I purchased a ford focus c-max 2.0 tdci, 42,000 miles seen on auto trader from a dealer about 100 miles away from me. I agreed a price on the promise that the car was sound and it was delivered to me at a mutually convenient location. As soon as I received the car I noticed an alarming knocking sound from the car and I immediately informed the seller via text message that I was going to have the noise checked out by a garage local to myself for an opinion.

I received no reply to this message so I phoned him the next day and his advice was to keep driving the car in the hope that the noise would go away or make itself more obvious. When I had the car checked out by a local garage I was simply told that there was a serious issue with the car and that I should return it without delay. I informed the seller of this and he again told me that he would only fix it when I could say exactly what was wrong with the car. To diagnose would have cost me many hours labour according to my local garage and this was something which I couldn’t afford.

Over the following weekend I went into various local garages and although they couldn’t say exactly what the problem was without further investigation they all said the problem sounded very serious.

In my investigation of the matter I phoned the garage which had given the car an MOT the day before it was delivered to me and I was informed that the worrying noise was noticed by him during the test and that he had informed the seller, this warning was obviously ignored. When I discussed the noise with the seller he denied all knowledge

After seeking advice I decided that the car was obviously not of satisfactory quality and so I phoned to advise him that as we were well within the 7 day cooling off period I was rejecting the car and that I would like my money back. I was told that there was no way he would give me my money back and that I would have to pursue him through the courts. Trying to be reasonable and given the fact that he was not willing to give me my legal right of a refund I offered to give him the opportunity to repair the car under the warranty and he agreed.

The car was returned there it remained for 5 weeks. After this significant period of time, where no courtesy car was provided, the mechanic (the seller’s brother) said that although there was a noise, he couldn’t diagnose it or fix it. I was told I could pick the car up and bring it back to them if it got worse.

I picked the car up and immediately phoned the seller to tell him again that I wanted a refund, he again refused.

Since then countless attempts to contact them, letters, phone calls and text messages have been ignored.

With court looming I was advised by a friend to let Ford have a look at it which they did and told me that there were 8 faults with the car and the noise was being caused by the dual mass flywheel. The total to repair all of the problems was £1,775; I obviously have a written report and quote from Ford to back up my case.

In conclusion, how do you lovely people rate my chances? I would be willing to accept £1,775 for the repairs to the car or a full refund. No doubt he will offer to repair the car but I feel I have given him more than ample opportunity to do this and I don’t trust him to have my car any more as I feel he has been dishonest. Also, his brother can’t be much of a mechanic if he wasn’t able to find what was wrong in 5 weeks when Ford found it in 10 minutes!

Thanks!