Purchased a car from an independant dealer. I didn't take the extended warranty but am aware (I think) of the 3 month statutory warranty which comes with buying a car from a dealer. They confirmed it comes with a 3 month warranty and gave me some paperwork.
Fault has arisen with car (an engine managment light has come on - don't know what repair will entail yet) and they are taking in to look at but said I am likely to be liable for the policy excess if it is a significant repair (excess is £100). Is this right? I would have thought that I should not be liable to pay a warranty policy excess on a fault occuring in the first 3 months of having the car?
Any advice would be useful so I am armed with the right answers if they ask me to pay the excess.
Thanks
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You are correct.
Dealers love these policies because (a) they get a commission, and (b) when you go back with a problem they point you to the warranty company and leave you to get on with it. The dealer is responsible in the first instance, so don't involve the warranty company at all at this stage. You will probably find that your warranty does not cover this kind of thing anyway (check the details of the coverage for future reference).
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When you say "You will probably find that your warranty does not cover this kind of thing anyway" do you mean the 3rd party warranty they are trying to put it through or my statutory 3 month warranty?
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Which statutory 3 month warranty is this?
There is a presumption that any fault that occurs within 6 months must have been present at the time of sale, unless the delaer can prove otherwise:
www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page9010.html
In your case the engine management light wasn't on so maybe there was no fault?
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The dealer told me that they have to give a 3 month warranty "by law".
I'm not quite clear what you are saying Bill. Are you saying that the dealer isn't liable for any faults which emerge within a few days of taking the car away?
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The dealer told me that they have to give a 3 month warranty "by law".
Nothing else car dealers say is true so why should that be?
I'm not quite clear what you are saying Bill. Are you saying that the dealer isn't liable for any faults which emerge within a few days of taking the car away?
Read the DTI Q&A - it says the fault was presumed to be there at the time of sale unless it can be proved otherwise. In your case the issue is; what's causing the light to come on? Is it caused by something that was likely to be already faulty, or could the dealer show it was caused by something that has occured since the car was sold.
The warranty is something of a red herring - you have statutory rights which are in addition to any warranty. However if the fault wasn't present at the time of sale then you may have to rely on the warranty to contribute towards the repair (if it covers whatever is broken).
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Suddenly I don't feel as protected by consumer law as I thought I would.
It would be very easy on a modern car to reset the error codes on the engine management system giving the car the appearance of a clean bill of health. I'm not saying that is what they have done but it's entirely possible. And if it's up to ME to prove otherwise when it's their garage inspecting it, that ain't gonna happen!
I'll see what they say when I take it down to them. What I don't want is them to just reset the error and say 'all fixed' just to get rid of me...
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It would be very easy on a modern car to reset the error codes on the engine management system giving the car the appearance of a clean bill of health.
Easy to reset the engine light and easy to clear fault codes, but the ECU should log previous fault codes and a decent PC based fault code reader can usually access them and /or show the date when the codes were cleared. If the garage just clears the code and resets the engine light and the fault that caused the light to come is still present, the light will come on again.
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And if it's up to ME to prove otherwise when it's their garage inspecting it, that ain't gonna happen!
No - the assumption is that the underlying fault already existed. It's up to the garage to prove otherwise.
How long have you had the car, and how many miles have you done in it?
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The dealer told me that they have to give a 3 month warranty "by law". ..
iirc have seen that "myth" perpetuated on this site(i think) in this past.
although i have questioned it on two or three occasions, i do not remember the "myth" having ever been justified to be true.
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Well "warranty" is the wrong word, but you do have statutory rights as a consumer and I do believe that they include so-called latent defects. I sell around a dozen cars a year (small beer I know) and know a number of the local 'serious' traders. All of us would cover any such fault, certainly for the first three months and probably longer for non wear and tear items such as engine management sensors - depends on the exact circumstances. A fault does not have to exhibit itself at the time of purchase - for example a timing belt may be fine on the day of purchase but snap the day after. Under such circumstances the dealer would have a hard time dodging the repair.
I suspect as soon as you mention Trading Standards they will roll over and get the code read and fixed. Don't let them hide behind the aftermarket warranty (which will probably be reluctant to pay out, even if they cover the part, because its so soon after sale).
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@Bill Payer: Had the car for 2 days when fault arose. Driven about 50 miles.
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Had a similar thing with an MR2 my daughter bought. 2/3 days after getting it home, found water leak. Rang dealer,
"Get it repaired, we will make a contribution to the cost."
"No, we'll bring it back and you can put it in a roadworthy condition and make it suitable for the use for which we bought it, at your expense."
"I don't know if we can do that."
"Sale of goods act says you haven't much choice."
"You'd better bring it in then."
Which we did, and they did.
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Read and inwardly digest the contents of Question 3 of Frequently asked Questions on this Forum.
dvd
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