I bought a faulty car and want to reject it - do I have to let the garage attempt to fix it first?

I bought a 2014 Audi A3 S-Line from Norwich Audi, they delivered it to me in Coventry, sight unseen and from the day I received the car it had an unusual noise coming from the engine. They directed me to take it to Audi Coventry and they had it for four days on two separate occasions, and confirmed the noise was present in two technical reports, but could not find the source of the noise. I asked Norwich Audi to reject the car and they told me that I had to drive the car back to them, pick up a courtesy car and allow them to try and fix the fault. That's a 300 mile round trip and of course another one to pick it up again or drop the courtesy car off. Both Norwich Audi and Audi Customer Services UK are saying that they have not had a chance to fix the car, even though their agents, Coventry Audi have seen the car twice over four days and cannot find the fault. The matter is now with the Motor Ombudsman and my credit card company. Can you give me your opinion on this?

Asked on 4 January 2018 by Neil Gillespie

Answered by Honest John
I'm puzzled as to why you would buy a car from 300 miles away. I think it is "reasonable" for the dealer to expect you to return the car to him for investigation while he supplies a courtesy car to keep you mobile. Not his fault that you bought from 300 miles away. The Motor Ombudsman may or may not help. If the fault cannot be corrected, then Clegg v Olle Andersson (trading as Nordic Marine) House of Lords 2003 applies and you can reject the car: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights
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