OT: Legal advice needed please

[mattley23]

Slightly off topic I know so appologies, but im sure someone here can offer me some advice:

I went to Carcraft, West Midlands branch today to buy a new car. I found a nice 52 plate new shape Vaxhaull Vectra and after taking it for a test drive agreed to a deal of cash + my wifes 2000 W plate Punto as a part exchange.

All was dandy and we waited around for 1hr 30 mins while the car was checked, valeted and brought round to us.

So After collecting said new car me and the family decided to pop 1 mile down the road to IKEA to do some shopping. The car drove perfectly and we were happy.

After leaving IKEA and hitting the M6 I noticed the engine warning light come on, on the dash so my wife checked it out and it was the warning light for excessive emmissions from the engine, becuase this doesnt carry iminent danger to the engine I wasnt too worried about it so i carried on home and planned to call Carcraft to have a little moan as this is meant to be covered on the MOT check which they did 12 days previous. BUT........As I dropped my family off I went back out to buy the road tax and the car started to make really loud tapping noise which really worried me so I knew there was a problem. I retunred home and called Carcraft quite miffed to say the least.

They told me the car needed to be recovered and I was asked to return the car back to their base which I was fuming at. Afterall you dont expect to buy a £6500 car and have it go wrong 3 hours after taking ownership of it. But after loads of objections I finally agreed and got back in the car to drive it back .

I reversed it off my drive and heard a massive bang and noticed some sheered metal lying on my driveway, this had obviously come from my engine somewhere and was very worried about my new investment. After inspecting it and having yet more heated discussions over the phone with car craft I agreed to try and drive the car 40 miles back the the Wendsbury branch to try and sort things out with the promise of a hire car, luckily I made it ok. They made me wait 1hr 30 mins in their branch while they 'tried' to find me a courtesy car and then when it came round it had less that 1/4 of a tank of fuel in it!

I basically was fobbed off and told 'these kind of things always happen' and have now found out that the part was a brackett that holds the brake calipers together!!

Now Carcraft MOT'd the vehcile 12 days ago AND they tell me each car is checked prior to the buyer driving it away. Now I spend £6500 on this car only to have 2 major problems happen to it within 4 hours of me owning it, problems which are part of ALL MOT checks plus I had my 20 month old daughter in the car while I was driving along the motorway with obviously a damaged car in my control. Can anyone tell me if I have any sort of case for a claim of compensation and what the best course of action to take is?

I was going to write a letter of complaint to their head office...any other adicve as I am very angry right now!!!

Cheers

[Sunee]

Not sure about compensation, although, you should report the incident to trading standards, as it is an offence under Section 75 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to sell an unroadworthy vehicle.

For guidance phone www.consumerdirect.gov.uk on 08454 04 05 06

[mattley23]

Thanks for the link, I have filled out their complaint form so hopefully they will offer me some advice

[Sunee]

I did not realise they had an on-line form

Best wishes in obtaining a satisfactory resolution to the problem.

[luke.]

if i recall back in september last year or maybe the year before the law regarding the sale of second hand cars changed, which basically put the onus on the seller to prove that any faults within 6 months of purchase went there at the time of purchase, i'll try and dig up the proper wording later.

[luke.]

theres a bit here http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/...ghtfromadealer

[mattley23]

Nice one Luke, exactly what I needed and from reading that it seems I do have a case for a complaint seeing as though the major problems I experienced happened within hours of me buying the car.

[openmind]

Very unfortunate mate, I had a similar, although not as bad experience, when I got my car...

Three weeks after purchase, the baffle box on the exhaust sheared off the exhaust pipe, dislodging the bumper on the way out.

Luckily I wasn't going very fast otherwise it would have ripped the bumper clean off.

Even though it had had an MOT and the exhaust isn't covered by their warranty (which I knew), the dealer fixed a new exhaust at no charge to me at all within 24 hours.

It seems that the level of service you get from dealers varies tremendously and in this case the MD and the salesman got a letter praising the service!