Anyone ever rejected a new car?
Discussion
I'll try and keep it brief. I bought a new car (a Skoda) from a dealer in London and collected it on April 27th. After about a month the clutch started clicking and grating when lifting the pedal, almost always during hot weather. Its very annoying and an issue I've never encountered on any car before (and I must have driven hundreds).
I took the car to my local dealership who said that they could not replicate the issue. I was handed the car back and found the issue still present so I returned it a couple of days later and replicated it for them. They greased the pedal pivot and returned the car. Its now doing it again and is booked in on Wednesday for 4 days so they have a chance to do some proper investigation. I'm wondering what my position is on this issue, as the car is still so new (not even 2 months) and I have a suspicion that they may not fix it? I don't want to keep returning the car over and over again for them to eventually say "Live with it" and would like to know my legal position?
Some brief research on Google suggests that the dealership has 3 attempts to fix the car within the first 10 weeks of ownership or you may reject it. Whilst I appreciate this isn't a large mechanical failure, it is extremely annoying and certainly shouldn't be present on a brand new car. I suspect however, that its the dealership that provide the car that have 3 attempts to fix it and because they are a 90 minute drive away, its not been practical to leave the car with them.
Has anyone been in this situation before and what was the eventual resolution?
I took the car to my local dealership who said that they could not replicate the issue. I was handed the car back and found the issue still present so I returned it a couple of days later and replicated it for them. They greased the pedal pivot and returned the car. Its now doing it again and is booked in on Wednesday for 4 days so they have a chance to do some proper investigation. I'm wondering what my position is on this issue, as the car is still so new (not even 2 months) and I have a suspicion that they may not fix it? I don't want to keep returning the car over and over again for them to eventually say "Live with it" and would like to know my legal position?
Some brief research on Google suggests that the dealership has 3 attempts to fix the car within the first 10 weeks of ownership or you may reject it. Whilst I appreciate this isn't a large mechanical failure, it is extremely annoying and certainly shouldn't be present on a brand new car. I suspect however, that its the dealership that provide the car that have 3 attempts to fix it and because they are a 90 minute drive away, its not been practical to leave the car with them.
Has anyone been in this situation before and what was the eventual resolution?
If you bought the car direct your contract is with the supplying retailer, not the manufacturer or another franchisee so, unless you are prepared to give the supplier the opportunity to rectify it, you will have to live with it.
Maybe they would be prepared to allow your local dealer to do work on their behalf, but I'm guessing that the car was bought from a dealer miles away because this was cheaper and it could now be a case where price and value are not necessarily the same thing.
Maybe they would be prepared to allow your local dealer to do work on their behalf, but I'm guessing that the car was bought from a dealer miles away because this was cheaper and it could now be a case where price and value are not necessarily the same thing.
You have to give them reasonable opportunity to fix the car, what constitutes reasonable is open to debate, you say ten weeks, on other and I would add cheaper household goods I've asked trading standards who have said 28 days previously (price is a factor taken into account).
I think you'd only have grounds to reject it if the goods were faulty when you bought the item but you've suggested that it started occurring a month into ownership.
You will normally have grounds to reject after a few repeated failures to resolve, again it's demonstrating that they have had a reasonable amount of opportunities to fix it, to me 3 sounds reasonable with how you've described it, but if it went to court under SOGA it's a judges interpretation of reasonable.
Your contract of sale is with the retailer you bought it from though so you need to correspond and deal with them.
I think you'd only have grounds to reject it if the goods were faulty when you bought the item but you've suggested that it started occurring a month into ownership.
You will normally have grounds to reject after a few repeated failures to resolve, again it's demonstrating that they have had a reasonable amount of opportunities to fix it, to me 3 sounds reasonable with how you've described it, but if it went to court under SOGA it's a judges interpretation of reasonable.
Your contract of sale is with the retailer you bought it from though so you need to correspond and deal with them.
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