Been sold a lemon

[banksy66]

Originally Posted by nicholasjgroom

Yes, I'm going to be taking it back to him and he's going to arrange an independent inspection, i started this thread to see exactly what sort of position i'm in

I want him to give me a full refund as the car is clearly unroadworthy and i don't believe it can be repaired fully

and independent tester did the MOT but because of the plastic sill panels the y wouldn't of been able to see the damage to the door sill

Thanks

Ok, I'll start by saying that although I don't have formal legal training/qualifications, I used to work closely with the Legal Dept of a company which provided finance for cars and issues relating to "Satisfactory Quality" were commonplace, so I gained a lot of experience in the field.

The Sale of Goods and Services Act states a used product (in this case the car) must be of Satisfactory Quality taking into account it's age, general condition, mileage and the price paid. In other words, it is unreasonable to expect a £1300 car to be as good as a £13000 car. However, it is reasonable to expect the car to be in roadworthy condition unless you were notified otherwise before taking delivery, which I assume you were not.
The car passed an MOT because the tester was unable to access the affected area. Therefore both the trader and the tester would be adjudged to have acted in good faith. However, this does not do away with the fact that the car is (presumably) unroadworthy. I say presumably because I'm assuming any hole on a sill would be a fail, but it may be that is not the case as I seem to recall corrossion as such is only a fail on other parts of the car if it is within a certain area of sea/seatbelt mounting points etc. Incidentally, I don't know what car this is but I assume it doesn't have a separate chassis?
So, to be totally honest, I don't know if you are entitled to a refund in these circumstances because no-one could see or access the area concerned. That's not to say you're not entitled however, I'm just saying there are extenuating (sp) circumstances in this case

Incidentally, when it comes to refunds on used cars, you cannot mix in multiple reasons to strengthen your case. The sill issue may be sufficient on its own to warrant a refund, but the fact there is an issue also with the VVT is not necessarily going to strenghten your case. Traders have rights too, one of which is the right to repair and or mitigate (reduce) their loss although again, I don't know if this would apply in your particular case.

Speak to Trading Standards in the morning and run through the scenario with them. Incidentally, if you didn't buy the car local to you, you need to contact the TS office which covers the area where the alleged offence took place (ie the dealer premises)

Hope you get sorted