Father in law bought a motor off a dealer who advertised it on auto trader as a dealer.
He bought the car then sneaked in sold as seen/private sale. My fil is a bit daft...
Anyway you can guess what happens, a month or so later a piston blows and its knackered - sorry not a mechanic
Anyway we go back to the guy and he tells us to do one.
We then threaten him with a letter saying he acted as a dealer.
Suddenly he's playing ball and saying as a good will gesture he will look at it and undertake repairs if possible.
Anyway he does some apparent repairs but not the real problem which he wants us to pay him for 6-700 quid
We say not good enough sort it or we go to court.
He then threatens to sue us for the cost of his 'repair' work which was given as a gesture of goodwill.
Thoughts? Our current thoughts are one more attempt slap him with another heavy letter. The court if no joy.
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Comments
I cannot remember the Case Law that covers it though
Subject: Re: Renault Kangoo Van
Dear Ms. Razil
At the time of sale, the vehicle was in good condition, as advertised and
your father had no problems with the vehicle for two months prior to the
'problem'.
We will pick up the vehicle, next week, from the address given, to be
arranged with your father, as requested. On collection, we will require a
signature from your father, agreeing to the removal of his vehicle to our
premises for inspection and repair.
As the vehicle was a private sale, it was not sold with warranty. Your
father was fully aware of this at the time of the sale. However, in this
case, as a gesture of goodwill, I am prepared to offer you 3 months
warranty.
Please note, we are not rebuilding the engine, but will repair the fault on
diagnosis so that the vehicle can be driven away in the same condition in
which it was purchased. We will not be doing any extra work on the vehicle
above and beyond this problem.
Referring to the independent inspection that you requested; we will not be
paying for this as we have been in the trade of repairing and servicing
vehicles for 33 years, with many long standing, satisfied customers. As you
will note from your mechanics report, no one has been able to pin point the
exact problem - that is why we have offered to inspect the vehicle for you
and diagnose the fault.
We feel that in this case, your father has been unfortunate as sometimes
faults do occur to vehicles that no mechanic, however qualified or
experienced, would be able to predict.
We hope the above meets with your approval and want to bring an end to this
matter as much as you do. We await your reply.
Regards
----- Original Message -----
Subject: Re: Renault Kangoo Van -
Dear
To avoid any confusion please let me clarify once more that what we
require from you is a vehicle in good condition as advertised, this
vehicle clearly was not hence the problems.
We will therefore accept one of the following from you a full refund, a
replacement vehicle with 3 month warranty, or a repaired vehicle to our
satisfaction and independently checked with a 3 month warranty.
If you would like to inspect the vehicle for the purpose or repairing it,
or clarifying the problem, our offer remains open to you as stated
I will do him a final email, and yes we do have auto trader advert and their backing
Also part of it hang on whether he had an indendepent check on the vehicle, an MOT by his company (I think) doesn't count as that I would suggest and that was a couple of months prior to the sale.
I hope you are well.
With reference to our telephone conversation last week regarding updating you on your Renault Kangoo van, I advised you that the vehicle was starting and running fine, but was still smoking slightly and I was awaiting an automotive electrician to undertake a computerised diagnosis on the vehicle.
This was carried out on Friday 22nd February and as hoped, no faults were identified. However, he did advise us that the white smoke was caused by the diesel injectors overfuelling (this is not identified on a computerised diagnosis). This, he believes, was the cause of number 3 piston failing initially, but to be sure, the injectors would need to be tested by a specialist. We have also sought advice from several Renault diesel specialists and a local engineering firm, who initially inspected the pistons and they have all agreed with this diagnosis.
The engineers have all been in agreement that the problem with the diesel injectors could have arisen at anytime and more to the point, had they been faulty at the time of purchase, the vehicle would NOT have passed an MOT test and would clearly not have been able to be driven without smoking heavily. This is conclusive evidence that at the time of purchase, the vehicle was not suffering from the problem which resulted in the breakdown.
In our email to yourselves dated 28.01.13, we advised that we would identify and rectify the problem with number 3 piston only. As you will see from the attached photos, we have replaced all four pistons with new ones and have also replaced several other items. For your information, below is a list of the work that we have carried out so far (at no charge to you) along with other costs: towing £80.00, 4 new pistons £384.00, one set of cylinder head bolts £25.00, head gasket £20.00, exhaust manifold gasket £12.00, oil filter £6.00, engine oil £20.00, sump gasket £15.00, anti freeze £9.00, diagnosis charge £60.00, making a total of £631.00. In addition to this is my labour charge which I am not claiming for. The costs, if it were a paying job, would be £800.00 in labour alone. This you can confirm with any garage who undertake similar work.
Given the free labour and money actually spent on this vehicle to date, I am not prepared to purchase any additional parts, as I feel we have gone above and beyond our gesture of goodwill. I am sure you will understand this too, having concluded that the fault arose after the sale of the vehicle.
Although the pistons have been replaced, the injectors would need to be checked and, if faulty, replaced with new ones to avoid the same problem occuring again.
We had a specialist quote £22.50 per injector, to check the operation of each one, making a total for all four injectors of £90.00. If they are found to be faulty and overfuelling as diagnosed, the vehicle would require a new set of injectors costing £460.32 (this is a trade price to me), followed by a ‘programming’ procedure at an additional cost of £60.00 by a specialist.
As a final gesture of goodwill we would be prepared to fit these injectors free of charge, provided you agree to pay for the injector testing, the new injectors and the programming.
We feel that as you used and drove the vehicle for two months, covering a distance of 2,300 miles and as we have already spent a considerable amount of time and money purchasing and installing the parts, it is a fair request to expect these costs to be covered by yourselves, so that we can complete the work, return the vehicle and draw this matter to a close.
We have attached several pictures, so you can see the new parts that have been fitted.
We hope you are in agreement with this and look forward to hearing from you, before we proceed any further. Of course you are welcome to collect the vehicle as it stands and employ your own mechanic, at your own expense, to install your own injectors if you wish. One further option, is to collect the vehicle and drive it as it is, however we would not recommend this option as we could not guarantee how far you will get and the engine could be severely damaged.
Regards
Note he says earlier he will return it in the sale condition, and warranty it, then he backtracks when he realises it needs major works.
The truth is that if the car had been sold with a three month warranty you would have been covered. If he can, legally, sell a car owned by himself without acting as a dealer then you have no case. I seriously doubt that he is really doing what he is for goodwill so he must expect to be held accountable for repairing the car. I doubt that you will get a full refund, and you may find that if he can stall you until the sale is three months old the warranty that he should have given you is over anyway.
Just my thoughts.