What are my consumer rights against a one-man trader?
I bought a car from an individual that trades Clios from his home and works as a mobile mechanic. He sold me the car for £595 - a bargain.
I asked him about all areas of the car he advised me it had been fully serviced, "everything works, "would pass its MoT tomorrow,nice little runner" and told me to "get on the motorway" straight away.
After I had paid him in cash, we set off home and immediately noticed the speedometer wasn't working. I called him and he said he couldn't fix it straight away but would meet us later and sort it which he did, although I imagine driving with this not working is illegal anyway. At this point I said it was a bargain, I expect problems and don't mind, but want to know up front to avoid any dangerous situations - he advised me I would be perfectly fine in it and its a good solid car.
Anyway, following this I taxed the car and the first day with the car it wouldn't start. The second day I took it on a practice run of going to work - it stalled at the lights and then wouldn't start up.
Then on my first trip on the motorway it cut out - scary! I got in the hard shoulder and it wouldn't start until perhaps the tenth attempt.
It's currently at a garage having a full MoT to see what else is waiting to go wrong.
Do I have rights to ask the seller to pay these costs? He could have cost me my life telling me to drive on the motorway in that death trap!
I asked him about all areas of the car he advised me it had been fully serviced, "everything works, "would pass its MoT tomorrow,nice little runner" and told me to "get on the motorway" straight away.
After I had paid him in cash, we set off home and immediately noticed the speedometer wasn't working. I called him and he said he couldn't fix it straight away but would meet us later and sort it which he did, although I imagine driving with this not working is illegal anyway. At this point I said it was a bargain, I expect problems and don't mind, but want to know up front to avoid any dangerous situations - he advised me I would be perfectly fine in it and its a good solid car.
Anyway, following this I taxed the car and the first day with the car it wouldn't start. The second day I took it on a practice run of going to work - it stalled at the lights and then wouldn't start up.
Then on my first trip on the motorway it cut out - scary! I got in the hard shoulder and it wouldn't start until perhaps the tenth attempt.
It's currently at a garage having a full MoT to see what else is waiting to go wrong.
Do I have rights to ask the seller to pay these costs? He could have cost me my life telling me to drive on the motorway in that death trap!
Asked on 6 February 2013 by naomibaloni
Answered by
Honest John
At this level you still theoretically have consumer rights, but the car was so cheap at less than 10% of its original list price you could not 'reasonably' expect it to be in perfect working order. Your only rights would, anyway, be to either get your money back or get the dealer to repair the faults. You have absolutely no right to have the car repaired and expect him to pay the bill.
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