Faulty Second Hand Car

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Mon 21 May 2012 22:49
Faulty Second Hand Car - ohnotyouagain

Hello.

I bought a car on the 18th May 2012. I saw the ad on ebay. It was listed saying there was a fault with the airbag as the airbag light was present on the dashboard. Because of this, the price was reduced. it stated in the ad that because of this no warranty is given or implied and priced to clear.

I went to the dealer who let me inspect the car and take it for a test drive. He explained to me that the airbag light had come on whilst being stood and offered no explanation other than that.

I was happy to proceed with this as i know a mechanic who could fix this problem. I bought the car mostly cash as i had it on me and some on my debit card.

I drove the car home (around 60 miles) and did not encounter any problems.

The day after, i drove for around 30 miles in total in seperate trips. On my last trip, the car made a jolt and went into limp mode. An error message appeared on the dashboard saying check gearbox. I stopped the car when i could safely and turned off the engine. I waited a couple of minutes and started the car again with the fault gone. I continued on my journey (around 8 miles).

The day after i went shopping to my local supermarket. As i was coming out of the car park the car did the same thing again, error message saying Check Gearbox and loss of power. I did the exact same as i did the night before and the fault dissapeared. I then went straight home.

I booked the car into my local garage today (monday) and had a diagnostic check performed. The fault codes that came up said that i had a problem with the gearbox due to lack of pressure. The garage advised me to run the car for 2-3 days as codes could have been stored for a long time. He said if it happened again, to return and have the codes checked again to come to a diagnosis.

I went out this evening to the shop in the car and travelled approx 2 miles and it happened again. I will return to the garage to have the fault codes read again.

I spoke to the dealer earlier on today before the last incident and he said there was nothing he could do. He said it it had been sold at retail, then he would have offered a warranty. I'm unsure what this means. The invoice i have for the car sale says on it that the car was sold as per ebay ad, sold with no warranty given or implied due to faults and price.

The dealer said he had driven the car previously for 200 miles and the fault didn't show up and said if there was a fault at the time of sale then it would have presented itself during the time he drove it.

My question is, do i have any rights about this? I have looked at the sale of goods act and i believe that the car is not satisfactorily fit for its purpose.

I feel that he wont be very open to discuss this based on the conversation i had with him today.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Tue 22 May 2012 00:02
Faulty Second Hand Car - tony g
Hi,
You clearly bought the car knowing that it had undiagnosed faults and that the price had been reduced because of that , the dealer made it clear that the car was sold without warranty because of the disclosed faults ,why do you expect the dealer to help .

However ,because consumer law is biased against car dealers you may have an option ,I remember a case similair to yours where a judge decicided that a consumer lacked sufficient experience / knowledge to sign away thier rights. In effect a customer can't agree to buy a car as sold as seen .

It's wrong , but you may be able to use the above as a way to pursue the dealer .
Tony g


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Tue 22 May 2012 18:46
Faulty Second Hand Car - Duncan112

IF it is a Fiat automatic there is a software upgrade available for the gearbox management system - my father had this problem and it was solved by a sensor change and software upgrade, in any case it is probably worth a trip to a main dealer or trusted independant to find out if there is a simply solved problem.

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Wed 23 May 2012 00:40
Faulty Second Hand Car - bonzo dog

Tony, a dealer cannot sell a car to a non-trader "sold as seen"; & a private customer cannot "sign away his rights"

Whether this is fair or not is a topic for discussion; what is not, is that under current legistlation, he can't.

If a fault is pointed out to the customer (in this case the airbag being faulty) the customer can have no claim against the delear for the fault in question (ie the airbag) but any other faults fall under SOGA

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Wed 23 May 2012 13:39
Faulty Second Hand Car - tony g
(I remember a case similair to yours where a judge decicided that a consumer lacked sufficient experience / knowledge to sign away thier rights. In effect a customer can't agree to buy a car as sold as seen . )

Hi bonzo ,see the above paragraph , i agree with what you say ,however it does seem grossly unfair that an agreement can be made between adults ,and then set aside by the courts ,consumerism gone mad?

Tony g
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Wed 23 May 2012 15:08
Faulty Second Hand Car - bonzo dog

however it does seem grossly unfair that an agreement can be made between adults ,and then set aside by the courts ,consumerism gone mad?

Hi Tony, on the one hand I agree with you that if two people reach an agreement then why should one party be able to effectively ignore the agreement with the full backing of the law?

On the other hand, I guess that this applies because the consumer is deemed (often rightly so) not to know all the facts of the product he is buying & so needs protection, unlike a trader (who should have the expertise) or a business who it is presumed can afford to buy the relevent expertise.

I'm in two minds

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Wed 23 May 2012 15:26
Faulty Second Hand Car - unthrottled

The problem arises when you are dealing with cars that are sold at a fraction of the original price and so the definition of "fit for purpose" becomes subjective. SOGA can provide buyers with a misplaced sense of security because they think it is a warranty against defects. The same goes for aftermarket warranties. They won't pay for the replacement of worn out parts, only ones that are deemed to have failed prematurely. But every so often, a question crops up on here regarding warranties because someone thinks they can run a 10 year old beemer for pocket money and the warranty company will cover any problems.

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