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Car dealer sold a dangerous car - Third party repair afterwards - Tradiing standards
Hi I hope you can help.
My wife purchased a used car from a local second hand car dealer on 20/7/2014 which very soon after developed a dangerous fault.
The car in question is a 2003 Ford Fiesta which had 74,000 miles on the clock at purchase date.
The fault was reported to the dealer with other faults that we picked up on the test drive and had not been fixed however initially he was helpful and tried to diagnose the fault we found on the test drive however he said hear could not find anything wrong. The more disturbing fault was the dangerous one which was a loose suspension part making it dangerous and impossible to drive safely.
After various emails back and forth without a resolution we took it to a third party garage for a report into the problems and the dealer offered to repair only the dangerous fault in his words "for the sake of a £1 pinch bolt". We had however lost all faith in the dealer and his ability to fix any of the issues so we instructed the garage to repair the car.
The cost of repair of all the faults found was in the region of £300.
Our local Trading Standards now rarely deal direct with the complainant so we were linked through to the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline to deal with our complaint. They advised us to send a complaint letter stating that the goods were not fit for purpose and requesting a partial refund of the £300 giving him 14 days to reply. This was done along with a full report and sent via Special Delivery and was signed for the day after. To date he has not responded.
CAB did report the dealer to Trading standards for selling a dangerous car which is a criminal offense and they may take further action.
I contacted CAB today and they suggested sending a follow up letter reminding the dealer of his obligations and enclose a copy of the original letter and report. If he then does not respond they suggest then taking private court action against him to reclaim the repair costs plus legal and postal costs.
Additionally when the car was purchased the dealer stated that he does not offer his own guarantees or warranties on cars he sells and includes extended warranties with all purchases. The extended warranty was with a third party warranty insurance company. We we not told that the extended warranty insurance was optional and rather we were told it was mandatory in the sale price of the car. I believe this is like miss-selling of PPI.
As it turns out when our garage tried to claim on the policy none of the items were covered either due to fair wear & tear of that the car had done too many miles (74,000), and they do not cover over 70,000 miles on certain parts.
Whenever we complained to the dealer about the faults he kept on referring us to the extended warranty company to get them fixed through a local garage. Evidently we tried to do this without success.
Where do we stand in all of this and what can we do?
Please help.
My wife purchased a used car from a local second hand car dealer on 20/7/2014 which very soon after developed a dangerous fault.
The car in question is a 2003 Ford Fiesta which had 74,000 miles on the clock at purchase date.
The fault was reported to the dealer with other faults that we picked up on the test drive and had not been fixed however initially he was helpful and tried to diagnose the fault we found on the test drive however he said hear could not find anything wrong. The more disturbing fault was the dangerous one which was a loose suspension part making it dangerous and impossible to drive safely.
After various emails back and forth without a resolution we took it to a third party garage for a report into the problems and the dealer offered to repair only the dangerous fault in his words "for the sake of a £1 pinch bolt". We had however lost all faith in the dealer and his ability to fix any of the issues so we instructed the garage to repair the car.
The cost of repair of all the faults found was in the region of £300.
Our local Trading Standards now rarely deal direct with the complainant so we were linked through to the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline to deal with our complaint. They advised us to send a complaint letter stating that the goods were not fit for purpose and requesting a partial refund of the £300 giving him 14 days to reply. This was done along with a full report and sent via Special Delivery and was signed for the day after. To date he has not responded.
CAB did report the dealer to Trading standards for selling a dangerous car which is a criminal offense and they may take further action.
I contacted CAB today and they suggested sending a follow up letter reminding the dealer of his obligations and enclose a copy of the original letter and report. If he then does not respond they suggest then taking private court action against him to reclaim the repair costs plus legal and postal costs.
Additionally when the car was purchased the dealer stated that he does not offer his own guarantees or warranties on cars he sells and includes extended warranties with all purchases. The extended warranty was with a third party warranty insurance company. We we not told that the extended warranty insurance was optional and rather we were told it was mandatory in the sale price of the car. I believe this is like miss-selling of PPI.
As it turns out when our garage tried to claim on the policy none of the items were covered either due to fair wear & tear of that the car had done too many miles (74,000), and they do not cover over 70,000 miles on certain parts.
Whenever we complained to the dealer about the faults he kept on referring us to the extended warranty company to get them fixed through a local garage. Evidently we tried to do this without success.
Where do we stand in all of this and what can we do?
Please help.
