Legal advice - secondhand car dies after 6 weeks!
Discussion
Hi all, I’m really hoping someone might be able to give me some advice as I’m in a real hole. As a single parent, who commutes by car, it’s essential to me.
I bought a 2012 BMW 320d at the end of Jan, fully RAC checked, serviced and MOT’d prior to purchase. The car was sold as having a full service history, but the paperwork for the last few years was missing from the sales pack, I chased and chased but got fobbed off..
5 weeks after purchase the rear caliper seized on and needed replacing with the disc. While doing this the garage saw that one of the shocks was leaking oil badly so that had to be replaced. This was just out of the 1mth garage backed warranty and as I was 75 miles from home I had to get it fixed there and then anyway. Cost £900 2 discs, 1 caliper, pads, 2 shocks.
A couple of weeks late and it broke down, total electrical failure, battery is fine but no power getting anywhere and it looks like the timing chain has gone. Minimum £2.5k to fix in a car worth about £6k -RAC warranty may cover up to £1k.
Ideally I just want a refund (minus mileage) but ideally covering some of the added costs of hire cars, recovery lorry etc!
Do I have any course of action at all?! Any where I should turn to?
Please note, I know I messed up this purchase, but my old car had died and at the time things were very difficult personally and financially so I was a bit desperate.
I bought a 2012 BMW 320d at the end of Jan, fully RAC checked, serviced and MOT’d prior to purchase. The car was sold as having a full service history, but the paperwork for the last few years was missing from the sales pack, I chased and chased but got fobbed off..
5 weeks after purchase the rear caliper seized on and needed replacing with the disc. While doing this the garage saw that one of the shocks was leaking oil badly so that had to be replaced. This was just out of the 1mth garage backed warranty and as I was 75 miles from home I had to get it fixed there and then anyway. Cost £900 2 discs, 1 caliper, pads, 2 shocks.
A couple of weeks late and it broke down, total electrical failure, battery is fine but no power getting anywhere and it looks like the timing chain has gone. Minimum £2.5k to fix in a car worth about £6k -RAC warranty may cover up to £1k.
Ideally I just want a refund (minus mileage) but ideally covering some of the added costs of hire cars, recovery lorry etc!
Do I have any course of action at all?! Any where I should turn to?
Please note, I know I messed up this purchase, but my old car had died and at the time things were very difficult personally and financially so I was a bit desperate.
I assume you bought from a dealer, rather than a private sale?
It sounds like the car wasn't of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose.
Legally any fault which appears within 6 months is presumed to have been latent at time of sale and thus the selling dealer's responsibility to repair (unless they can prove otherwise).
I think the next step is to ring up the selling dealer, explain the diagnosis from the garage, and ask them what they plan to do about repairing your car for you. Explain that under the car as sold to you wasn't of satisfactory quality (since it only lasted 6 weeks!), and you are asking them to repair it to fulfil their obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
I don't think you have a right to return it immediately outside 30 days, they may offer/accept that but I understand their legal obligation is to repair it for you.
>> A couple of weeks late and it broke down, total electrical failure, battery is fine but no power getting anywhere and it looks like the timing chain has gone.
That is two totally different issues (although both common on a 320d).
There have been loads of recalls on bmw electrics - the battery sits in a sump in the boot that fills with water and causes various cables etc to corrode through.
That is two totally different issues (although both common on a 320d).
There have been loads of recalls on bmw electrics - the battery sits in a sump in the boot that fills with water and causes various cables etc to corrode through.
samoht said:
I assume you bought from a dealer, rather than a private sale?
It sounds like the car wasn't of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose.
Legally any fault which appears within 6 months is presumed to have been latent at time of sale and thus the selling dealer's responsibility to repair (unless they can prove otherwise).
I think the next step is to ring up the selling dealer, explain the diagnosis from the garage, and ask them what they plan to do about repairing your car for you. Explain that under the car as sold to you wasn't of satisfactory quality (since it only lasted 6 weeks!), and you are asking them to repair it to fulfil their obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
I don't think you have a right to return it immediately outside 30 days, they may offer/accept that but I understand their legal obligation is to repair it for you.
Very much this ^^It sounds like the car wasn't of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose.
Legally any fault which appears within 6 months is presumed to have been latent at time of sale and thus the selling dealer's responsibility to repair (unless they can prove otherwise).
I think the next step is to ring up the selling dealer, explain the diagnosis from the garage, and ask them what they plan to do about repairing your car for you. Explain that under the car as sold to you wasn't of satisfactory quality (since it only lasted 6 weeks!), and you are asking them to repair it to fulfil their obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
I don't think you have a right to return it immediately outside 30 days, they may offer/accept that but I understand their legal obligation is to repair it for you.
M4cruiser said:
Can you tell us what sort of establishment sold you the car, i.e. private seller, dodgy trade site, or main dealer etc?
It was a dealer in Scotland, paid cash (bank transfer)They had good reviews and seemed legit, maybe this is all just very unlucky, but I can’t shake the feeling they shifted a s
t heap when they saw an opportunity…hence the missing service history Trevor555 said:
M4cruiser said:
Can you tell us what sort of establishment sold you the car, i.e. private seller, dodgy trade site, or main dealer etc?
This...And how you paid for the car?
Call Citizens advice on Tuesday morning.
I think you will struggle to get the recovery costs paid. In hindsight, better AA/RAC cover can be good value.
I think you've paid way over the odds for the brakes and shocks, the selling garage would have got those parts quite cheaply.
Brakes are wearing service parts, having to replace them is the way of the world with ten year old cars.
Likewise the shocks.
Arguably wear'n'tear faults which were not present at MOT or RAC inspection time. Arguably the kind of thing that bites your bum when a car's been idle for too long then you start driving it again.
Has the timing chain actually 'failed' or is it just noisy?
It's not uncommon to see BMWs of this era having had new chains.
Electrical problems are not exactly rare unfortunately. If everything has failed, it's probably not all that hard to find the fault.
I think you will end up paying for it to be trucked back to where you bought it.
They may be able to fix it, or you might get a refund.
There's no gain in going in excessively hostile, the car had an RAC inspection so you can't claim the garage knew of these faults.
Car dealers get the odd lemon which comes back to them, that's priced into the yawning canyon of a gap between WBAC value and retail.
Alternatively you could look at getting the timing chain changed by a specialist, if your warranty covers that or the bulk of it?
In the long run, a timing chain changed by a place that does them all the imewith a guarantee might give you a better car than having done by a random bloke with a Haynes manual who's trying to keep you at bay for 6 months. I'd do some research on that.
I know someone who had problems of similar magnitude, he ended up swapping the car for another one which the dealer had, probably had to put some dosh in to get a better car. Turned out well enough in the end.
Sometimes you have for settle for being a bit out of pocket, just not nearly so badly as if the car had run OK for 6 months and a day, or you'd paid OTT privately.
I think you've paid way over the odds for the brakes and shocks, the selling garage would have got those parts quite cheaply.
Brakes are wearing service parts, having to replace them is the way of the world with ten year old cars.
Likewise the shocks.
Arguably wear'n'tear faults which were not present at MOT or RAC inspection time. Arguably the kind of thing that bites your bum when a car's been idle for too long then you start driving it again.
Has the timing chain actually 'failed' or is it just noisy?
It's not uncommon to see BMWs of this era having had new chains.
Electrical problems are not exactly rare unfortunately. If everything has failed, it's probably not all that hard to find the fault.
I think you will end up paying for it to be trucked back to where you bought it.
They may be able to fix it, or you might get a refund.
There's no gain in going in excessively hostile, the car had an RAC inspection so you can't claim the garage knew of these faults.
Car dealers get the odd lemon which comes back to them, that's priced into the yawning canyon of a gap between WBAC value and retail.
Alternatively you could look at getting the timing chain changed by a specialist, if your warranty covers that or the bulk of it?
In the long run, a timing chain changed by a place that does them all the imewith a guarantee might give you a better car than having done by a random bloke with a Haynes manual who's trying to keep you at bay for 6 months. I'd do some research on that.
I know someone who had problems of similar magnitude, he ended up swapping the car for another one which the dealer had, probably had to put some dosh in to get a better car. Turned out well enough in the end.
Sometimes you have for settle for being a bit out of pocket, just not nearly so badly as if the car had run OK for 6 months and a day, or you'd paid OTT privately.
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