Motor House UK - Taking a dodgy dealer to court

[matohwe]

Hi all. Thank you in advance for helping me sort this issue. 

 

I bought a car from this dealer - https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/new...-derby-3079165

Brief Time of events...

Paid for the car in Mid April by debit card and part ex and gave them a list of items to fix as part off the sale. The car came with a 3 month Return To Base Warranty

Car was not fixed until Mid June. The car was either given back to me as fixed which it wasn't and I'd return it back to them to fix. They had the car for  3 different occasions totalling ~6 weeks. No compensation or anything similar was paid. The car was leaking about 3litres of oil per 50 miles. Car was returned to me on 13 June 2019 fixed.

1 July the alternator dies and I ask the dealer to repair and they decline because of Wear and Tear on the item. They did not investigate at all. They tell me they can refer me to one of their approved garages which can do the work at trade prices. They do not send any info about this. I try and chase them and I don't get any responses. 

I get the car fixed myself at a cost of £1.5k. The batteries fitted to the car were incorrect and were causing the alternator to work harder so it burned out and also damaged the battery. I inform them about this and asked for reimbursement and also supplied them with the repair report. I then get a reply from legalsolutions4u saying the matter had been referred to them.

A lady rings me last week from legalsolutions4u and asks me for the receipt and other info that the dealer could have provided them. She asks for my email address and promises me an email in 10mins and 72hrs later I'm still waiting for this. 

 

 

I get a response from legalsolutions4u saying in brief:

*They repaired the oil leak as a gesture of goodwill (bearing in mind it was a condition agreed during the sale)

*The dealer should have been afforded the opportunity to inspect the car when it was faulty before proceeding with the repairs (as above, I chased the dealer and they made empty promises to contact me back and said they wouldn't fix the car anyway)

I plan on referring this to a County Court to recover fees. Can you guys give me some tips on how to handle this

[BankFodder]

Please monitor this thread for a full response tomorrow – or maybe Sunday.

You can be confident that on the basis of what you say that you have a legitimate claim and if you are prepared to take the necessary action then you will succeed.

[BankFodder]

I'll be travelling around for quite a few days and won't have much access to the Internet.

It's a shame that you pay for any of the repairs yourself. You won't obliged to. You have very clear rights under consumer law generally and under the consumer rights in particular.

If you I would write to them and reject the vehicle. Get yourself some independent estimates as to what is wrong with it and the cost of repairs and then come back here. It may be easier to get them to do the repairs although how trustworthy they will be about that is difficult to say. You haven't told us anything about the make of the vehicle or the age of it or how much you have paid. That would be useful to know.

It would also be helpful if you could give us a more concise bullet pointed explanation of exactly what has gone wrong along with dates.

[matohwe]

Hi

 

The car is 8 years old and cost £12k as a round figure. Apart from the oil leak and alternator failure the car has been reliable. I have also spent a considerable amount of money cleaning the car and making it right as it was owned by a farmer previously and it wasn't 'clean' enough for me. 

 

You are right, I should have rejected the car however I feel om past that point. What I would like to do is to hold them to their promises that were made at the point of sale. The alternator failure should have been covered by them but they chose to ignore me and fob me off to legalsolutions4u who are also fobbing me off. The interesting thing I have seen so far as both the dealer and legalsolutions4u think I have no evidence when I do. 

 

Submitting the case to a small claims court is the route that I would like to take. 

 

By the way I chose to repair the vehicle myself because of work commitments and I have a young family who depend on the car. The dealer did not respond when I approached them so I prioritised my family instead of chasing them around. 

[BankFodder]

Have you had quotes for all of the work that still needs to be done?

please would you mind that and separately itemize the amount of money that you have spent putting the car into its contractual position.

 

[matohwe]

Hi, 

 

Apologies for the late response, I have been caught up. I have now submitted the form to the small claims court. I'll keep you posted on the progress