Hi all,

Just looking for a bit of advice. We bought a 2004 VW Golf (105,000 miles) in late December last year (2018). Within a week or so the engine warning light came on. We took it to Halfords, where it went off by itself. It continued to come on over the next few months, and each time we'd take it to the garage and they'd try various things. We had a warranty through the dealer, so we assumed it would get sorted and weren't to worried, but sometimes they'd fix something, and sometimes the diagnostic revealed too many competing issues so the warranty wouldn't cover it, because they couldn't identify the specific problem.

By the time the warranty expired we were no closer, just had a health check from a VW garafe that diagnosed a range of issues and a repair bill of £2700 (we bought the car for £1600). We'd always assumed, being first time buyers, that we had no right of return, but then we learned about the consumer rights act. At the beginning of May I contacted the dealer, explained the problems and asked them to repair or refund. They refused, because we'd taken it to other garages without their approval. My response was more or less as follows:

-They were the ones who suggested Halfords when we bought the car because it had a relationship with the warranty provider, so as we are in a different town we took it there.

-The dealer told us we could take it back to them if it needed repairs, but not that we had to, and not that they'd do it for free.

-In their response they said they would have repaired it for free, but now they wouldn't because we'd taken it to another garage without their consent. I haven't seen or heard this rule anywhere, other than a general recommendation to contact the seller as soon as you notice a problem (we didn't because we had the warranty initially, and also because we didn't know our rights at first).

We have now sent them a letter of notice of legal action, and they refused again. For some reason they said we only informed them after six months had passed, but this is demonstrably not true with the paperwork and email records we have.

I guess my main questions are:

-We have two diagnostic readouts (the AA when we broke down once, and Halfords), plus a health check from a VW garage, dating from a couple of weeks after purchase to about 3 1/2 months after. I assume that is what would be defined as problems arising within the first six months being assumed to be present at purchase, so we have a right to repair? The dealer has not presented any counter evidence to say the car was fine when we bought it.

-It's true we didn't contact the dealer straight away, for the reasons explained above. Does this affect our case? I don;t think the consumer rights act is actually void in this case? We aren't asking them to reimburse the repairs we've already had done, just for them to exercise our right to repair for the problems that are still present, and have been more or less since we bought the car.

-I know the main issues are fit for purpose, as described and satisfactory quality. The dealers said is reasonable to expect problems within six months with a car of this age and mieage, but I can't see that mentioned in descriptions of the consumer rights act.

-The car is driveable, but one of the issues is with the cooling fan, and we were told to get that sorted before the summer. Am I correct that a car, even of this age, mileage and purchase price, that should not be driven in hot weather, requires a repair bill of £2700, and will fail its MOT because of the warning light (and presumably some of the many other issues) is not of satisfactory quality?

-We want to get a new car, but I imagine we need to keep hold of this one in the meantime until everything is resolved?

-More generally, what are our chances?

Apologies for the long post, and thanks for any advice you can offer.