Please Help - Can I reject my Defender which has died?

Is it still under warranty? If it is still under warranty,tell the dealer you are claiming under warranty and tell them to pick it up and repair it. If they refuse to repair,get it repaired elsewhere and bill them. Citizens advice centre will help you if bill not paid. Yours Gmacz

F posted ...

IANAL ...

If there is any warranty on the vehicle then this ought to be covered. As it's a small dealer, and it's more than 24 hours before anything major has broken, despite the low mileage, I believe that 'caveat emptor' applies .. buyer beware. I don't think you have too many rights on second hand vehicles and it is more to do with dealer goodwill than a matter of law.

I could be wrong, so have a word with Citizens Advice, or a solicitor, before doing anything rash .. ;)

The important phrase here is "Fit for Purpose", as per the Sale & Supply of Goods act (1988?). You bought the vehicle to drive around. You can't drive it around, so it is not Fit for Purpose. The catch is whether it was fit for purpose as it was sold to you. The dealer would argue that you have suffered from normal wear and tear on a vehicle of this age, and that when it left his ownership it was indeed fit for purpose.

If you hadn't had a fortnight elapse, I think you would have a good chance. That's why I didn't have to pay for £900 of repairs when the torque convertor on the Rangie died after 130 miles (although in my case it didn't get to the legal stage as the dealer was good enough to sort out the problems without argument, where he could easily have made life difficult for me). But with the time lapse, you are in a more tricky situation. Like Paul, I'd recommend you speak to the CAB, or a solicitor.

Good luck. David

As others have pointed out the CAB is a good start. It would also be worth speaking to your local court. I found the staff at mine very helpful in a similar situation and there are plenty of leaflets available for help. If the seller won't help/listen write him a nasty letter and threaten him with action in the County Court. The leaflet "What is a small claim" is useful and tells you what to put in the letter. The next leaflet in the series "How do I make a small claim in the county court" is worth reading at this point. When I took a company to court, it was for a broken three piece suite slightly less than a year old, I won. It took me nearly six months, but I also recoverd the cost of taking the action. It isn't easy and you will feel like giving up at times, don't. See it through to the end and once it's over you will wonder what all the fuss was about. Good luck and let us know how you get on

Paul

Thanks to you all for your advice so far, including those who have replied directly to me. I have sent a letter to the garage today asking them to confirm in writing their final position. If they will not collect it or authorise a local garage to do the work then I will pay and follow the small claims court route.

I've started logging all telephone calls and time I spend on it for my compensation claim!

The other bit I eluded to in my original post, is the fact that their website says that any vehicle sold for £3000 has a free warranty. Mine was over this amount, but I didn't get any warranty paperwork (I didn't think about it in the excitement). The LR also had one of those flapping warranty company boards on its roof when I saw it. This may be another angle for me. They have said that as I didn't get any paperwork that I am not covered. I say otherwise. Any thoughts?

Thanks again,

Frazer

appreciated.

Paperwork or not, if it says so on their website, I think you have a good argument. Print a copy of their web page off, if you've not already done so, in case they change it.

Good luck, & let us know how you get on. If you need an expert opinion on the mechanicals, several people here are / know good mechanics. David.

In message , F writes

Yes, follow the advice you have been offered- go and discuss with someone who knows what they are talking about - CAB or a solicitor. You may be throwing away any opportunity you may have to recoup your money.

Note - most warranties are on a return to supplier basis, but IANAL and neither are most of the people who have replied to you.

Also, if you haven't already done so take a print of their website warranty page - they may change it tomorrow.

On or around Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:53:51 -0000, "David French" enlightened us thusly:

The sort of "warranty" you'd have got is mechanical breakdown insurance, which IME a) costs extra on the price of the car and b) covers virtually nothing that's actually likely to fail. I can't remember if clutches were covered, but I'd give good odds that they weren't, on the one I had - it didn't, for example, cover suspension (spheres on a citroen, in this case, so something equivalent to spring plus damper)

it does cover really basic stuff like the gearbox falling apart or the crankshaft breaking.

they may vary, this was one that I read the small print on. I paid the extra 150 notes, mind, and had the thing (car costing 2 grand) but with hindsight, it was probably a waste of 150 quid.

doesn't help you much, mind.

In your case, it probably depends on what the advertised condition of the vehicle was - if it was sold as "excellent condition" etc., then the clutch should last longer than that, but as regards "sale of goods", you'll have a hard time proving that the thing wasn't "fit" as sold. In the case of the citroen above (which was supposedly low mileage, A1 price, near enough) the front spheres needed doing, I had an local independent citroen bloke attest to that within about 2 days - took it back to p***** j***son, local equivalent of Arthur Daley, who said "nah, they're all like that" (they're not) and declined to fix it. so I shelled out 70 quid of me own money for the local bloke to do it, and then told as many people as I could find about the aforementioned P. J. and what a tight git I thought he was, and recommended 'em to buy elsewhere...

In message , hugh writes

Just another thought - give your local Trading Standards Officer a call

- they will know minimum legal requirements on warranties.