car faulty after only 3 days with CAR GIANT

[slimliz30]

Hi

i am writing for my daughter,

she purchased a car on finance with car giant ,

3 days later the automatic gear box broke,

she contacted them straight away to report this..

 

All their cars come with a Diagnostic report...

they do not keep records of them......

said take it to a Fiat dealer as it is a Fiat 500 auto for their Diagnostic

loads of faults which they sent to car giant and fiat said it will cost £1800.00....

 

Car giant said they would like the car back to do their own Diagnostic....

.they would do their own repair which involves a clutch and bearing kit,

We asked for a copy of the repairs and they sent a 2 line report.....

 

.One day later after getting it back the gearbox went again

said to my daughter to retake to Fiat for another Diagnostic and again failed it.....

.Car giant are now causing so much problems it has really upset my daughter she only passed her test one week before and they are not very helpful..

 

Car giant sent out an engineeer to the car and she was told he would take it out for an hour to see what was wrong...

He got into the car tried to drive it but gave up without even driving it

sent a report to Car Giant and the Finance company who own it,,,

 

,they are saying she might not be able to take  the car back no reason yet takes 14 days.

..they are acting very badly and she does not know what to do

..it has been just over 6 weeks from buying the car and she is distraught

 

Please can anyone help...

 

 

[BankFodder]

I'm sorry that you are having this problem. I can imagine that it must be very distressing.

On the basis of what you say, you probably need to fall back on your consumer rights under the Consumer Rights Act. If a defect manifests itself in the first 30 days then as long as you assert your rights under the consumer rights act within those 30 days then you are entitled to an automatic refund. You've gone beyond your 30 days now so you fall back onto the second leg of the consumer rights act which says that if a defect occurs within the first six months then you are entitled to insist on a repair and if the repair fails then you are entitled to insist on a refund. This is where you are now.

I suggest that you write them a letter immediately and assert your rights under the consumer rights act. Explain to them that as they have had an opportunity to repair the vehicle and the repair has failed that you now want a refund of the cost of the vehicle plus any reasonable losses incurred by you and that they should make arrangements to collect the vehicle.

From what you say, they are going to prevaricate and either they are going to try and make you pay some bill or else they are going to say that they want further checks and further assessments blah blah blah. I would suggest that you don't stand for it and that the letter I have suggested above should be sent in the form of a letter of claim telling them that in 14 days you will issue a small claim in the County Court and without any further notice. You haven't told us how much you paid but I'm assuming that you have paid less than £10,000. Please confirm.

Only send a letter before action if you are prepared to carry out your threat. Don't bluff. If you have any concerns about bringing a legal action then I'm afraid that you will have to do full-back onto having an extended and probably very unsatisfactory exchange with the garage and you will probably end up in the same position in the end.

Because you have bought the vehicle under finance, you can also invoke section 75 of the consumer credit act 1974 and basically that puts the finance company in the same position as the retailer. Because of this you should write to the finance company as well and tell them that if there is any difficulty getting reimbursement from the garage that you will be looking to them to refund all your money plus reasonable losses. Separately, send a copy of your letter of claim to the finance company. I would also suggest that you send the finance company their own letter of claim and tell them that you will name them as second defendant in the forthcoming legal action. This is likely to get them to put some pressure on the garage.

Certainly the big danger here is that you will get drawn into protracted discussions which will result in you continuing to have no vehicle, being saddled with the problems of storage insurance et cetera. You don't want this.

Which finance company have you gone with? Are you prepared to take legal action?

[BankFodder]

I notice that on Google reviews, car giant has an average star rating of 3.9 out of almost 4000 views – with a huge number of one star and two star reviews.

https://www.google.com/search?q=car+giant&oq=car+giant&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60j69i61j0l3.391j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x487611cdb9bb28e1:0x24bf5c038919f0ee,1,,,

this is not the kind of garage I would choose to buy my second hand vehicle.

 

Also, trust pilot has about 1700 reviews https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.cargiant.co.uk including 16% of reviews at one star and two star.

 

[slimliz30]

hi bankfodder thanks for your advice,

 

car giant and the biggest selling car company in london and they used their own garage to do the repairs, it is under £10,000..

asked for their diagnostic reports but said they do not keep them,

 

she reported this in the 1st 3 days after buying the car and have been told by Fiat that this covers the 1st 30 days and after...

..not sure if that is true

 

,just waiting on the finance company to make a decision but will have to wait 14 days...

[BankFodder]

When you say she reported it in the first three days after buying the vehicle, did she actually assert her rights under the consumer rights act?

You say that they had said that something or other covers the first 30 days – what are you referring to?

You say that you have to wait for 14 days for the finance company to make some kind of decision. This doesn't prevent you sending off a letter of claim – if you are prepared to take an action.

Assuming that you are prepared to take legal action then you should put pressure and take control by sending letters before claim giving 14 days. There is nothing wrong with not then following up if you have got what you want. However, if you don't have what you are entitled to then you should begin the action. The finance company have apparently asked for 14 days delay – that's fine. Send them a letter before action which basically gives them 16 days or 17 days – or whatever so that they realise that three days after their own self-imposed deadline, the claim shall be issued. Make it clear to them that they will be held responsible for the reimbursement, ancillary expenses, interest – and court fees.

Then, if they don't produce the goods in the time they have stipulated – send them the good news.

By the way, I imagine that you are using a telephone. That doesn't really prevent you spacing and punctuating correctly. It's helpful to us if it is easy to read.

[slimliz30]

hi Bankfodder,

is their a Template for the letter of claim,

 

The car was reported within Car Giant's 30 day to claim for a repair or refund my daughter said do the repair but when she got the car back 5 days later it went again the next day , they also supply a 6 months warranty but the keep fobbing her off,

 

She asked for the repair form from Car Giant and they sent her a 2 line email saying they repaired it but with no breakdown.

 

Can i still make this claim sorry for being an idiot.

[BankFodder]

You don't really need a template. Just spell out what you want and what's gonna happen if you don't get it after 14 days.

 

Quote

The vehicle registration number XXX which I purchased from you on XXX date developed a defect on XXX date. You were informed about this defect and although you perform the repair, the repair failed and the car has broken down again.

Accordingly I am asserting my rights under the consumer rights act 2015. I require that you refund me the purchase price of this vehicle plus expenses which I have incurred as a result of this breakdown – £XXX.

If I do not receive this reimbursement in full by XXX date, I shall issue proceedings in the County Court for the recovery of the sums plus any other additional losses plus interest plus my court fee and without any further notice.

Something like that.

Be certain in your own mind that you are prepared to go ahead. Don't delay even by a day expiry of the deadline we will lose credibility.