Can I reject a 5 week old car due to being offered a repair in 4 weeks

[Edinburgh24]

Hi,

Was about to call a lawyer, but thought I would ask here to see if I can get an opinion.

I have a 5 week old Kia EV9, so just outside the 30 day rejection limit, but well inside 6 months.

The 12V battery has been having issues for the last few days. If I did not go out and force recharge it every 6 hours, the car would fail. This has entailed getting up before 6am the past two days.

The are other problems such as the car not charging multiple times overnight, screens needing constantly reset, multiple weird notifications being sent to my phone and so on. These may or may not be related to the 12V issue.

I had already fallen out with the supplying dealer over poor service on picking the car up when it was scratched and the seatbelt was broken.

12 V battery problems became apparent last Thursday. I knew that an update had been issued in the USA regarding this, so I called Kia UK to ask about having the update here. They said I had to speak to the dealer.

I persevered over the weekend, trying to make sure the 12V was fully charged in case this was the issue, but every time it immediately started to discharge again. I gave up this morning and called the dealership.

As I expected the dealership was worse than useless. Despite explaining that without me going out and making the car recharge the 12V battery every 6 hours or the car would break down and being worried that if the 12V failed whilst driving it was a safety issue.They said that they could not look at the car until the 9th of April. I said that was unacceptable on a £77k new car. They said they would book in April 9th and call me back.

I called Kia UK again and they said they would contact the dealer. The dealer did not call back me or Kia.

4 hours later I called the dealer and spoke to a manager. He said it was Kia UK policy not to give earlier appointments. Kia UK have said they are not aware of this. The dealer said that if I called RAC roadside assistance and they came to look at the car then Kia UK policy would get the repair prioritised, but still not confirming anything. It is not clear if they need RAC to actually put the car on a low loader to the dealer despite it being drivable at the moment. I do not want to take the risk of a very large and heavy brand new car being put on a low loader when it is drivable just because of their policies.

At this point the combination of unreliability and awful service means that my wife and I would like to reject the car.

Normally the situations that you have to give the dealer one chance to fix a problem. Kia UK said that they would ask another dealer if they had an earlier appointment, but I refused as this would muddy the waters.

So my question is that by refusing to look at my car for almost a month has the dealer refused the chance to repair the car thus allowing me to reject it.

I would be more than happy to be contacted by a lawyer if they think it is worth taking up this case.

Thanks

[Pezza54]

Hi
Sorry to read about the problems your are having with your new car, it must be very frustrating
How did you pay for the car. Did you buy it on finance?
Are you able to take the car elsewhere for the fault to be diagnosed and obtain a written report?
Under CRA 2015, after the 30 day right to reject period has expired, the dealer must attempt to repair or replace faulty goods within a reasonable time and without causing significant inconvenience to the consumer
Waiting to 9 April for the car to be looked at and the fault diagnosed (not necessarily repaired) is an unreasonable amount of time.
Kia UK offered to find out if another dealer was available to inspect your car sooner. You refused this offer and I am thinking you may have weakened your position. I believe (my opinion only) you should have accepted this offer and waited to find out if there was another Kia dealer available and willing to look at your car a lot sooner. If there is an alternative garage available, not too far away that it causes you significant inconvenience, you should have considered it
Are you prepared to go back to Kia Uk to see if they can find out the availability of another Kia authorised garage?
Under the final right to reject the dealer is entitled, in the case of motor vehicles, to make a deduction for use. The deduction should not be based on devaluation, which in your case is likely to be significant as you bought an expensive new car that now has one previous owner.
if the dealer (or the finance company if you bought the car on finance) accepts rejection, I envisage them trying to make a large deduction on your refund
It might become necessary for the amount of the refund alone to be referred to ADR, motor ombudsman or the courts

[Edinburgh24]

Thank you very much for coming back to me,

I bought the car outright for cash.

Kia UK said that they would continue to see if they can get me an appointment at another dealer, so this option remained. My thinking was that the other dealer has no affiliation to the dealer I purchased the car from, thus if I went there then I would not have allowed the selling dealer their chance to repair it which might weaken my chances to reject the car. There is no contract with Kia UK. But I take on board your opinion.

The dealer said that I needed to have the RAC diagnose a fault with the car which might expedite it being looked at.

The RAC have now been out and said that the car has excessive current drain that is putting a strain on the battery and has to go to the dealer ASAP before the 12V dies.

As the RAC left Kia UK called me back and said they had spoken to the dealer general manager and the regional manager who claim this was all a miscommunication and I should have been told to just bring the car in. I said there was no way this was a miscommunication I spoke to both the service department and the sales manager. It was the sales manager who told me the only way to expedite the appointment was calling the RAC and that KiaUK policy would not allow them to fix it any faster.

It looks like I can take the car in tomorrow and the normal process of seeing if they can fix it will begin.

We have lost all faith in the dealer and a lot of faith in the car. For the moment as they are looking at it tomorrow, I guess the process will need to run its course and I need to give them a chance to repair it.

Presumably it is either fixed and works fine for the rest of the six month period, or it breaks again and then a rejection on the basis of a recurring fault should perhaps be more straightforward.

[Pezza54]

Some good news. Thanks for updating the forum. Fingers crossed the fault will be repaired quickly and will not recur
To minimize your inconvenience the dealer should provide you with a courtesy car while your car is being repaired. If he doesn't offer one, you should ask for one letting him know you need a car to avoid public transport and the cost of taxis
Keep diary notes of what happens and what is said

[Edinburgh24]

Thanks. Very good advice.

By far the best advice my dad has ever given me was to document everything in cases like this. He would frequently be called to give evidence in court and it was always one of the first things he was asked. I have had reason to do this a few times and it has made life a lot simpler.

I started a file earlier today noting all the discussions I have had.

[Edinburgh24]

I thought I should update people on what happened.

The car was fixed and has been fine since then, it seemed like it was a teething problem and updates have been issued to fix this.

I have noted that some other customers have had the same issues as me with Kia providing the same poor service. Often their cars have not had the updates installed which fix these issues despite them being available for months.