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Car buying help

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  • 16-02-2009 5:31pm
    #1
    shiningalactic
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    I recently bought a car and have been having real problems since, I really want to find out what I can do.

    I bought the car just over 2 weeks ago from a dealers. We went to see the car and gave it a test drive. It was running fine, all the extras ie central locking, air con etc were working fine. The dealer said it had been fully serviced and had a new timing belt (usual for a car of its mileage) etc, everything seemed fine. It had a years NCT. We paid a deposit and went back four days later after the dealer had fully valeted it and replaced the two front tyres with new ones as I wasnt happy with the way they looked. All seemed good.

    The day we bought it home we discovered it hadnt been fully valeted as promised. We found lots of ash in the ash tray and some tablets in the car!! Not to mention general rubbish in between the seats. Two days after we bought it we got a friend who is a qualified mechanic for the make of car look over it and after being under the bonnet two minutes he told us that the engine had at some point blown the head gasket and that it had been skimmed and new parts pinned but they were leaking oil and it could blow again soon.

    We also discovered the wheel jack was missing and the tool to remove the spare tyre (it had been there when we first saw the car) , which cost us a new tyre as one of the back tyres blew that very same day. Later that evening the back windscreen wiper flopped and the boot stopped closing and had to be forced shut.

    We rang the dealer very angry and explained all the problems. He told us to bring it down to him which we did and he admitted to us he had taken the car on face value from someone he knew who told it it was in perfect condition and that he hadnt checked it over at all!! We told him we wanted the head gasket replaced and all the other problem fixed and that we wanted a year warrenty on the engine (he had given us 3 months at sale).

    He had the car over a week. He gave us a tiny replacement car as we insisted on one and two days after having the replacement the power steering went on it and it was near impossible to drive.

    We eventually got the car back, supposedly fixed. The next day the engine was growling everytime we accelerated, the central locking stopped working and after one journey longer than just around town the engine light came on and the car overheated, resulting it it conking out and us very nearly not getting home. Yesterday the windscreen wiper also stopped working again.

    We have had the car in total about 7 days the rest of the time it has been with the dealer being fixed. We rang him today basically saying we want our money back. I dont trust the car to be reliable and I dont trust him to fix it, if we go to another garage to get it fixed it will cost us alot and we shouldn't have to. He is refusing to refund us saying he doesn't have to. He is saying he will take it back again to fix it but that will again leave us without a car and god know how long this could go on for.

    My husband has already had to take 4 days off work driving up and back with this car not to mention the petrol we have had to pay out as the dealer is 60 km away from us.

    Anyone have any advice on what to do?? I have been to citizens advice who said to sue him but that will take time and money we dont have!! Why are cars different to any other purchase you make?? Why are we not entitled to a refund for faulty goods that were sold to us fraudulently?

    Thanks in advance


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    #2
    jor el
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,713 ✭✭✭✭jor el


    shiningalactic wrote: »
    He is refusing to refund us saying he doesn't have to. He is saying he will take it back again to fix it but that will again leave us without a car and god know how long this could go on for.

    This is a lie, plain and simple. You are fully protected by consumer law, and your statutory rights entitle you to a replacement, repair, or refund. Who gets to decide which of the three is not explicitly stated, but since you've given them plenty of opportunities to repair, and they failed, then replacement or refund would seem perfectly reasonable.

    He has obviously miss-sold you the car, and since it didn't work within days of buying it, you have a very good case for a refund. Tell him you want your money back, or you'll see him in court. If he refuses, then court it is.

    If his garage is a member of SIMI, you can report him to them too.


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