Taking car manufacturer / dealer to court
Discussion
I'm in an ongoing dispute with a dealer/manufacturer over my car which is still under warranty, going round in circles - I've spent so much time and energy on the matter that the next step will be to appoint legal representation and potentially pursue them through the courts.
Anyone know of a legal firm that specialises in this area?
Cheers
Anyone know of a legal firm that specialises in this area?
Cheers
Beaver Dam said:
I'm in an ongoing dispute with a dealer/manufacturer over my car which is still under warranty, going round in circles - I've spent so much time and energy on the matter that the next step will be to appoint legal representation and potentially pursue them through the courts.
Anyone know of a legal firm that specialises in this area?
Cheers
Even in times when the world isn't in the grip of a viral pandemic and courts aren't closed, suing car manufacturers is like knitting custard trousers. And usually not an activity undertaken by end users.Anyone know of a legal firm that specialises in this area?
Cheers
The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
So said:
Even in times when the world isn't in the grip of a viral pandemic and courts aren't closed, suing car manufacturers is like knitting custard trousers. And usually not an activity undertaken by end users.
The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
There is no finance on the car so I'd be going at it alone. It may well be the case that once I've explained the situation to a legal specialist they tell me I'm wasting my time and haven't got a hope in hell but I'm keen to explore all options to understand what is/isn't possible. The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
Sadly I can't go into the nitty gritty here on PH - it's a small World and if things do progress down the legal route I don't want to compromise my position by having all the details out there in the public domain.
Beaver Dam said:
So said:
Even in times when the world isn't in the grip of a viral pandemic and courts aren't closed, suing car manufacturers is like knitting custard trousers. And usually not an activity undertaken by end users.
The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
There is no finance on the car so I'd be going at it alone. It may well be the case that once I've explained the situation to a legal specialist they tell me I'm wasting my time and haven't got a hope in hell but I'm keen to explore all options to understand what is/isn't possible. The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
Sadly I can't go into the nitty gritty here on PH - it's a small World and if things do progress down the legal route I don't want to compromise my position by having all the details out there in the public domain.
Others, notably those who sell notoriously unreliable cars, are battle hardened and very difficult to deal with.
In order to be successful you'll need to get an expert witness to write a report. That will be a few hundred pounds upwards. You'll have to pay for it. Then you'll have to pay a solicitor for his advice. It's possible to rack up a big bill quite quickly, without the guarantee of recovering it.
Unless you have quite deep pockets, CAB may be worth a try, Though I doubt that they are currently open.
Not that I can help other than to say - a good friend of mine to a major manufacturer to court and recently won his case - the courts ordering the manufacturer to pay the replacement cost of repairing his engine in a 2 year old car due to a known defective part, plus the costs he incurred raising the case, having been through several hoops to get there of course.
So said:
Even in times when the world isn't in the grip of a viral pandemic and courts aren't closed, suing car manufacturers is like knitting custard trousers. And usually not an activity undertaken by end users.
The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
Agreed, it's standard MO for the company with the deeper pockets - even though you'll technically be able to claim legal costs recovery if you win, by dragging it out they'll hope that whilst incurring costs out of your own money you'll run out of cash / determination / nerve.The supplying dealer is almost certainly the party with whom you have the contract. If the car is financed, the finance company is jointly liable and in my experience the party most likely to take some action.
If you really have exhausted all your options, pursuing a dealer is only litigation and every Tom Dick and Harry LLP has a litigator. But be warned, dealerships, with manufacturer backing have deeper pockets than you and will let you drag them to the courtroom steps before doing anything at all.
I've recently been through so this can offer some advice; I purchased a new Doblo van, which suffered from repeated power steering failures (over an 18 month period) with the first failure within one month of purchase. On each occasion the Fiat dealer simply reattached the hydraulic pipe and refilled the system without any further investigation. I contact the manufacturer who clearly weren't interested and directed me back to the supplying dealer. I didn't get anywhere with them (they blamed the manufacturer) so I pursued the dealer through the Scottish small claims court as my contract was with them and not Fiat UK. They finally settled within hours of the case going to court, and they subsequently claimed the money back from Fiat UK. It was a complete pain in the neck to deal with and so easily avoidable if Fiat UK and the dealer had worked together and solved the problem after the second failure.
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