Unfortunatly, it is likely that getting recompense will be an expensive and time consuming process. The bottom line is that the fault ot faults occured within the first 6 months after you bought the car, which means that the seller is liable for at least some recompense towards the repair, regardless of whether a warranty was offered or not - a warranty are rights that are in addition to your legal rights, not a replacement There are complications here in that they should have had the opportunity to fix the car themselves which it sounds like hasn't happened, but nonetheless you should still be able to get a result of some sort. The good thing in your case is that the seller and the finance company are one and the same, so the easiest way to get their attention would be to put your complaint in writing, give them a reasonble period (say 4 weeks) to sort out the problem, and if not then suggest that you will only be paying half the normal amount of finance each month until it is sorted out That carries the obvious risk that it could affect your credit record, but if you have gone to ACF it sounds like your record may not be great anyway, and at least by paying some if it comes to court you can point out that you have not been unwilling to pay, simply that you are in dispute with the seller. Others may have a different view, but that would be my suggested course

The dealer has to prepare the car so primarily it is roadworthy, so the issue of cambelt etc is down to whether the advert directly refers to the cambelt being changed, or whether it says it has FULL service hsitory, which would then require it to have been changed IF it is due within the manufactirers service schedule. Otherwise it is down to you to ask the question which is what you have done. As far as the tyres go, provided they are legal at the point of sale, then the legal bases are covered.

Yes, you do need to pay them for the time they have spent attempting to diagnose the fault - it's a common law contract that you chose them to work on your car, unfortunately it's not a crime to be incompetent in business, it just normally means they won't be in business very long !

I very much doubt that Halfords would be willing to put that all in writing so it could be used in any potential action, so you are looking at going down the route of getting an independent engineer to do an inspection on the vehcile - your insurance company may be able to suggest someone but it's £200 - £300. As to whether it is something that the supplying dealership should have spotted is hard to say - the strictest criteria is that the vehcile must be roadworthy - you don't say what the MOT status was of the car when you bought it, but as far as practical application of the law is concerned, if it had a very recent MOT at point of sale, that covers the "rioadworthy" part. The other point is under the SOGA it must be "fit for purpose" and of "satisfactory quality" both of which are open to question here IF an independent inspection confirmed Halfords diagnosis, but you are over the 6 month limit for claims under SOGA where it is down to the seller to prove the fault was not there at the point of sale, so you would have to have good evidence that the fault was there at the point of sale and that it was this that caused the failure. Not an easy one by any means, and probably complex enough that legal advice should be sought

If the work was carried out by a Hyundai dealer, get in touch with Hyundai themselves in the UK to complain

This is something that you simply have to get diagnosed, take it to a VW specialist rather than a VW dealer who should be able to do the diagnostic check for less than £90

The trouble with autotrader, and I am not excusing wrong information, just giving some background, is that the dealer edit system that is used to create an advert automatically produces a list of features for any given car and they can sometimes be wide of the mark, and if you are not eagle eyed when placing the advert then you get into this situation - been there, done that ! Law is 100% on your side, other than something that would be glaringly obvious on inspection, i.e. it is supposed to have a leather interior and it doesn't yet you biought it anyway What is different in the specification for the car vs the advert?

Wel Jackie there is the joy of asking a qusetion on a forum - you get a wide range of potential options - all I would say is that by placing a deposit you enter into a binding contract of purchase, and as it was done face to face there is NO cooling off period - they could if they wanted to insist that you complete the whole purchase However, if they choose not to go down that route, then they can only retain reasonable costs from the deposit I would suggest that by acting reasonably and being the active party by suggesting a potential settlement you have the best chance of getting the majority of your deposit back.

We use a specialist motor trade legal service and that is their advise to us that you can only retain reasonable costs - as you cancelled quickly this is minimal - if you had gone say a month and then cancelled then the reasonable costs may well have amounted to the full deposit in terms of loss of revenue, depreciation etc. I would write and offer them a £250 deduction but make it clear that you will contest this in court + expenses if they decline

Oddjobbob is entirely correct in that they are only allowed to retain the proportion of the deposit that is reasonable to cover their costs - but bear in mind being a main dealer that their costs will be considerably higher (espoecially labour costs) than your local garage so I would suspect a figure of around £250.00 would be about right and that is what I would suggest when writing to them

The law on this follows that for insolvency - it used to be that any car worth less than £500 was not of interest to the official receiver and hence regarded by the court as a "banger" , now it is any car worth less than £2000 - whilst it doesn't take away any of the rights written in law, the expectations of such a car by the courts should a dispute reach that stage is not alot.

The manufacturers recommended cambelt change interval on that engine is 100,000 miles or 10 years, and whilst there is some anecdotal evidence of failure before then that has led to a popular belief that it should be changed at 60,000 miles or 6 years, in terms of the law the dealer has no liability for the change as it is not due yet on time or mileage - even if as Sam has pointed out it was specifically advertised as having had the cambelt changed then you don't have a problem anyway ! It is a very old engine in terms of design, though a reliable one, so won't be in terms of refinement the same as an engine of later design Also, have you continued to use the vehicle since rejecting it as if you have I'm afraid your rights to reject have been lost anyway, though I don't see that you have any reason to reject in the first place Best course of action would be to sell on I think

Is it even possible to fit the pads the wrong way round ? You don't say what age the Megane is, but from memory they have locking pins that wouldn't fit the wrong way round

The advice still stands - ask for a contribution, as you could argue the fact that you had to get the repair done is proof of the problem - it's a bit thin, but getting some money back is better than nothing and most dealers will accept a contribution as it means you can both move on to more important things !

Nice to have someone who clearly deals with pepple on a day to day basis, and is not just a forum warrior !

Unfortunately by jumping the gun you have put yourself in the position where you can't do alot as the dealer must have had the chance to repair first - that is much a part of the law as your rights and you can't just pick and choose ! I would certainly ask for a contribution towards the repair of the charcoal canister as the dealer is wrong to hide behind the warranty, but of course it's your word against his unless he acknowledges something via your e-mail

Await update on this with interest

Glad it wasn't just me - the dealer has let the car go with no guarantee that the extra will be paid, you admit you are struggling to actually pay the difference and then the dealer is the bad guy ! I guess the lesson is the dealer shouldn't bother next time

Yes, it includes what they have on their coimputer system in relation to the calls - will probably nott be quite what you remember the conversation as being, more slanted towards what they wanted to happen !

Not my area of expertise this, but some basics might help 1, Don't speak to anyone on the phone from now on, everything in writing 2. DLC have no legal rights in this matter, so don't worry Look up on this forum about a "Subject Access Request" and get this sent off with the fee (£10) - this will give you access to all correspondence on the matter, and should hopefully make it clear in writing just what was said Make it clear to DLC that the matter is in dispute, that you have sent the SAR off to Elephant/Diamond which requires a response within 40 days and that DLC should not take any further action until such time as the SAR has been complied with Come back to the forum after the SAR has been received and hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will help!

Interesting read - two things spring to mind 1. Despite their "concerns" it appears that no financial penalty has been put in place 2. No dealer is under any obligation to ensure that a car is taxed before it leaves a forecourt - that is a civil taxation matter between the state and the owner, naff all to do with the dealer - christ, what use are these goverment bodies if they can't get the basics right!

Yes, you are still within the window to reject the car, though you must ensure that it is kept securely and not used any further - as you have been advised, the offer to repair is irrelevant as you have not been deemed to have "accepted" the car which is the point where the issue about repairs comes in

In a roundabout way, but probably not for the right reasons, the dealer is correct - a head gasket is an easy defence for a dealer as the SOGA says that the dealer must prove that the fault didm't exist at the point of sale - proof here is that you have driven the car for two months without this problem occuring, which with a head gasket the signs are obvious, so there is no way that the fault was present at the point of sale and a head gasket is a consumable item, it is not assumed to last the life of a car even though there is no set replacement schedule As sailor sam says, don't get mixed up between a warranty and your legal rights under SOGA - SOGA does not say that you a guaranteed to have a car that is fault free for the first 6 months of ownership. A warranty is over and above your legal rights under SOGA and provided the warranty says it covers head gasket failure, then it will pay out up to the maximum of the policy which sounds like £300 on this case. For the same reasons, you don't have a claiim for unfit for purpose inder SOGA Always worth looking at the claim limit when taking out a warranty - with something like an stability control module averaging betwen £800 and £1000 toi fix, it's easy to find yourself out of pocket with modern cars and with the changes in the MOT coming in on Jan 1st 2012, there will be an awful lot of cars going on sale before then with faulty airbag/ABS/stabilty control systems that cost an arm and a leg to fix that will fail the MOT after next January

For "Spares and Repairs" to be a valid defence, the car needs to be handed over without the current MOT certificate - i.e you would then either have to have it trailered away or driven straight to an MOT station for test - so, if he handed the MOT to you, spares or repairs is a no go

You can go to autotrader and get the information - if they harp on about data protection, remind them that as it relates to legal action, they can disclose the sellers information to you without breaking data protection laws