Second hand car - getting your money back

[TeaVR]

Anyone know the law regarding getting your money back for a second hand car purchased from a dealer?

We bough a car from a dealer. The car has a clunk coming from the suspension / transmission. We raised the issue immediately, and over the last 6 weeks or so the dealer has had the car back 5 times in an attempt to fix it.

The car was returned today, and the issue still exists.

Is there a point where we can scream - "We want our money back!" ?

[Dangerous Dan]

how old is the car?

[SMcP114]

You're going to have some job getting a full refund just because the car makes a noise, realistically.

[Matt UK]

Dangerous Dan said:

how old is the car?

Good question.

If it's a month old from a main dealer - you stand a chance and a half.

If it's 10 years old from 'Darrenz carz' - you stand very little chance.

IMO.

[Dangerous Dan]

Also, to add: some cars are naturally 'clonky' feeling with the suspension on rougher roads.

[Fox-]

Dangerous Dan said:

Also, to add: some cars are naturally 'clonky' feeling with the suspension on rougher roads.

Broken ones, perhaps.

[TeaVR]

Thanks all.

What if in addition to the mechanical issues we have been having, the promised service history has still not turned up?

All a bloody nightmare.

[Snowboy]

In general soga means you are entitled to get what you pay for.
A brand new expensive car should not clonk.
An old used cheap car might clonk.

Is it a brand new car?

[mondeoman]

Give us price, age and mileage - then you'll get an idea of what you can do.

[dave7692]

Do you have a reliable mate that could take a look at it for you? Just as a second opinion.

You never know if there is something wrong the garage might just be coming back with "Nowt wrong with it mate, must just be one of those things." in the hope you'll just go away.

[TeaVR]

£10.5k
2008
90k miles

[Piersman2]

TeaVR said:

£10.5k
2008
90k miles

Ah yes... they all do that.

To be honest, from what you've described you've got no chance of getting your money back.

After 5 attempts you need to take the car to someone else to be checked over, a decent marque specific specialist.

They may actually say what I said above, they all do that, which means you can stop worrying about it.

If it's something that does need attention then get the specialist to fix it and then see if your garage will either pay for it or contribute towards it.

The chances are it's a suspension bush or a drop link or something similar. Not really a huge safety issue and to be expected on a vehicle with 90k on the clock. At 90K, you can't realistically expect a car to be as 'new' and I think you'd struggle to get a court judgement unless it was something serious or safety related.

You could try it via small claims, depends on how much self righteous indignation you feel and the cost of the fix at the specialist garage.

ETA: I've recently bought a 2007 car with 110K for 16K. My personal expectation of buying at that price and age is that I'm on my own unless the engine blows up in the first month or so. I've so far paid for new turbo hoses and brake disc/pads all round. Never crossed my mind to go back t the the dealer I bought from but then I suppose we all have differing expectations when we buy a car.

Edited by Piersman2 on Wednesday 4th September 08:46

[300bhp/ton]

TeaVR said:

Anyone know the law regarding getting your money back for a second hand car purchased from a dealer?

We bough a car from a dealer. The car has a clunk coming from the suspension / transmission. We raised the issue immediately, and over the last 6 weeks or so the dealer has had the car back 5 times in an attempt to fix it.

The car was returned today, and the issue still exists.

Is there a point where we can scream - "We want our money back!" ?

sigh.....


Another noob only looking up their rights after the fact... will we ever evolve, even a little?

http://sogahub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

[300bhp/ton]

TeaVR said:

Thanks all.

What if in addition to the mechanical issues we have been having, the promised service history has still not turned up?

All a bloody nightmare.

Did you get it written down that the FSH would be provided, were any dates documented?

Basically if not, then it's mostly your own fault tbh. I don't mean to be harsh, but adults should learn to take responsibility for their own actions. And it would appear you have much leg work to do.

[confused_buyer]

300bhp/ton said:

sigh.....


Another noob only looking up their rights after the fact... will we ever evolve, even a little?

http://sogahub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

Which is pretty useless for most cases as all the examples I can see and guides either refer to new cars or almost new (e.g. alternator failing on one year old car).

Nearly all the questions which come up here seem to concern older and usually higher mileage cars where no one (Trading Standards included) is prepared to commit to paper any sort of general guidelines because the short answer is they don't know.

[300bhp/ton]

confused_buyer said:

Which is pretty useless for most cases as all the examples I can see and guides either refer to new cars or almost new (e.g. alternator failing on one year old car).

Nearly all the questions which come up here seem to concern older and usually higher mileage cars where no one (Trading Standards included) is prepared to commit to paper any sort of general guidelines because the short answer is they don't know.

I've read through all of the SOGA site and to me it seemed very useful and very helpful and relevant to every "I want my money back" thread I've encountered on PH.

The crux is:


-is it "reasonably" fit for purpose
-you need to give seller opportunity to rectify the issue

[confused_buyer]

300bhp/ton said:

I've read through all of the SOGA site and to me it seemed very useful and very helpful and relevant to every "I want my money back" thread I've encountered on PH.

The crux is:


-is it "reasonably" fit for purpose
-you need to give seller opportunity to rectify the issue

Define "reasonable". Then re-define it for a range of ages, prices and mileages and specific things. Then get everyone to agree on it. What I think is "reasonable" might not be what you think is reasonable, or a seller thinks is reasonable, or a buyer...or a judge. No one really knows.

[300bhp/ton]

confused_buyer said:

Define "reasonable". Then re-define it for a range of ages, prices and mileages and specific things. Then get everyone to agree on it. What I think is "reasonable" might not be what you think is reasonable, or a seller thinks is reasonable, or a buyer...or a judge. No one really knows.

There is no definition as it can't be defined. However it doesn't take a lot of common sense to assume any complex machine made up of 1000's of components is likely to suffer potential issues even when new. Take a 5 year old example and nearly 100,000 miles later, then it would only be unreasonable to expect it be like a new one.

SOGA also clearly states that is the buyer knows of an issue before purchase then they buying aware of the problem. If the suspension was knocking before they bought it and they had test driven it, then it is reasonable to assume they knew about it and bought it regardless. In this case SOGA does not protect you.

If the issue manifested afterwards, then it wasn't present at the time of sale and it would be unreasonable to expect the seller to have been able to fortune tell that it would happen.

As the seller has had the vehicle back multiple times it appears they are going above and beyond SOGA to try and rectify the issue at the moment.

With regard to the service history, if nothing was documented and provable, then there sadly/really is no leg to stand on.

[monthefish]

300bhp/ton said:

sigh.....


Another noob only looking up their rights after the fact... will we ever evolve, even a little?

http://sogahub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

'Noob' as in 'joined 3 years before you'?

Why not try to be helpful rather than critical?

[valais]

monthefish said:

'Noob' as in 'joined 3 years before you'?

Why not try to be helpful rather than critical?

Because if the answer can't be, "Buy an American car, etc" then critical is his default position.