Volkswagen Golf V (2004 - 2008) - Car of satisfactory quality

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Wed 5 Mar 2008 12:38
Car of satisfactory quality - willyb
Need some advice please. Bought this car from a major retailer 5 weeks ago. Horrified to find rust on the sills when giving the car a thorough wash yesterday.

Took it to VW for assessment under warranty and by checking the paint thickness they were able to tell me the car had had paint repairs down the near side and it was very thin on the sill where the rust is.

Further, despite a VW history the car was not repaired in the VW system and therefore the paint warranty is invalid.

To me the car is not on satisfactory quality as covered by the Sale of Goods Act. Question is can I reject it and claim a refund .

The car was registered in Dec 04 and has 33K.

Any advice welcome.


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Wed 5 Mar 2008 14:16
Car of satisfactory quality - zm
Don't think you can reject it. It is a 4 year old car that has had a minor paint/body repair at some point. There is no legislation to say that such work has to be done by a manufacturer approved bodyshop.

If the car is on the VCAR list and this has not been disclosed then you might have a case.

I presume you did not purchase the car from a VW dealer. If you are that concerned about the bodywork warranty you perhaps should have bought from VW in the first place.
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Wed 5 Mar 2008 14:42
Car of satisfactory quality - oldnotbold
If you found the rust when washing it, why did you not see it before buying it?

I'd suggest taking it back, and asking if they will fix the rust FOC. It's not grounds for a full refund.
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Wed 5 Mar 2008 16:42
Car of satisfactory quality - pd
Doesn't sound as if it can be too bad if it took 5 weeks to notice. On a car of this age a bit of paintwork is considered pretty much par for the course and I doubt you'd have a hope in hell getting anywhere under SoGA.

I'd contact the dealer. If they're decent about it they might offer to repaint it for you. I expect they can get it done far cheaper than you could.
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Wed 5 Mar 2008 21:10
Car of satisfactory quality - willyb
Thanks for the comments -some more helpful than others. The reason it was difficult to spot is its quite low down on the sill and where I live the roads have been so muddy that's what I thought it was.

Still think most reasonable people would expect a 3 year old galvanised car to be free of rust.

sq

Edited by Pugugly on 05/03/2008 at 21:12

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