Buying a secondhand car from a garage, what extra rights do I have V buying private

wack61

wack61

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I'm currently looking at 2 second hand cars, one is private one at a garage, they are both a similar price, the garage says they can sell me an extended warranty.

My previous experience of extended warranties is not good, everything that ever went wrong on a previous car was never covered so that's out.

What extra rights do I have buying from a garage without buying an extended warranty from them.

If they say the car is sold without warranty is that the case :)
 
nope - but they'd like you to think so.

Im not up to the latest rules but i think it comes under the sale of goods act talk to cab or trading standards to be sure.. iirc any problems in six months then its down to the garage to prove that they were not pre-existing. A court will make allowance for the age of car and price paid. that is that the older and cheaper it is the less come back you have. Also takes account if you paid high /low book price for it and how it was described.
 
I bought an item from a European eBayer and had reason to want a refund. As far as PayPal are concerned, problems due to inadequate packaging are for the seller and buyer to sort out between themselves. I had used a credit card to fund the purchase and there was some recent ruling that credit card purchases from EC countries are now covered as if they were from the UK. In my reading around, one of the example cases was a 2nd-hand engine, and it was covered by the legislation (despite being 2nd-hand).

It all boils down to this: use a credit card to make the payment, and the card issuer is equally liable. My card issuer told me a stack of blatant untruths so I contacted the FSA or Financial Ombudsman who wrote to the bank asking them to investigate (I believe this process costs the bank several hundred £££s) and they have to reply within six weeks. I first got a reply saying "Sorry but" and a couple of days later another saying "We're pleased to inform you".
 
if you buy from a trader and the car develops a fault, within the first 6 months the trader has to prove it wasn't there when you bought it, after 6 months you have to prove it was there when you bought it, so you kinda get a 6 month warranty. This is regardless of any 'sold as seen' or 'no warranty' signs they may show. Ultimately with a dealer you have more comeback whereas with a private seller you have none.
 
I bought a car before, had 3 months warranty from the garage, and was advertised as full service history (could not find the log...!)

Anyway, exactly 2 days after the warranty expired the timing chain jumped and wreaked the engine, the cost of a new one was £2500, and recon was about £1000 less.

Garage refused to do anything, and trading standards basically said it was 3 months warranty and it expired.

Lucky for me the car was on HP, so I contacted the finance company and after much debate I argued the Fit for purpose, reasonably reliable and as described. By the manufacturer the chain should have been done 10000 miles before I bought it so should not have gone wrong. Eventually the finance company refunded most of my payments, collected the car and dealt with the garage costs when it was towed in to find out what went wrong.

Just glad I did not pay cash!
 
ppp said:
Ultimately with a dealer you have more comeback whereas with a private seller you have none.
Click to expand...

Not true I'm afraid. Even in a private sale the item has to be fit for the purpose. If you buy a 'car', then you would expect a 'car' to do 'car-like' things: ie drive and stop. Even if you buy privately and find a major fault within the first few days, you have the right to go back and demand your money back (or taken them to Court if they don't refund you).

If you ever sell a car privately, make sure you write 'sold for scrap' on any receipt (sold as seen means nothing).
 
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