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Dispute with a Car Dealer, Sales of Goods Act
I'm new here, please be gentile.
Part one: the set up
I'm wondering if I could pick your brains for a minute with regards to my case. At the moment trading standards are handing it for me but I'm wondering if I could get a second (unofficial) opinion on whats going on.
I'll start at the beginning. I bought a 06 plate Peugeot 206 back in January, small, red, nippy. Great little car. Though almost straight away I had an issue with it. about three days after I picked it up (they put it in and it passed it's MOT before I picked it up) the engine temperature shot into the danger zone and it started steaming really bad. Lucky I was parking it in my driveway at the time so I managed to park it up straight away. I open the bonnet to see that all the water in the header tank had boiled away so I called my mechanic to try and figure out what went wrong.
He noticed gunk in the header tank and thought it was a blown gasket head and advised I chase the garage up about it. Called the garage and they agreed to uplift it, as they said it was too dangerous to drive, and took it away to fix. Two days later they deliver the car back. I asked their man what had been done to it, he said they checked the head gasket and found no fault but they replaced the coolant. They didn't give me any paperwork nor did I ask (I've never had a car before and I didn't really know what to do, as everything was okay I left it as that) the car was then fine for three months.
Then I noticed the oil leak. When the car was on my driveway it was fine, no oil would leak but if I ran it for a while the oil would heat up and then leak. At first I didn't think much of it, it was only a few drops and the dip stick said there was plenty of oil in it, it was only when it became an oil trail and the dipstick ran really low did I get concerned.
I called my mechanic up again to see what would need done, he looks it over and mentions something has gone wrong with the sump as oil had coated everything on the underside of my car. He mentioned it was very unusual for this fault to occur so early in the cars life (it has only done 56,000 miles) and the sump would need replaced. This sucked I was read to hand him the keys to go fix it when we decided to look at the header tank again. Now I've been keeping an eye on the levels and they'd been good but when he looked into it all that was in was oil. no water, just oil.
He thought the car was goosed. He said to me that an engine of this age should not fail like this, he advised me to replace the entire engine as he thought the fault was that bad. He also said I should speak to trading standards about this as under the sales of goods act this was in no way fit for purpose.
Part 2: the dispute
I call trading standards about it and outline the above (long winded, I know) and they advise the usual. Send them a letter by recorded delivery and await their response. I'll summarize their response:
When I relayed this to trading standards they reiterated the sales of goods act: the car is less than six months from the point of purchase so the dealer most prove it was sold in a fit and proper condition, the MOT is not relevant. They would then contact the dealer directly and would let me know in due course.
I now have the second replay (forwarded to me by trading standards). I'll summarize it also:
I'll quote the past part word for word:
This really sucks. I'm still waiting for trading standards to call me back so I've not spoken to them about this second letter yet but just some issues I'd like to raise:
1. Now they're saying they replaced it? Now I wish I did ask for a written statement at the time (stupid naive me!) as this is not the opposite to what I was told at the time.
2. I informed them at the time that there was oil in the header tank and that's what made us think it was a blown gasket (back at the original fault)
3. The car is closer to 6 years old, it's done 1006 miles and that's over 80 days (less than the average milage).
4. I told them the second time around about the oil leakage as I didn't notice it at first.
5. If they're claiming they replaced the head gasket and given that fact at the very least the car now has an all but confirmed blown gasket does that mean they've snookered themselves as they are now open to a dispute via the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982? (if that was a new gasket head then I'm sure it shouldn't fail in 1000 miles)
As I've said trading standards are looking into this for me and I hope to speak to them very soon. In the mean time it would be great is some beagles could give me their advice on my dispute and perhaps what they think I should do in the end.
P.S.
The car has not been moved since this flared up at the beginning of May, trading standards have advised me not to fix it yet.
Part one: the set up
I'm wondering if I could pick your brains for a minute with regards to my case. At the moment trading standards are handing it for me but I'm wondering if I could get a second (unofficial) opinion on whats going on.
I'll start at the beginning. I bought a 06 plate Peugeot 206 back in January, small, red, nippy. Great little car. Though almost straight away I had an issue with it. about three days after I picked it up (they put it in and it passed it's MOT before I picked it up) the engine temperature shot into the danger zone and it started steaming really bad. Lucky I was parking it in my driveway at the time so I managed to park it up straight away. I open the bonnet to see that all the water in the header tank had boiled away so I called my mechanic to try and figure out what went wrong.
He noticed gunk in the header tank and thought it was a blown gasket head and advised I chase the garage up about it. Called the garage and they agreed to uplift it, as they said it was too dangerous to drive, and took it away to fix. Two days later they deliver the car back. I asked their man what had been done to it, he said they checked the head gasket and found no fault but they replaced the coolant. They didn't give me any paperwork nor did I ask (I've never had a car before and I didn't really know what to do, as everything was okay I left it as that) the car was then fine for three months.
Then I noticed the oil leak. When the car was on my driveway it was fine, no oil would leak but if I ran it for a while the oil would heat up and then leak. At first I didn't think much of it, it was only a few drops and the dip stick said there was plenty of oil in it, it was only when it became an oil trail and the dipstick ran really low did I get concerned.
I called my mechanic up again to see what would need done, he looks it over and mentions something has gone wrong with the sump as oil had coated everything on the underside of my car. He mentioned it was very unusual for this fault to occur so early in the cars life (it has only done 56,000 miles) and the sump would need replaced. This sucked I was read to hand him the keys to go fix it when we decided to look at the header tank again. Now I've been keeping an eye on the levels and they'd been good but when he looked into it all that was in was oil. no water, just oil.
He thought the car was goosed. He said to me that an engine of this age should not fail like this, he advised me to replace the entire engine as he thought the fault was that bad. He also said I should speak to trading standards about this as under the sales of goods act this was in no way fit for purpose.
Part 2: the dispute
I call trading standards about it and outline the above (long winded, I know) and they advise the usual. Send them a letter by recorded delivery and await their response. I'll summarize their response:
We consider this fault to be wear and tear. We put it through an MOT and it passed and as we took your car in and fixed it then this proves that we are not at fault for it
I now have the second replay (forwarded to me by trading standards). I'll summarize it also:
How do we prove no fault existed at point of sale? We took the car back and replaced the head gasket. The customer did not inform us of oil in the header tank or of an oil leak. Our cars are checked for oil and water and we would of noticed any problems at the time. Why did he not inform us of the oil leak at the time?
We deem this fault as a sign of wear and tear which could be expected of a car of 7 years. The fact this fault was not reported at the same time as the first fault, but 3 months and over 1000 miles later, should be proof enough that the fault was not present at the time of sale.
1. Now they're saying they replaced it? Now I wish I did ask for a written statement at the time (stupid naive me!) as this is not the opposite to what I was told at the time.
2. I informed them at the time that there was oil in the header tank and that's what made us think it was a blown gasket (back at the original fault)
3. The car is closer to 6 years old, it's done 1006 miles and that's over 80 days (less than the average milage).
4. I told them the second time around about the oil leakage as I didn't notice it at first.
5. If they're claiming they replaced the head gasket and given that fact at the very least the car now has an all but confirmed blown gasket does that mean they've snookered themselves as they are now open to a dispute via the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982? (if that was a new gasket head then I'm sure it shouldn't fail in 1000 miles)
As I've said trading standards are looking into this for me and I hope to speak to them very soon. In the mean time it would be great is some beagles could give me their advice on my dispute and perhaps what they think I should do in the end.
P.S.
The car has not been moved since this flared up at the beginning of May, trading standards have advised me not to fix it yet.
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