Solicitor to sue an Audi dealer

[GT03ROB]

Having in the past tried to track down service history details for cars I was looking at buying & been met with a refusal due to data protection. I'm a little bit surprised the dealership were amenable to discuss service details with the OP, unless the questions were generic in nature & not related to a specific vehicle. If that was the case then it would undermine further any possible case.

[Forester1965]

davidcw58 said:

If I am fortunate enough to get a judgement against them then I am sure they will pay.
As you say, might be quite fun if they didn't :-)

If they didn't, I think I can go the route of statutory demand and then winding up petition. No question they would pay then

You might want to learn to spell 'judgment' before writing to them trying to enforce it, though.

[darreni]

OP, you mention the dealer is trying to avoid their legal, contractual and moral obligations.
What do you believe these are, given you did not buy the car from them nor commission any diagnostic work?

Edited by darreni on Tuesday 6th February 10:53

[Hammersia]

Forester1965 said:

davidcw58 said:

If I am fortunate enough to get a judgement against them then I am sure they will pay.
As you say, might be quite fun if they didn't :-)

If they didn't, I think I can go the route of statutory demand and then winding up petition. No question they would pay then

You might want to learn to spell 'judgment' before writing to them trying to enforce it, though.

My understanding is that either spelling is correct but for obscure Dickensian era reasons when speaking to the Court "judgment" is correct. OP is speaking to a forum however, just the court of PH opinion, so judgement is not to be judged unduly harshly.

[JQ]

Forester1965 said:

davidcw58 said:

Agreed but they knew the purpose and reading the judgement they therefore had a duty of care to me

You're going to have to argue that a second hand conversation via a receptionist meant Audi accepted a duty of care in advising you whether it was safe to buy the Audi. You'll also have to argue that simultaneously they had a contractual obligation to the seller, and that their duty of care to you (for free) via said receptionist tittle-tattle, overrrode that contractual, paid duty to seller.

Can't you see a fairly obvious problem with that?

And that's why it won't go anywhere. There seems to be lots of discussion around the mechanics of a claim, whilst many are overlooking the basis for the claim. As someone who acts as an Expert Witness in negligence claims, I personally don't think the OP has a claim, but IANAL and the validity of claims generally gets resolved before my involvement, so I'm definitely not providing advise - don't sue me David!!

[davidcw58]

Forester1965 said:

You might want to learn to spell 'judgment' before writing to them trying to enforce it, though.

I think I probably use both spellings on occasions. Looking on the GOV money claims website they spell it without the 'e' so I will do that in future if I remember :-)

[Hammersia]

davidcw58 said:

Forester1965 said:

You might want to learn to spell 'judgment' before writing to them trying to enforce it, though.

I think I probably use both spellings on occasions. Looking on the GOV money claims website they spell it without the 'e' so I will do that in future if I remember :-)

Thought you were popping off to the classic car forums?

[davidcw58]

Hammersia said:

Thought you were popping off to the classic car forums?

There are a few sensible people on here. I plan to try to ignore the others :-)

[MustangGT]

davidcw58 said:

There are a few sensible people on here. I plan to try to ignore the others :-)

Yet you are ignoring everybody who says you have no case. In order to proceed against the Audi dealer you have to have a contract with them in which they have been negligent. You do not have this. Simple as.

You will be wasting your money on a solicitor. Firstly the Small Claims process looks very dimly on the use of solicitors.

Secondly when the Audi dealer receives their copy of the claim they will respond saying no contract in place. You will likely end up with the case being dismissed at that point as there is no case to answer.

Any solicitor worth his salt would advise you of this as well.

As a previous poster almost got right 'A fool and his money are soon parted'.

[mickythefish]

This is why car checks done by other companies are warranted for presale checks. You might win some damages but not the value you think. I wouldn't myself.

I also imagine any ''checks'' will have caveats on the paperwork. What did the small print say on the contract/invoice.?

Edited by mickythefish on Tuesday 6th February 12:00

[sugerbear]

davidcw58 said:

Hammersia said:

Thought you were popping off to the classic car forums?

There are a few sensible people on here. I plan to try to ignore the others :-)

Having been through the small claims I think you are throwing good money after bad, but if you do pursue I would like to know what you believe your legal argument would be in this case.

Just some of things you will need to overcome before being successful.

You didn't have a contract with Audi.
That you purchased the car with a fault.
The dealership (and the receptionist / mechanic) could reasonably have expected the sensor to fix the fault, thus not negligent. If they subsequently find a further fault or issue then that isn't negligence.
Your contract is between the seller of the car and yourself (Audi were not party to the contract).
That the £300 to fit/fix the issue is probably the max you could expect to get back from dealership if that is what you paid them and they didn't fix the issue.

You cannot expect the dealership to give you an open cheque book to fix your car.

You also have to consider that you haven't actually lost money any yet as you have not realised that loss, you still own the car. If you are serious then you need to sell the car with all its faults and realise the loss.

I think the judge will look at this as a case of someone expecting a dealership to fix their car for free.

[MrBogSmith]

I found Audi poor.

They told me they didn't have ramps to accommodate the R8 I used to own and that I needed to go to another Audi dealer. I think they didn't want to do the oil change. They couldn't get some replacement parts, "there's none in Europe" - I had to go to an independent.

I'll never buy an Audi again. It shouldn't be a problem as I don't like any (excluding the R8) of their cars.

Maybe I'll sue them.

[EddieSteadyGo]

Op - you are deluding yourself.

Firstly, the evidence doesn't support your case. You decided to wanted to buy a car which you knew was showing a gearbox warning light. Most people wouldn't be interested in taking the risk on buying a 15 year old car with such a potentially serious/expensive fault. We can presume the reason you wanted to go ahead is that you thought the price was a bargain.

You have a document from the dealer which tells you "further work" would be required. What is the proof that the person you spoke with, who you knew had no personal knowledge themselves of the car (as they needed to ask someone else) didn't say the reset "could cure the problem" rather than "would cure the problem"?

And if you were so concerned about buying the car with a gearbox fault, a reasonable person would have asked the seller to fix it, and then buy the car (at a higher price) one it was cleared. But you preferred to take the risk yourself, presumably as you didn't want to pay a higher price, and yet when it goes wrong, you want to push the blame onto someone else. That's shady behaviour.

[iphonedyou]

You haven't a mission, OP.

Suck it up and move on (and be more reasonable, too. Not cool).

[FMOB]

davidcw58 said:

Simpo Two said:

Well yes, that much is true. And only sue someone who has the money to pay. I think an Audi dealer has, and the prospect of HC bailiffs going to work on a showroom full of new Audis with customers watching is most entertaining

But the OP is determined to hire a solicitor, so good luck to him and I hope he (a) wins (b) ends up richer rather than poorer.

If I am fortunate enough to get a judgement against them then I am sure they will pay.
As you say, might be quite fun if they didn't :-)

If they didn't, I think I can go the route of statutory demand and then winding up petition. No question they would pay then

If you get a judgement and they don't pay get the baliff to start looking for the server room and pull out anything with a fibre optic cable going into it. Will shut down their operations in minutes and open the cheque book just as quickly.

[omniflow]

davidcw58 said:

A full claim rather than a small claims procedure will involve more costs for both them and me but might encourage them to settle

Snipped the quoted post, but I don't think it should matter.

OP - nothing that you do will encourage them to settle because, as has been pointed out to you numerous times, there is absolutely no case here. Their Lawyers would be laughing all the way to the bank over this (assuming it ever gets that far)

BTW - if you do manage to find a solicitor to take this on for you, please let us all know who they are. So that we can avoid them like the plague, and they will most definitely not be acting in their client's best interests.

[mickythefish]

Just rereading again, why do people always take it to the specialist after buying the car. They will do checks themselves presale.

My take op thought they were getting a bargain, took a punt, failed and now blaming everyone and his dog.

[Fast and Spurious]

I've asked my daughter, who is a legal expert, she said you have 2 hopes... Here's one of them...

[Decky_Q]

Having read through the debacle of the guy doing porsche pre-purchase inspections. That got alot of people ripped off, he only had to repay the fee for the inspection not the losses from being stuck with a severely damaged porsche.

I would imagine it unlikely to get anywhere with an inspection that you didnt pay for.

[Forester1965]

Question for the OP. How much did you agree to buy the car for when you knew about the gearbox worries, and what would you have paid for it had there been none?