New car, broken clutch.
Discussion
On behalf of a friend, looking for advice.
Bought a second hand car yesterday, from a dealer. Today it has dined on it's own clutch and is uesless. Well it won't go into any gear, had a mechanic friend who works for the manufacturer look, he believes its the clutch rather than the transmission.
Looking for advice on whether to pursue a refund, or have a repair done. My friend would prefer the car be repaired by a specialist local to him. The dealer is 300 miles away and the car is unuseable.
The sale of goods act applies to the purchase, meaning a refund or repair at the dealers expense should be the way ahead. I think the dealer is favouring a refund and not the repair bill with the owners local specialist garage.
Looking for advice on what to do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bought a second hand car yesterday, from a dealer. Today it has dined on it's own clutch and is uesless. Well it won't go into any gear, had a mechanic friend who works for the manufacturer look, he believes its the clutch rather than the transmission.
Looking for advice on whether to pursue a refund, or have a repair done. My friend would prefer the car be repaired by a specialist local to him. The dealer is 300 miles away and the car is unuseable.
The sale of goods act applies to the purchase, meaning a refund or repair at the dealers expense should be the way ahead. I think the dealer is favouring a refund and not the repair bill with the owners local specialist garage.
Looking for advice on what to do.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If the dealer is offering a refund and will come and collect the car then I would suggest the friend just takes the money back and moves on.
I guess if it’s a rare car then he could refuse this option, but then he’s into his own negotiations.
Chanced are the dealer will offer a full refund or a flat £XX pounds as compensation for the clutch.
It’s unlikely the dealer will offer to pay another garage the full amount to fix the clutch. But, they might want to avoid the expense of collecting a duff car.
I guess if it’s a rare car then he could refuse this option, but then he’s into his own negotiations.
Chanced are the dealer will offer a full refund or a flat £XX pounds as compensation for the clutch.
It’s unlikely the dealer will offer to pay another garage the full amount to fix the clutch. But, they might want to avoid the expense of collecting a duff car.
I believe the dealer is only able to avoid paying for a repair and simply dole out a refund if they can prove it would cause them significant inconvenience or disproportionate expense to effect a repair. You can simply put the car in a local garage, so there's neither of those involved, as a result you can reasonably request he pays for the repair rather than simply refunding you.
It would also be worth pointing out that it stops him having to come 300 miles to fetch the thing!
It is, however, extremely important that you do nothing at all without permission from the dealer, you can't simply put it in a garage and then afterwards try and give him the bill, this can lead to all sorts of trouble.
It would also be worth pointing out that it stops him having to come 300 miles to fetch the thing!
It is, however, extremely important that you do nothing at all without permission from the dealer, you can't simply put it in a garage and then afterwards try and give him the bill, this can lead to all sorts of trouble.
McSam said:
I believe the dealer is only able to avoid paying for a repair and simply dole out a refund if they can prove it would cause them significant inconvenience or disproportionate expense to effect a repair.
I would suggest that after 1 day of ownership they might be able to argue that there’s clearly something wrong with that car and they would prefer to refund the car so they can investigate further.That they would hate to leave a customer with a car that may turn out to have many more hidden problems.
The car is "roadworthy", that's a different thing, but it isn't fit for the purpose for which it was sold, that's the key term.
That they would hate to leave a customer with a car that may turn out to have many more hidden problems.They might, yes. But it's hard to say that with a semi-consumable item like a clutch, if it was catastrophic electrical failures there could be more mileage in that argument, but.. Surely the dealer would rather pay £500 to have a new clutch put in it, than have the crippled car brought back to them to waste their time fixing and then selling it all over again?
Snowboy said:
McSam said:
I believe the dealer is only able to avoid paying for a repair and simply dole out a refund if they can prove it would cause them significant inconvenience or disproportionate expense to effect a repair.
I would suggest that after 1 day of ownership they might be able to argue that there’s clearly something wrong with that car and they would prefer to refund the car so they can investigate further.That they would hate to leave a customer with a car that may turn out to have many more hidden problems.
McSam said:
Surely the dealer would rather pay £500 to have a new clutch put in it, than have the crippled car brought back to them to waste their time fixing and then sell all over again?
I guess that’s the question.Do they pay to fix the clutch and hope the new owner has a few years of hassle free driving without any more claims that’s end up costing more than any profit made on the sale.
Or
Do they get the car back and use it as some sort of quality case study to find out how it managed to get through their quality check with a clearly knackered clutch.
Then fix it and resell it.
Or.
Get it back, give it to the YTS guy to fix with a second hand clutch, then throw it straight to auction as it’s clearly cursed.
Key said:
Confused buyer, even in the case of the clutch giving up less than 24 hours after its left he forecourt?
The car is not road worthy.
Under SoGA yes. Don't be that surprised if the dealer counters with an argument that how do they not know the buyer didn't spend all of Sunday doing donuts in Tesco's car park with it and burnt the clutch out.The car is not road worthy.
The law says "repair or refund" and it can be on a "return to base" basis. Most sensible dealers would, however, try and come up with a sensible solution to suit them and the customer.
confused_buyer said:
Under SoGA yes. Don't be that surprised if the dealer counters with an argument that how do they not know the buyer didn't spend all of Sunday doing donuts in Tesco's car park with it and burnt the clutch out.
The law says "repair or refund" and it can be on a "return to base" basis. Most sensible dealers would, however, try and come up with a sensible solution to suit them and the customer.
Heard an update that the guy is not willing to pay for a repair but is willing to do the return and refund option.The law says "repair or refund" and it can be on a "return to base" basis. Most sensible dealers would, however, try and come up with a sensible solution to suit them and the customer.
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