Used Car - AC not working - Garage says not covered by warranty

BobC gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Did you read the second para of that link...?

...and bear in mind that it's now emerged that we're talking about a 7yo car...

There is no exemption in the Sale of Goods Act for second hand goods from the "reverse burden of proof" requirement.

Which was advertised as having aircon. Despite your mutterings that you believe it's the mere presence of the hardware which describes it, I suspect you'll find that the more common interpretation, and that which would be followed in a court case, would be "working aircon". ( Even following your definition, if it's missing some of the required bits, ie gas, it doesn't have aircon.)

cheers, clive

The important thing is the description. If the car had been advertised with no mention of air conditioning then you might have a point. As it was it was advertised _with_ a/c. It is therefore reasonable for the buyer to expect that functionality. As it apparently has never worked and this was discovered within a day or two of purchase it is for the dealer to prove it was working when sold and that less than 48 hours life is to be expected of a/c in a 7yr old car. They might find this a bit difficult.

Come on.... Give up ! ;-)

Andy

Andy Cap gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I've already pointed out that, yes, t'were me I'd be a bit pissed off too - and that, yes, I'm slightly playing devil's advocate here.

BUT with the little snippet having now emerged that the car is 7yo, I HAVE changed position slightly. If working aircon is THAT important to the OP, he's a bloody idiot for not checking it was working before buying.

Aircon DOES cease to function, and DOES need maintenance above and beyond the service schedule - within a couple of years, let alone damn near the average life expectancy of a vehicle on British roads. It does not make the car unroadworthy, of unmerchantable quality, and should not be unexpected in a car of that age. It's only the British market's relative lack of familiarity with aging aircon that's bringing this up as a surprise to the layman.

Maybe - but he did pay a premium so as to not get "sold as seen" (ie bought from a garage).

Nah - if the garage advertises it as having it, it needs to have it. If they didn't mention it, then maybe you'd have a point, but they did.

cheers, clive

And especially when I bought the car I stated that AC was a major requirment for any car I might purchase...

I go along with your opinion completely. It makes no difference as to how old the car is or whether or not it was sold with a warrantee.

The dealer misrepresented it to you when you bought it. If a car is described as having certain features, one has a right to expect those features to work unless told otherwise.

I wouldn't bother to argue with the dealer. I'd tell him either he fix it or I report him to Trading Standards for misrepresentating the car.

If he still refused, I'd tell him that I'd get it fixed and make a claim through the small claims court for the cost, which would also include any court fees incurred.

My guess is that he will back down. IANAL but I think he would lose if it actually got as far as a court hearing. Mike.

Well the last one I had, I changed at 20k, even though the on board serviceometer said I had 12k left. The oil was the proper Vauxhall branded fully synthetic stuff. It was still going fine at 5 years old with 112k on it. I put the last 60k on it in 2 years.

I don't know about the 30K interval though - can't quite decide if this is sensible or not. On one hand, it is in their favour to lower the interval to get more money for more services, and if they are too high, they would have extra warranty claims. On the other hand, are they betting that poor servicing won't cause a problem for the 60k warranty, and they will reap the benefits in extra engine rebuilds coming their way later on?

Bob

Prexactly. Mike.

He did - he bought a car described as having a/c and explained to the salesman it was important to him. He has no more need to check it is actually working than he does to measure the torque on the big end bearings if it is described as a working engine.

The garage is free to show the non conformity with the contract didn't exist at the time of sale (which they are required to do) and the failure wasn't caused by a non-conformity but natural aging. Given it has never worked and the fault was reported within two days this will present them with a challenge.

It makes it not what was described by the seller. That's all that matters as it means it does not conform to the contract. "Merchantable quality" was removed several years ago.

I change mine every 10,000 at most - some people do theirs every 5000, book was 10,000 later 20,000

Mine is getting a change soon after 6000 to give it a flush through. At £30 for 20l (trade card) it is worth doing regularly

However not for platinum-tipped plugs...

You have two options:

1. Forget about it, pay for it to get sorted/regassed.

1. Sit outside the dealer, wait until there's a few punters in, then go in and start discussing it politely but *loudly* with someone. Use words like "I would not have purchased the car from you if I had known the car was not as described / the service was poor " etc . Just make sure it's in earshot of customers..

This has worked for me on more than one occasion. the past. Most recently in a branch of TSB, where I got £300 of bank charges refunded very quickly indeed. I went to discuss it with the manager, she said I had to call the call centre, so I did. In the middle of the branch, which was quite busy. Within 10 mins, they'd herded me (still on the phone) into an office, and refunded me .

Mike P

We'll have Fraser popping along shortly telling us we're all pikey for not having such a basic feature as that in all of our homes :-)

I have it in my home, it came free (from a restaurant strip out my friend did), but it costs a lot to run, nice on a hot night though !!

Cheap enough from B&Q these days.

I keep meaning to pick up a unit in the winter when they're available quite cheaply, but never get around to it.

.italiancar.co.uk- Honda VFR800 - Hongdou GY200 - Alfa 75 TSpark

I bought one off ebay a few winters ago for about =A360...

Of course, as soon as the hot weather arrives places like B+Q wheel them out and whack up the prices ....

I just put up ceiling fans instead - about 90% of the effect of full air-con for around 10% of the cost.

D A Stocks