What are my legal rights

[brucemillar]

Hi

I bought a C55 estate last November. The car is having problem after problem which is costing me a fortune. The dealer did offer to pay half of one claim which was to sort out damage to the car caused by an undisclosed (declared accident to the rear). I accepted that offer. I have also had to replace (at my expense)

PS pump
AC compressor
Front SAM

All of which failed or were failing when I got the car.

Car went in to have rear CV boots replaced yesterday.

Garage just called me to say that I need two new drive shafts as one of the CV joints seizing up. The other Drive shaft has had the end of the thread cut off by somebody else and cannot be repaired. This will cost me £1000 just for parts.

Have I any comeback on the dealer?

 

[markjay]

What year is your car?

What mileage?

When did you buy it?

Not directly related, but do you know how many previous owners?

Do you trust the garage that is currently looking after you car? (CV boots failing on RWD is not very common, BTW)

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I certainly think it's worth having a face-to-face chat with the supplying dealer.

It's always hard when problems start stacking up but if you could be recompensed or even an over the top trade in value then I'm sure you can work something out.

 

[smudgelab]

Hi, CAB & Trading Standards straight away, anything found within 6 months is usually deemed to have been present at time of purchase so you should be covered. Have a look here first & see how it applies to you...
Consumer Direct - Cars

I had a right pallaver with a very well known dealer when I bought a Peugeot (I know, I know ) a few years ago. They completely stonewalled me initially but as soon as told them the case reference number from Consumer Direct (which I received after calling & speaking to them), things changed massively. Long story short, I ended up having approx' £4500.00 worth of work done at no expense to me! Was aproper ballache & no mistake but well worth the effort eventually. Best of luck...

 

[martin_a]

As above. You should be entitled to reject the car and get all your money back especially given an undisclosed accident.

Clue up on the legislation above and go in armed if you want to do that and it will give you good recourse to go back to trading standards should the dealer start being silly.

m.

 

[verytalldave]

Lots of info missing, for example cars age, mileage, number of owners, whether it was purchased with or without a guarantee or warranty, type of dealer (backstreet or other), whether the existing/known faults where taken into account in the selling price are just a few details which influence proceedings.

First, any AMG model is EXPENSIVE to maintain and run. Its a well known fact. Many (me included) would never even think about owning one because of exactly what has/is happening to you. Being an AMG owner requires having DEEP pockets and not minding to have to dig in there to keep one running.
Many AMG's are dumped onto the 2nd market by their owners in the full knowledge that something is amiss and needs work. The unfortunate next owner has to pick up the big tab.
This is true whenever you buy outside the MB main dealership system. Which is why its MUCH more expensive to buy into. I would guess that to buy an AMG in the MB network is a good £10K more expensive than buying from an a non MB dealer.
Basically, you pays your money...........
You are now into 4-5 months of ownership and a doubt that you are likely to get anything much out of a non-MB dealer without a very long and very awkward wrangle.
But I wish you well and hope that things get resolved amicably.
But if it was me, I wouldnt be holding my breath.

Sorry if thats not what you want to hear, but thats my take in the situation.

 

[Adam230K]

AMG or not, the stuff he's mentioning is just pure neglegence from the supplying dealer. You bought the car in November, we are now in March. If the car is not fit for purpose then you can keep going back to the dealer upto 6 months... so I would definitely go have a chat with them while remaining objective and calm.

 

[verytalldave]

This current thread will give plenty to ponder as to the wisdom of being an AMG owner........

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/107208-mercedes-cl55-amg-kompressor.html

 

[BaldGuy]

I think you should stop wingeing and get on and drive it Bruce... your loaded!!!

 

[verytalldave]

AMG or not, the stuff he's mentioning is just pure neglegence from the supplying dealer. You bought the car in November, we are now in March. If the car is not fit for purpose then you can keep going back to the dealer upto 6 months... so I would definitely go have a chat with them while remaining objective and calm.

Its a rather quaint idea to think that secondhand car dealers generally are in least bit concerned about anything other than making a quick buck.
Their motto is much the same as the private car buyers mantra of "buyer beware".
Not all, I grant you, but a good number. I dont like to generalise too much.
When you walk into used car lot, you can make a fairly informed judgement from allot of things around you. Not least is the visual appearance/prices of the cars on sale.
I for one, would never buy a Mercedes from a dealer selling Fiestas and Puntos (for 2 examples). But thats just me.

I hope the OP gets his problems sorted out to his satisfaction, but I have my doubts.

 

[Howard]

You say that the bits were failing / failed when you bought the car .... can i ask why would you pay for it if you knew the power steering pump was failing ? and the AC compressor was also on the way out ? Why wouldn't you insist that they were fixed before parting with your money ?

How would the supplying dealer have known the driveshafts were about to fail ? or the CV joints ? If you were aware , why did you pay for the car ?

The SAM is unlucky , they can fail at any time.

Not being on the dealers side , but sometimes these things just happen.

How would they have been negligent in supplying the car to you like that , would you expect them to disassemble the car to its component parts and examine them ? If it had noisy CV joints when you bought it , then surely that is down to you ?

Sorry to not join the 'bash the dealer' bandwagon. just putting across the other side of the coin.

 

[RBYCC]

I believe it's the buyers responsibility, especially on an AMG car, to have the vehicle inspected/surveyed by a third party prior to purchase.

I've purchase low production AMG vehicles sight unseen ( photos only ) using an independent inspector.

If the selling dealer is offering some sort of a limited warranty that would give a bit more confidence with the purchase.

Or else it's "caveat emptor "

 

[martin_a]

RBYCC/Howard

Get the point but the law is clear. Any faults appearing within 6 months of purchase are assumed to have been their at the point of purchase therefore the responsibility lies with the dealer. the OP has a right to have the car fixed.... that is unless the car was advertised with faults but i'd think that unlikely at a dealer.

m.

 

[Howard]

But the OP states that they were failing / failed at time of purchase ...

If he bought it like that ( knowing they were failing ) , it's a poor show to then claim for them later , no ?

 

[Adam230K]

Surely the reason the dealer gets a car for say, £10k then sells it on for £11-13k (depending on the sort of dealer they are), is that you should be confident when buying it that they did spend some money getting it prepared to a 'reasonable' standard. 'Reasonable' can vary from person to person, but this doesn't sound particularly reasonable to me, thats all.

I just bought a Honda Jazz for my mum, and I wasn't able to take the car up to motorway speeds on the test drive, but on the drive home I realised that the rear wheel bearing was noisy. I went to honda and they charged me £40 to look at it, and replaced the rear 2 wheel bearings for free under warranty. I then phoned my original dealer and told him about it and he sent me a cheque in the post for £40 within 3 days, which is fair I think.

But Howard has a point, if the OP knew about these things before buying and bought it... he's only brought it upon himself.

 

[brucemillar]

OK

I just wanted to know where I stood with regards to the law and my consumer rights.

1) The car came with a six month warranty.

2) I bought the car knowing that the PS pump was faulty. You could hear it was faulty and the dealer offered to pay to have it repaired, or for me to have it repaired. I chose to have it repaired. At the point of that repair it was found that the AC compressor was making as much if not more noise that the PS pump. So that was also replaced. The warranty company refused to pay for either repair. The PS pump was reflected in the price of the car.

3) The front SAM was found to be failing when it was noticed that the front sidelights were not working.

Up to this point I have no issue as these were all noted faults and I was happy that they were reflected to a degree in the price of the car.

I was not happy to then find out that the car had unseen accident damage at the rear end. This resulted in the rear suspension having to lowered (dropped) and re-alligned. The dealer (under some pressure) and discussion with the repairing garage agreed to fund half the cost of the work £750.



Now we get to today.

Car in for MOT. Rear CV joint is split. No worries with that and no concern from me to the dealer. What we now find is that the drive shafts have been removed. (presumably during previous accident repair - not the bit I had corrected) This bodged removal (threads bashed over with a hammer) and refitting has left me looking at a potential £1200 bill.

FYI: It now looks (thank you Olly at PCS) that the drive shafts may be repairable. About .25 of an inch of thread was cut off one shaft so they could get the nut back on.

I am not suggesting that the dealer is negligent or that I, or he should have dismantled the car prior to purchase. I am asking what are my rights in law.

I have no idea where some posters get the idea that a bodged repair on an AMG makes me less worthy of the laws protection than a bodged repair on a non AMG?

I do not believe that I am naive in my car buying and others on this forum have seen the car in the flesh and like me have not seen an issue. Are some posters suggesting that you should take the engine apart before purchase ? just in case five months later a your engine grenades?

 

[Charles Morgan]

Your rights summarised neatly by Honest John. Given the faults and the passage of time I would speak to Consumer Direct straightaway for advice.

 

[Howard]

I wasn't suggesting anything untowards Bruce.

Just some people automatically go off at the deep end ...

'Go to Citizens Advice !!' , 'Go to Trading standards !!!!' , 'Negligence !!' How about a nice friendly phone call instead ? , works wonders sometimes ....

The dealer couldn't possibly have known about the bodged driveshaft repair ( unless they did it themselves ? ) , hence my comment about dismantling the car.

I agree with what you say though , doesn't matter if it is a A140 or a CL65 , your rights should be the same.

The point i was trying to get across was that while you undoubtedly have full recourse of the law , with regards to the 6 month 'warranty' , the faults were built into the price of the car ? so would be a poor show to then expect them done ... or are you just referring to the driveshaft work ?

If i am reading it correctly , you are not looking to claim for the pump(s) or SAM , just for the driveshafts ?

Sorry to hear about the problems with the car.

 

[brucemillar]

>>If i am reading it correctly , you are not looking to claim for the pump(s) or SAM , just for the driveshafts ?

I am not looking to claim for anything as I believe that I will spend more time and money arguing the toss with the dealer.

The car had (at some point) been involved in an accident which has damaged the rear suspension and put a slight crease in the rear inner wheel arch. This has been well repaired and would not have been visible had the car not had to have some other work done on it.

HPI, and the finance company show no accident history. The dealer pleads innocence (and he may well be innocent). The previous listed owner also states "no knowledge" of any accident".

Somebody spent a lot of money having the car repaired without any claim on the insurance. Whoever carried out the repairs threw the rear suspension back on without getting it alligned, presumably after bodging the drive shafts.

So. Now I have to find either a set of second hand drive shafts or get mine refurbished (if possible).

Or chuck a can of petrol and a match in the car.

 

[Howard]

Have I any comeback on the dealer?

You're not looking to claim from the dealer ?

Are the dealership helpful ? could you have a chat with the dealer principal , and explain the situation before you go in heavy handed ?

Once he sees that you know your rights , he may be helpful ( he may be helpful anyway ) ?

What's to stop him saying that it's happened in your ownership though ( not suggesting for a minute it has ) , but who's to say that a backstreet garage hasn't cut a bit off the shafts to refit them since you have owned it ...

Seems strange though to do a really good bodywork repair and bodge the mechanical side of it ...

How many owners has it had ? If it is just one owner , then someone is telling porkies ....

Just playing devils advocate ...