Advice on possible Car rejection

[thehungryturtle]

Afternoon

 

After some advice - I am a small car dealer that has approximately 30 vehicles in stock at any one time between £2,000 and £8,000, trading at around 50 deals a month.

 

We have been in the business 2 years and in that time have had very few come backs and the ones we have had we have always sorted amicably and to my knowledge acceptably within the eyes of my customers, the upshot is we have a decent reputation forming and overall we feel we do a good job.

 

 

Now, we recently got our CCL and last month I did my first deal on finance - great.

 

The car was an Astra, 2004 1.6 Club, 70k ish and in overall very nice condition. Sold for approx £3200 which we feel is a good, fair price - we often get comments that our cars are 'cheap' or 'well priced'.

 

Right, so the car. It came in with a long MOT so was sold with that, didn't require a new one. The car drove faultlessly and as I said was in excellent visual condition.

 

The lady picked it up on a Saturday morning, and discovered the radio didnt work. It was a simple electrical problem which my Saturday sales help was able to fix there and then - great.

 

Within the first week of ownership, the lady complained that there was a slight knocking on the front of the car, and that the EML light had come on intermittently.

 

We are NOT a garage/mechanics, so I arranged for her to have it taken to a local garage (independent to myself) the next day.

 

The knocking was found to be a faulty anti roll bar linkage which was fixed at a cost of £35 approx and paid for by ourselves (obviously). ie a minor repair.

 

The diagostic machine was plugged in and some old codes found (not my words but the mechanics) and were cleared. No present faults/codes were found.

 

She was also having difficulty closing the boot, although it worked, the mechanic suggested as a goodwill gesture we also fix this which was a new part and cost me another £65. I did it because I felt it was probably the right thing to do.

 

The lady took the car back and all seemed well.

 

About a week later she rang me and said the light had returned. I said ok, as no faults were present then it is going to be quite easy to read the code/light and identify exactly what, if anything is wrong.

 

the ladys boyfriend took the car in to the garage, and left it with them. They also mentioned the handbrake had to be engaged fairly highly in order for it to work.

 

On inspecting the vehicle, the EML light was not found to be on, and no codes were found once the diagnostic machine was plugged in. Further to this, the handbrake was found to be fine and would pass an MOT test (this garage does do MOTs) so I didn't see this as a reasonable complaint - the handbrake does work and I felt if they wanted to 'better it' then this would have to be at their cost, afterall it is not a brand new hand brake.

 

I also agreed to pay for a 60mile road test, which the mechanics performed, in order to see if the light would come back on, which I don't think many dealers would agree too.

 

This was done and no faults were found or present and the car was described by the garage as faultless to drive.

 

Fast forward to today, the lady has had the car a total of 18 days, and she has rang me to say the Engine Management light has come back on. She was in a bit of state and I do sympathise with her.

 

She is stating she has had the car in at a garage of our choosing now 3 times - which I would obviously dispute. It is actually only 2 times, the second of which no fault could be found at all, either on the ramps or a road test!

 

I obviously offered to have the car looked it either at the same or indeed different garage, but she now wants to go down the line of rejecting the vehicle?

 

Is this fair, do we have to accept the rejection of the vehicle? I want to stress if there is a problem there I have no problem in resolving the issue, but I don't want to accept rejection, as it causes numerous more issues.

 

I don't think we have acted unreasonably, I have not objected to her having the car inspected anywhere of her choosing, I have not ignored her phone calls, I have arranged for the car to be inspected on the same day every time she has rang me.

 

Do i have a right to fix this vehicle and basically reject the rejection, if you like?

 

As stated I have little experience in this field, as generally things run smoothly for us and we resolve any issues that arise.

 

thanks for any help, and sorry if that was a bit long

[scaniaman]

According to your post you run your business in an exemplary manner which should be the yardstick by which all car dealers should follow.

Unfortunately, IMO, for far too long car dealers are not required to have any mechanical certification, nor do they have to have inhouse repair facilities.

This situation is also becomming prominent in the haulage industry.

IMO, no one should be allowed to deal in a product unless they have indepth knowledge of that product.

This would go a long way to improving the image of car retailing.

 

As far as i know, (SOGA) a dealer must be given ample opportunity to put right faults before rejection can be considered. Only if little or no action is taken to resolve problems can a rejection take place.

 

I think what is happening here is "Buyers Remorse"---for some reason or other she just dosen't want the car now. Perhaps you could DIPLOMATICALLY suggest to her that the car is 7 yrs old and some faults will be experienced. Faults appear on much newer cars--I know!!!

 

Do you think that perhaps she could be satisfied if you offered to exchange her car for another you have in stock around the same price??

[thehungryturtle]

Developments

 

She took the car to a garage of her choosing this morning, code P0171 was found, which basically means to much oxygen in the exhaust system.

 

Could be a sensor, or a vacuum leak.

 

So we now need to recitify this, but it's not a huge issue.

 

She got her father in law to ring me, who threatened me with solicitors. I explained the situation to him exactly what had happened and he actually came round to my way of thinking and was then fine. His son had obviously not told him the whole story.

 

So now I have given the lady a courtesy car, and have the Astra for a good period of time to fix, and she seems relatively happy.

 

thank god.