Second hand car - consumer rights

Synonyms · 26-04-2016 10:19AM #1

Hi,

I bought a second hand car in a very reputable dealer in Dublin. Small car, around 50,000Km on the clock, €10,000. Clear history.

There were a number of issues with it and I was suspicious the car had been in a accident so I brought it to a mechanic. He said the car had been done up completely pointing to a good few indications of it and advised to bring the car to the dealer.

The dealer said they needed to check it themselves but that if that was the case, they would give me the money back.

As all this has had consequences in terms of time spent and being without the car for a number of days, plus the fact that they sold me a car hiding that had been smashed and therefore selling it for a much higher value, I wonder if besides the refund I am entitled to some other compensation. If so, what would be a reasonable compensation for this?

Thanks for the help.

26-04-2016 10:22AM

Not particularly.

The general response would be repair, replacement or refund.

They are investigating and have offered a refund.

To seek further compensation you would have to show that they knowingly misled you.

Synonyms · 26-04-2016 10:26AM

They did mislead me. There is evidence to state that they knew. At least their mechanic. They either repaired it themselves or chanced it.

Del2005 · 26-04-2016 10:30AM

Synonyms wrote: »

They did mislead me. There is evidence to state that they knew. At least their mechanic. They either repaired it themselves or chanced it.

Why didn't you get your mechanic to look at it before you handed over €10k? The best you'll get is a refund and if you'd paid your mechanic to look it over beforehand you would have saved all the hassle.

Bigus · 26-04-2016 10:30AM

If you get a full refund , count your blessings, push your luck and you'll end up driving a lemon for 4 years while you await court proceedings which might get you a settlement against a defunct company, examples of such right here on boards .

millington · 26-04-2016 10:31AM

If the dealer is offering a refund I'd take it and count yourself lucky that they are. Plenty wouldn't.

bear1 · 26-04-2016 12:11PM

Synonyms wrote: »

They did mislead me. There is evidence to state that they knew. At least their mechanic. They either repaired it themselves or chanced it.

Do you have concrete proof they misled you?
Seriously, if they go ahead with the refund take it and run.

colm_mcm · 26-04-2016 12:16PM

Best outcome you could hope for is a refund. You won't have any evidence to show they knew about or performed the repair.

You'll have gotten free use of a car and will now have the option of getting a completely different model elsewhere, if there was anything about that particular model you didn't like.

Take the refund and run!

grogi · 26-04-2016 01:04PM

colm_mcm wrote: »

Best outcome you could hope for is a refund. You won't have any evidence to show they knew about or performed the repair.

It all depends how good the PI is... There might be emails, receipts and other stuff buried

biko · 26-04-2016 01:32PM

I doubt compo culture will stretch to this but you can always bring it up with SIMI or the Irish head office, not for yourself then for whoever they will sell it to next.

bear1 · 26-04-2016 01:35PM

I'm still unsure though why compensation is entitled? You paid 10k for the car, if the dealer agrees to re-buy the car then you get the 10k back.
You've been without a car for a few days, how have you traveled around? Bus?

Synonyms · 26-04-2016 02:16PM

It's not just being without a car for a few days. It is the time I will have to spend again looking for another car (& I have spent already with all this) plus the fact that it looks like completely dishonest and unethical behavior...

Refund should be taken for granted as they were selling a car with a substantial amount of body work done for a car with a clear history. Complete fraud.

I dont think just the refund makes up for that...

Thanks for the replies anyway!

MarkR · 26-04-2016 02:21PM

Did you ask had it been crashed? Clear history could just mean no outstanding finance, or never recorded as having been stolen. If they are offering a refund, i'd take the hand off them and be happy with it. Giving your money back is about as honest as it gets. All you'll have lost is time, and you learned not to accept things at face value.

Your talk of compensation is nonsense really. Bring a mechanic with you next time, and even then, they may not be able to spot a well repaired car.

bear1 · 26-04-2016 03:02PM

Synonyms wrote: »

It's not just being without a car for a few days. It is the time I will have to spend again looking for another car (& I have spent already with all this) plus the fact that it looks like completely dishonest and unethical behavior...

Refund should be taken for granted as they were selling a car with a substantial amount of body work done for a car with a clear history. Complete fraud.

I dont think just the refund makes up for that...

Thanks for the replies anyway!

Sorry, but I don't agree with being compensated. How do you put a nominal value on searching for a car?
How much are you out of pocket since handing them the car back?

bear1 · 26-04-2016 03:06PM

MarkR wrote: »

Did you ask had it been crashed? Clear history could just mean no outstanding finance, or never recorded as having been stolen. If they are offering a refund, i'd take the hand off them and be happy with it. Giving your money back is about as honest as it gets. All you'll have lost is time, and you learned not to accept things at face value.

Your talk of compensation is nonsense really. Bring a mechanic with you next time, and even then, they may not be able to spot a well repaired car.

Unfortunately it seems and is evident now that the compo culture is just way OTT here.

26-04-2016 05:21PM

bear1 wrote: »

Sorry, but I don't agree with being compensated. How do you put a nominal value on searching for a car?
How much are you out of pocket since handing them the car back?

Agree.
Sure if your car got rearended and written off , the insurance company sends out an ascessor who undervalues the car and more often than not you get paid less than the car is worth. And they dont pay you for your time and money it takes to find a replacement eithre.
If the op gets a chance to get his money back , they should take it .
Free use of a car for a few months to boot.
The other question is how badly damaged was the car?
It could have been keyed on both sides requiring a lot of respraying work to correct

bazz26 · 26-04-2016 08:54PM

OP, if your time spent searching for a car was so valuable to you and want compensation then why on earth didn't you get your mechanic to check the car over at that time rather than after the event? You could have avoided all this hassle in the first place.

I think the garage giving you your money back on the car is the best outcome here, there are way worse chancers out there that would happily let you spend a lot more of your time and money dragging them through the courts.

colm_mcm · 26-04-2016 09:37PM

yep. selling a car that was repaired isn't illegal in itself

nd · 26-04-2016 09:49PM

If you were selling a car that had been in a tip, and you got it repaired to a high standard. Do you think you should have to tell any potential buyer about it? Do you think the car is far inferior to a car that has never been in a tip?

As for compensation

Atlantic Dawn · 26-04-2016 09:53PM

What history report did you purchase? Did it give any indication of car off the road or repairs?

bear1 · 26-04-2016 10:39PM

I'm curious what issues the op noticed with the car that showed up only after handing over 10k.
What was wrong that it caused you to immediately suspect that the car had been in a crash?

Second hand car - consumer rights

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