Bought a crock o ****... :(

Evening ladies & gents, This isn't about my Landy but is regarding a Volvo instead...

I have followed the post above, and have completed the follwing letter i will be sending to the garage.

I'd really appreciate it if you could have a quick read through and make sure it's ok before i end up making a fool of myself

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently bought a car from your company xxxxxxx on 1st November 2011. The car is a Volvo S40 Sport 2.0D, Registration xxxxxx. Several major faults with the vehicle have occurred. I am dissatisfied with the product I have bought from you, Whilst at first i was able to live the faults, and planned to get them resolved in the next year, The faults the vehicle has now are too severe and are also there from when the car was originally purchased from yourselves. Due to these issues, I would like to reject this car, Have it collected by yourselves and have a complete refund of the monies paid to yourselves.

The faults with the car are as follows, I will if required by yourselves be requesting a garage I trust to undertake a full evaluation of the vehicle to diagnose any further issues that may be present.

· Passenger door window glass is loose in the frame,
· Rear passenger door is faulty and will not open,
· Suspension on the rear nearside of the vehicle is defective - The suspension gap is visibly higher on this side of the vehicle than the other, It also makes a knocking noise when the vehicle is moving, this increases with speed,
· The driver and passengers seats move back approximately an inch when the vehicle is accelerating from a stand,
· There is a thudding noise on the rear offside of the vehicle when it is in motion, I believe this possibly related to a wheel bearing,
· There are various items of trim missing from the inside of the vehicle,
· The trim is damaged / badly fitted to the front offside wheel arch,
· The front bumper / bonnet are not aligned, Having discussed with my mechanic he is under the impression that the vehicle may have been in an accident and repaired,
· The 12v socket in the rear of the vehicle is not supported in its mounting and it falls into the console,
· Service which was entered in the log book appears to have not been carried out, As the filters and oil in the engine are well used and do not show the wear that should be expected from the miles covered following the service stamp,
· AUX belt slips under load, the mechanic believes this should have been picked up in the aforementioned service and should have been replaced as it is clearly worn.

When purchasing the vehicle, I was advised by the sales man (I believe his name was Tom) that the vehicle had been fitted with a brand new battery prior to sale, as it had a slow starting issue. This battery failed on 14th December 2011 and as such I have had to have another one fitted in order to continue using the vehicle, this has run a cost of £105 including fitting.
Today, the vehicle started to emit smoke from the engine bay, after being recovered for the second time in two days, following the investigation by the garage; it appears as though one of the injector seals has failed.
He advised that 3 of the 4 injectors were held together by cable ties! And that one of these had perished and re-opened the return seal. This has not been fixed by the garage, because they deemed this to be a dangerous repair.

I refer you to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, specifically Section 14 which details that the car I bought from you must be of satisfactory quality. From my own judgement and that of the independent mechanic I believe that the car you have sold me is not of a satisfactory quality, as such I believe you are contravening Section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979.
I request that you pay me the full amount for my car which totals £5499, plus the additional £105 I have spent on repairs. I expect to hear from you to confirm you have received this letter so we can arrange the return of the vehicle and refund of monies owned within the next two weeks. I have stopped driving the car in line with my rejection and I request that you arrange and collect it at the earliest opportunity.

If you fail to accept my right to reject this car I will be forced to progress with legal proceedings in the County Court in order to recover the money.
Please contact me on any of the following numbers,
Week day 09:00 – 17:00 - xxxx
Week day Evenings 18:00 – 21:00 – xxxxx
Weekend 10:00 – 21:00 – xxxxx
Mobile xxxxx
Yours Sincerely

letter sounds good, just take your mobile number off the bottom.

Well spotted, Normally pretty good at that kind of thing

I may be taking my volvo back 2mora for a refund... minus £25
gonna take it in to get the brakes looked at , all being well i'll keep. Good luck with urs

Mines an 05 on 55k miles.

The list above has now got to the state where i don't like it anymore.

it's a fantastic car to drive, very under rated. But i just don't like it now.

Good luck with yours, Why £-25?

Cos i lost the v5 n mot cert, im hoping the brakes will be easily fixed cos its a mint motor

did u not point out any of the faults prior to the sale?,not all but things like doors not opening and bonnet,bumper alignment?, good luck though hope you get the refund

The rear door was "fixed", as it was faulty when i first looked, They sorted when i picked it up.

The bonnet / bumper alignment i didn't notice, Didn't notice until i cleaned it and checked it over with a fine tooth comb.

i'm still paying for a motor i got years ago because i found it to be faulty, i took it back to garage, they brought it back said it was fixed, it wasnt, it then sat outside my house for 6 months without turning a wheel, we were takin to court where our lawyer decided not to turn up so we were left to pay for car and all costs

jawdaw40 said:

i'm still paying for a motor i got years ago because i found it to be faulty, i took it back to garage, they brought it back said it was fixed, it wasnt, it then sat outside my house for 6 months without turning a wheel, we were takin to court where our lawyer decided not to turn up so we were left to pay for car and all costs

Click to expand...

There you go.............. it could be worse

"I refer you to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, specifically Section 14 which details that the car I bought from you must be of satisfactory quality. From my own judgement and that of the independent mechanic I believe that the car you have sold me is not of a satisfactory quality, as such I believe you are contravening Section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979."

i think yu will find the correct expresion is "of merchantable quality"

satisfactory is an arbitory condition - merchantable means "fit to sell"

Here is a sample letter to write to the offending supplier (curtesy of the Beeb )



Rejecting a new car template letter

Your Address

The dealership address

Dear Sir/Madam,

I recently bought a car from your company (name company) on (date). The car is (model, make, reg number). A major fault with the vehicle has been apparent since (when?). I am dissatisfied with the product I have bought from you and as such I would like to reject this car.

The faults with the car are as follows (describe the faults) and I have had an independent inspection of my vehicle (name garage). They have listed the faults as follows (list what the independent expert says)

OR

I have allowed the dealership (name dealership) to attempt to fix the problem (s) with my car. To date, the car has been with your mechanics (how many times?) in (how many weeks/months?) I made it clear from the outset in writing that my allowing you to repair would not affect my right of rejection and accordingly as you have been given ample opportunity to correct the faults with the vehicle, but with no satisfactory conclusion, I am therefore rejecting this car.

I refer you to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, specifically Section 14 which details that the car I bought from you must be of satisfactory quality. From my own judgement and that of the independent expert (name garage) I believe that the car you have sold me is not of a satisfactory quality, as such I believe you are contravening Section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

I request that you pay me the full amount for my car which totals (£ how much did you buy the car for?) or replace it with another equivalent car. I expect to hear from you to confirm you have received this letter so we can arrange a refund or replacement within the next two weeks. I have stopped driving the car in line with my rejection and I request that you collect it at the earliest opportunity.

If you fail to accept my right to reject this car I will be forced to progress with legal proceedings in the County Court in order to recover the money.

Yours Sincerely

Click to expand...

From your crock o **** post...

needs to be modified then
at the end of the day - its your letter - needs to be written as you would write it.

good luck

hehe

Based on the garage i bought it from's personality, There are too many of them thurr big werdz in that lettar.

No, I don't like a number of parts of the wording.

You should definitley not admit that you were considering living with any issues at all. There is a concept in contract law called "Acceptance". Being deemed to have accepted the goods means that you waver your rights to reject the good. Some of your wording suggests that you have considered the goods to be acceptable even though you knew there were defects. This will go against you in court.

Your legal position is that you have attempted to enter a contract of sale with the merchant. The understanding is that you will pay the merchant money, in exchange for goods. The SOGA 1979 mandates certain conditions into that contact. I.e. satisfactory quality, which includes Safety, free of minor defect etc (google the Act). The goods supplied have many defects and, it could be argued, is unsafe (e.g. seats moving on acceleration). You are rejecting the goods on this basis, therefore the contract is void, and the merchant has no right to keep your money.

The merchant's case will be that you have accepted the goods. If he can prove that you have, then you lose. The car is yours, the money is his.

There are places in your letter in which you use personal (informal) language, such as referring to the vehicle as "my car". It is not your car. It is his car, and it is your money.

You also ask him to "pay me the full amount". This is not correct, he is not paying you, he is refunding you. The distinction is important.

I would seriously reconsider mentioning the £105 repairs at all. Take the battery out, and replace with the original battery. Any repairs you do will also go against you regarding acceptance. You want over 5k back. Don't risk this by trying to also get the £105. The court may deem that you have accepted the goods by trying to fix it yourself.

Also, don't say you have stopped driving the car now. This is irrelevant information, but could be construed that you were driving it knowingly faulty for some time. Again, helping his case.

I would also urge caution about requesting correspondence by phone. This will almost certainly lead to a phone argument, whereby anything said will not be recorded and will be deniable. You should refrain from discussing the matter other than by writing. Any phone conversation should be restricted to simply pick up arrangements.

TBH, considering the amount of money you are trying to recover, I think you should get legal advice. Landyzone advice is good, but your local trading standards or citizen's advice bureau is probably better at this sort of thing. The fact that your claim is over £5, means that the small claims court is not an option for you. You'll be in fully fledged court, in which the losing side may be liable for legal costs.

Re: MHM's post. The correct term to use is satisfactory quality. The term "merchantable" was replaced with "satisfactory" in about 1994 I believe. If you are quoting the law, you need to quote it exactly as it is stated in the currently in force Act.

Mundungous,

Thanks for your input, I shall ammend the letter accordingly.

good update

I shall contact the CAB tomorrow, depending on what their responce is.

Maybe the crock of **** thread shud be amended

Did you not run a HPI check on it before purchase? If it had been in an accident this should show up on the HPI.