We've had to fix faults on my daughter's MINI Cooper - should the dealer who sold it to us reimburse us?
My daughter has just bought a secondhand car and has had two or three failures that she only discovered soon after buying the car. The car is an 8-year old MINI Cooper. The vendor is refusing to reimburse my daughter for work she has had to have done (window washer and front and rear brake problems). You wrote some time ago that any faults discovered in the first three months were deemed to have been there when the car was purchased.
Asked on 2 May 2011 by SG, via email
Answered by
Honest John
It's not three months, it's six months. See: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights/ But this does not give you the automatic right to have a fault repaired, then try to bill the dealer for it. The law says you have to give the dealer the opportunity to fix it or take the car back and give you your money back. But the dealer must make this clear in his terms and conditions. If he doesn’t, in cases like yours, many Small Claims Court judges have been finding for plaintiffs who have had faults fixed against the dealer.
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