FAO Legal folk, where do I stand?

[Orange Cola]

I’ve summarised the facts below and before anyone gets on their high horse I’m going to have a conversation with some of the established places like citizens advice. However, I do realise some of you may also be able to offer advice and guidance based on your own experiences. So, here goes...

The car was put in to a franchise dealer back in September for investigation into a number of issues under warranty. As part of that two things were changes which caused issues.

1) door check straps, both sides. The techs used metal screwdrivers to prize off the door cards and broke all the plastic clips as well as damaging the paint work. New door card for the drivers side supplied and fitted, passenger side was left as the marks are small enough to not notice. Doors re-sprayed on the under side where the marks were. Happy with that.

2) I was told - when I chased for an update - that they were getting the roof changed under warranty and parts were already on order. First roof was fitted but very badly, parts missing, alignment out, turned out one of the supports in the mechanism was broke too. The techs also managed to put a hole in the fabric roof and told us it was ready. We found the issues when inspecting the car pointed them out and the dealer ordered another whole new roof to be fitted. This was back end of October.

Roof fitted right at the end of November, we inspected early in December when we got back from holiday which we’d informed the dealer about. Parts still missing and alignment still off, dealer fixed and called us back now putting us in mid December. This time there was a seal completely out of alignment, so they fixed that and we finally picked the car up the weekend before Christmas. Yippee.

Here’s where i need some help. We were away over new year and hadn’t used the car since we brought it home, it has been sat on the driveway. I looked at the car when we got back (middle of this week just gone) and found it full of water where the new roof doesn’t seal. It’s a big leak too, I’m not talking about a few dribbles down the glass but a foot well carpet drenched, windscreen soaked from the condensation and pretty much all other surfaces wet from the condensation.

Car was recovered back to the dealer via the breakdown service provided through the warranty on the car.

The OEM is saying they have no obligation to the warranty on the car (the car is now just over half way through the warranty period which started when the car was first registered), the OEM is also saying they have no control over the dealer who is doing the work under warranty as they are a franchise and therefore not part of the OEM (I don’t believe this OEM has their own dealers in the UK, I think they’re all franchises). We have stated a couple of times now that the car clearly cannot be repaired as it’s now in its 5 month of being under repair so we want a buy back. The OEM is saying they cannot buy the car back, the original retailer we bought the car off has to agree to that; we bought the car 6 months old from an Land Rover dealer 12 months ago and this isn’t a Land Rover car, besides the car was fine when they sold it to us and the damage has come about from warranty work carried out by someone else so approaching them is clearly not an option.

The dealer who’s taken the car back to fix isn’t really interested in turning it around quickly, they were also reluctant to take the car back at all even saying that the leak isn’t anything to do with the work they’ve done on the car. For reference, the leak is coming from an area they’ve definitely changed the parts in and had to go back and re-align parts. They’re now saying they won’t look at the car for another fortnight because they’re busy.

If they can fix the car so I can have it back that would be ideal as it’s better the devil you know - a replacement car stands a good chance of having exactly the same issue as the damage to the roof is a design issue and the OEM have released revised parts to fix it, customers can request revised parts through the dealer (basically when the roof is down there are two plastic caps you can fit to hide some of the roof mechanism and prevent debris getting into the mechanism, it’s these caps that rub a hole in the roof as you drive around, the caps have been redesigned to prevent the rubbing). I have threatened a buy back to show we are seriously hacked off now and in actual fact swapping us into another used car of similar age/spec/condition would be acceptable to us just so we can move on. They can then fix our leaky car in their own time and do with it whatever they wish.

So, any help on where I stand with my rights and what options I do have?

[Zonda_]

I had issues with a 200sx I bought from a Nissan dealer, long story short, I battled them for 9 months with them trying to fob me off a making offers that they never followed up on. I eventually contacted the MD of Nissan UK detailing the issues with the car and dealer and saying my next stop was the press. They came and collected the car 2 days later with a full refund and compensation. I’d look for a similar spec car at another dealer in their group and say you want a swap. I see what you say about better the devil you know but I think you’d be happier with a replacement as you’ll always be finding fault with the one you have.

[Orange Cola]

Thanks, I’ve managed to track down the email address of the equivalent person in this situation. I’m still not 100% sure on where I stand with this situation though.

[Nefarious]

Did you make the original purchase with a credit card? (or any part of it >£100)
It's exactly these situations that section 75 is especially useful for.

[V8Granite]

There was a Mustang specialist travelling around Ford dealers diagnosing the engine ticking problem which resulted in new engines. The Ford dealership here waited till he said before getting a new engine in. Does anyone on the Mustang forums know if they have a specialist going around for these kind of issues as it seems Ford dealers are pretty woeful in this regard.

Dave!

[Orange Cola]

Did you make the original purchase with a credit card? (or any part of it >£100)
It's exactly these situations that section 75 is especially useful for.

No

[Orange Cola]

There was a Mustang specialist travelling around Ford dealers diagnosing the engine ticking problem which resulted in new engines. The Ford dealership here waited till he said before getting a new engine in. Does anyone on the Mustang forums know if they have a specialist going around for these kind of issues as it seems Ford dealers are pretty woeful in this regard.

Dave!

Not for poor quality work.

[ZedLeg]

I can't really help with any of the legal stuff but if it's had a lot of water in the cabin I wouldn't want it back unless the whole interior had been removed and replaced. You could end up chasing electrical faults forever if there's water damage behind the dash etc.

[NotoriousREV]

Did you make the original purchase with a credit card? (or any part of it >£100)
It's exactly these situations that section 75 is especially useful for.

No

Even if you paid by debit card, you *may* be able to chargeback:

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights ... chargeback

[NotoriousREV]

Did you make the original purchase with a credit card? (or any part of it >£100)
It's exactly these situations that section 75 is especially useful for.

No

Even if you paid by debit card, you *may* be able to chargeback:

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights ... chargeback

Actually, that’s not really relevant here, is it? Ignore me.

[Orange Cola]

No

Even if you paid by debit card, you *may* be able to chargeback:

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights ... chargeback

Actually, that’s not really relevant here, is it? Ignore me.

Gah

[Orange Cola]

I can't really help with any of the legal stuff but if it's had a lot of water in the cabin I wouldn't want it back unless the whole interior had been removed and replaced. You could end up chasing electrical faults forever if there's water damage behind the dash etc.

It’s getting a whole new interior plus whatever else they find. It’s heavy condensation rather than fish swimming around levels of water and the car is being stripped and dried out in their “oven” for re-sprays.

I’m not convinced though, it’s been long enough and counting.