a 'stamp'