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Rejecting a used car, my rights?

5K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  1900sr 
#1 ·
Right, to cut a long story short. I bought my astra at just over a year old in February last year. In June last year I started to have major issues with my nav 900 system starting culminating in the complete replacement of all the control modules and the screen which was completed in September. I understand that bill for the replacement system was in excess of £2000!

All has been fine up until yesterday and now the system has started to show the same signs of failure as before.

I'm in a position now where I have to consider the long term reliability of the cars electronics. If I get it fixed and it does go again when the car is out of warranty I stand to incur big costs.

The problem first showed up within six months of me buying it. Am I legally entitled to reject the car?

Cheers
 
#3 ·
I tried rejecting a new car years ago with Citizens Advice help, it would cut out at rounabouts the dealer admitted the fault and no repair could be found at that time.......Cittizens where no help I had to give them time to repair which gave them virtually 12 months or accept a value of the dealer which was a trade in value...Just lost out and traded in for anothe new one.
 
#4 ·
I think after the length of time you've had the car you would struggle to reject it. If you do manage to, bear in mind that the dealer would not have to refund the full purchase price of the car as you've had approx 11 months use from it.
 
#5 ·
Yes, ive owned it for 11 months but it started going wrong in may last year, 3 months after buying it. I had to wait 3 weeks to get it into the garage and then another 5 or 6 visits to get everything sorted bringing me to the end of September.

Ive already emailed the service manager and will be emailing their head office tomorrow. The thing is, what else can they do? They've changed the whole system so where else do you start? Theres an inherent problem with this car that I don't think they will ever get to the bottom of, it appears to be the only one they have encountered with this issue. They can't just abandon me, something needs to be done.

I'm beginning to think the best I can hope for is for them to offer a trade in on another car and take a loss. They way I feel at the moment I'll take it just to get rid!
 
#6 ·
Make sure you have everything in e mail or writing plus most vauxhall are franchise so dealership wont know if you taken it to another place. Also if you speak to head office records all conversation with them. That way should they say we know fuck all about it. This is a 1st for us.,you have proof
 
#7 ·
It's booked in for a week. What they will do is anyone's guess. I hope they do fix it even if it's only temporary because I'll trade it as soon as possible in that case. It's a real shame as the car is great and the system is great when it works.
 
#8 ·
To be honest, given that the price you paid would be reduced due to having had use of the car, you may be as well to px it if you want rid as it'll probably be a similar amount you'd get back from the dealer, assuming you managed to persuade them that they should take the car back.
 
#9 ·
1900sr said:
To be honest, given that the price you paid would be reduced due to having had use of the car, you may be as well to px it if you want rid as it'll probably be a similar amount you'd get back from the dealer, assuming you managed to persuade them that they should take the car back.
I I doubt they will offer me a trade in with a dodgy system, it's a fundamental feature of the car. It actually behaved itself on my journey home today so maybe just a glitch.
 
#10 ·
I've rejected a car before - and got my full purchase price back. And that was a 13 year old MINI from an independent (small) used car dealer!

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you can reject a car if it is "not fit for purpose". You have a stroner case if your claim is within 30 days of purchasing the car. The Act does protect used car purchases for up to 6 years! but clearly, proving that it was not fit for purpose when you bought it, 6 years into ownership is not likely to lead to a positive claim.

You have to prove how it is not fit for purpose - mine was very clear cut - complete failure of the ABS system the day after I picked it up - leading to warning lights all over the dash but more importantly, very eratic and weak braking performance. First steps for me were to report the problem back to the dealer. They were originally fairly responsive (but rather unempathetic) about this and took the car back to "fix" at a local garage. 10 days later I still had no car. The important thing is to document EVERYTHING! Calls made to the seller with your complaints, copies of letters sent, copies of replies, dates, everything.

I sent a letter to the dealer saying that due to the failed ABS (the car was supplied with a new MOT the day I collected it!), the car was clearly not fit for purpose due to the serious safetly implications. I quoted the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and stated that I required a full refund. One thing that helped me was that the car was not with me at the time (being with them for "repair"), making it hard for them to force me to take it back! If I still had the car, then rejecting it and getting them to take the car and key from me could have been more difficult. I sent a photocopy of the Act with my letter. A lot of this is just proving that you're serious and will not be backing down.

I even threatened to contact my bank about a chargeback (despite the fact that I paid with a debit card, not a credit card, and a chargeback would have been all but impossible!). After 2 days of "looking into things" the dealer refunded the £1750 I had paid in full. Job done.

Your challenges might be:-

  • Proving that the failure of the infotainment systems makes the car not fit for purpose. (Although my case was safety-related, "fit for purpose" need not only relate to safety aspects. The downside is, the value of features are not considered within the act. So the fact that the infotainment systems costs £2000, will not be any advantage over if it were £50. You could perhaps argue that the NAV 900 is a "key interface between the car and the driver, and many of the car's features can only be accessed via it.

  • Proving that it was not fit for purpose within a reasonable amount of time after you purchased it.

The act is really interested in offering protection where a product is not fit for purpose when supplied. There is that initial 30 day timeframe, and the final 6 year time frame, but making a convincing case quite far into ownership can be very difficult.

As a final point, if a used car has been purchased using a credit card, your consumer rights are very, very, strong. This is because the Consumer Rights Act states that both the car supplier and the credit card provider ("financer") are jointly liable. In these cases, the problem is best dealt with by the credit card company - as they're likely to simply agree a chargeback and then take the money back from the dealer. I don't think many people tend to buy cars on credit cards though. Despite the fact that it is the best position to be in when complaining about problems with any car (new or used).

Good luck whatever you decide to do.
 
#11 ·
DROGE said:
I've rejected a car before - and got my full purchase price back. And that was a 13 year old MINI from an independent (small) used car dealer!

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you can reject a car if it is "not fit for purpose". You have a stroner case if your claim is within 30 days of purchasing the car. The Act does protect used car purchases for up to 6 years! but clearly, proving that it was not fit for purpose when you bought it, 6 years into ownership is not likely to lead to a positive claim.

You have to prove how it is not fit for purpose - mine was very clear cut - complete failure of the ABS system the day after I picked it up - leading to warning lights all over the dash but more importantly, very eratic and weak braking performance. First steps for me were to report the problem back to the dealer. They were originally fairly responsive (but rather unempathetic) about this and took the car back to "fix" at a local garage. 10 days later I still had no car. The important thing is to document EVERYTHING! Calls made to the seller with your complaints, copies of letters sent, copies of replies, dates, everything.

I sent a letter to the dealer saying that due to the failed ABS (the car was supplied with a new MOT the day I collected it!), the car was clearly not fit for purpose due to the serious safetly implications. I quoted the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and stated that I required a full refund. One thing that helped me was that the car was not with me at the time (being with them for "repair"), making it hard for them to force me to take it back! If I still had the car, then rejecting it and getting them to take the car and key from me could have been more difficult. I sent a photocopy of the Act with my letter. A lot of this is just proving that you're serious and will not be backing down.

I even threatened to contact my bank about a chargeback (despite the fact that I paid with a debit card, not a credit card, and a chargeback would have been all but impossible!). After 2 days of "looking into things" the dealer refunded the £1750 I had paid in full. Job done.

Your challenges might be:-

  • Proving that the failure of the infotainment systems makes the car not fit for purpose. (Although my case was safety-related, "fit for purpose" need not only relate to safety aspects. The downside is, the value of features are not considered within the act. So the fact that the infotainment systems costs £2000, will not be any advantage over if it were £50. You could perhaps argue that the NAV 900 is a "key interface between the car and the driver, and many of the car's features can only be accessed via it.

  • Proving that it was not fit for purpose within a reasonable amount of time after you purchased it.

The act is really interested in offering protection where a product is not fit for purpose when supplied. There is that initial 30 day timeframe, and the final 6 year time frame, but making a convincing case quite far into ownership can be very difficult.

As a final point, if a used car has been purchased using a credit card, your consumer rights are very, very, strong. This is because the Consumer Rights Act states that both the car supplier and the credit card provider ("financer") are jointly liable. In these cases, the problem is best dealt with by the credit card company - as they're likely to simply agree a chargeback and then take the money back from the dealer. I don't think many people tend to buy cars on credit cards though. Despite the fact that it is the best position to be in when complaining about problems with any car (new or used).

Good luck whatever you decide to do.
Very informative reply, thanks.

The system has now continued to behave itself over the last couple of days and therein lies the problem, it's an intermittent fault. I'm probably going to cancel the garage appointment next week as technically there is now nothing wrong at this moment in time. In the meantime I've started looking around at a potential replacement
 
#12 ·
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