As an aside to lack of "belief" or courtesy or even potential spam, in view of the warnings about liability of the site, Is not HJ when he replies in ask Hj that a car hire firm in sicily are "mafia" or a uk garage are "scum" both recent questions.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/69105/buying-a-b...e
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I think you meant this 'Ask HJ' post
www.honestjohn.co.uk/askhj/answer/69112/faulty-car...s
I can't find the hire car one, but yes, I saw that too.
I don't think there could possibly be any liability. The dealer is not named. There is nothing in the post to even indicate what area of the country the dealer is located in. In addition, the reply refers to 'some scumbag dealers refuse to pay ...', and just points out that this is a potential risk. There is no implication that the dealer concerned will do that.
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I read the reference to "Mafia" car hire in Sicily as being a bit tongue in cheek.
We hired a car in Sicily from Avis last year, and I declined the extra insurance. The car's gear box failed (Vaxhaul Mocha) within 30 Km. Avis reserved the right to charge us for repairs, but to be fair to Avis, they did not charge us after their engineer did an inspection.
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I read the reference to "Mafia" car hire in Sicily as being a bit tongue in cheek.
We hired a car in Sicily from Avis last year, and I declined the extra insurance. The car's gear box failed (Vaxhaul Mocha) within 30 Km. Avis reserved the right to charge us for repairs, but to be fair to Avis, they did not charge us after their engineer did an inspection.
As for hiring cars, in our last 4 breaks we have used local transport metro/bus/trains in Germany and italy at prices a lot lower than the uk, so no need to hire.
The last decent car rental company i used was Enterprise in france, having all my docs ready, a copy of my holiday autos excess waiver policy and the fact of speaking fluent french undoubtedly helped, as well as not abusing the hire car.
I can only suggest to anyone who hires, to take dated geolocated photos (smartphone)
before and after and if possible do the vehicle check with an agent, if you get warning lights stop as soon as safe and phone them,and make sure they have proper excess cover in place.
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Thanks for correcting the post, but (to my mind) it does undermine hj's credibility...
(even if it makes ME smile.
Will fiat or other italians give him cars to test if he is "impolite" about their country?
we have just had two marvellous separate weeks in Naples and Milan sandwiched between two breaks in munich and cologne.
No sign of mafia in either, but Munich and cologne lots of beggars in the streets and hundreds of "new residents" hanging around the railway stations with a visible police presence.
Both places people shocked to find out we voted brexit.
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I think you can only defame or slander a person, not a body corporate or a group/profession (unless the body corporate/group is so very small as to directly imply all those within it are concerned).
Thus, if i am correct, anyone can say all day that all car dealers are scum and rip off merchants and suffer no liability. Furthermore anyone can say that any specific company (subject to the size caveat above) is a rip off merchant
But, if (for example) you were to say that your local chippy (typically one or two people own/run it) was front for drugs then I think you may be liable unless you can maybe prove your belief was reasonably held (even if not ultimately true).
Specifically identifying a person, by name or description (e.g. the guy that runs that place or even something a little more vague that would enable someone to identify the person to whom you were referring) I'm pretty sure could land you in hot water though.
Please note this does not constitute legal advice, blah blah blah, go talk to a solicitor for clarification.
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The above is inconsistent with many internet forums that don't allow such defamation/slander against dealers - because the forum owners can be sued by the dealer/manufacturer if they do.
On a side note - it's not defamation/slander if the comments are true, however badly it makes someone appear.
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On a side note - it's not defamation/slander if the comments are true, however badly it makes someone appear.
That's true, but the owner of a forum is only hearing one side of the story - so struggles to know how much leeway to give.
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HJ's replies to Ask HJ queries are nothing to do with me as moderator, so I can only comment from a personal point of view.
I can't see the Sicilian hire car query, but on the faulty 1-series I agree with Rob - there is no risk of liability for defamation. No dealer is mentioned by name, and JH is merely generalising about dealers who ignore the following provision of CRA 2015 (as summarised by HJ):
A clause in the law known as "early right to reject" specifies that any fault found within 30 days of buying a product entitles the buyer to a full refund. After that period, but within six months, the seller or manufacturer has one opportunity to replace or repair. If that fails, the customer is then entitled to a full or part-refund.
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