Rejecting a used car - sales of goods advice

[balls-out]

GreigM said:

....I will have to in-effect "modify" the cooling system to prevent the car over-cooling and damaging the engine if driven in cool ambient temperatures....

What exactly does this mean? many cars have recalls for factory modifications - its common and certainly no reason to get overly upset.
What 'modification' is being undertaken and by whom?

What is the status the the mis-fire and exhaust - have they been fixed or is it an ongoing issue?

Edited by balls-out on Wednesday 1st April 14:08

[Muzzer79]

GreigM said:

eybic said:

You need to give them chance to fix the faults before being able to reject it I believe.

They were notified of the issues 10 days ago and have done nothing, and its looking like a number of weeks at minimum before I have the car useable again, how long do I have to give them to rectify the situation?

You have to give them a "reasonable" amount of time and attempts to fix the issue. IINM, the length of time and number of attempts are not specified.

It sounds like you are predominantly trying to reject the car due to this "design fault" rather than actual broken things.

The SOGA is not a straightforward piece of work at the best of times so good luck with that....

[TooMany2cvs]

GreigM said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Frankly, I'm mildly incredulous. What IS this vehicle? (The reference to a radiator has bopped my first thought on the head)

I'd rather not make this a big naming/shaming, have PM'd you. Just want to know my legal position if I don't get cooperation.

Having read the PM, which does name the manufacturer and car, I am marginally less surprised.

It's hardly a mildly-flash-commuter, but something fairly - umm - dedicated. So, normal expectations and rules (SOGA-wise) are probably not quite as firmly fixed as they could be. given that the manufacturer is apparently engineering a fix, I'm not sure there'd be a huge amount of comeback. Since it's a design compromise apparently designed in due to packaging constraints, it could even be argued that it's inherent to the vehicle and, therefore, the purchaser's research (again, remember how specialist this vehicle is) should have identified it and the purchaser should have satisfied themselves if such constraints were not ones they wanted to accept...

TBH, I rather suspect your best bet is just hoping they fix it sooner rather than later and go with the work-around in the meantime.

[Osinjak]

What's the big deal about saying my Ford Spazmo has crap cooling? Just bizarre.

[btcc123]

It sounds like a McLaren Formuls 1 car but probably something like a Caterham road car or another small manufacture.

[clarkey]

It's pretty easy to work out the make and the model, it's best not to make it obvious on the thread.
In my experience they'll work with you to engineer a solution, assuming you want to keep it. You probably need to go down this route before you reject the car - given the type of car it is, some degree of continuous development is to be expected....

[clarkey]

And given the distance from you to the factory, it is reasonable to expect them to collect the car and return it when its completely fixed.

[Devil2575]

Is the issue that the manufacturer expects that the car will only be driven in cirmcumstances where it is working very hard, i.e a track, so does not need a thermostat?

[GroundEffect]

GreigM said:

ging84 said:

GreigM said:

What if it has none?

Then it probably doesn't need one, this is how modern engines work, the ecu regulates temperature, and because it is computer controlled rather than a fixed opening temperature , it can operate at different temperatures for different scenarios, designers are no longer bound by a single optimum operating temperature.

It does need one. There is nothing regulating the lower end of temperature - the ECU is not involved in any way. I have spoken to the factory that built the car and they confirmed this is the case.

If you're saying that in lower load situations there's nothing stopping the coolant going below a typical 'normal' condition of about 80C then it could be argued that the system was designed for fast running. I've worked with race cars that don't have them, for instance.

If you were loading the engine, your coolant wouldn't reach ambient temps no matter what your rad flow is doing. Yoid need a 100% effective radiator for that.

Also, low coolant tenp is poor for fuel economy, combustion quality but not much in terms of damage.

Sounds to me like you've bought a track car and not driving it hard enough

[anonymous-user]

Well if you paid for it with a credit or debit card then do a charge back, that should get their attention...