Scottish Elises

Guys,

I bought an alfa romeo from a dealer in september.

When I bought the car there was a knocking from the passenger side which I was told was the strut top mount and also the breaks were dodgy (warped)

When I picked the car up I was told the strut top mount was fixed but the brakes were still shuddering i thought possibly because it had been sitting for a while. On the way home from the dealer the knocking started again. Due to work commitments I havent been able to get the car back to dealer.

Since then the car has pretty much sat in an airport car park. I have done approx 3K back and forward on the A90 to aberdeen.

On Xmas day I arrived at aberdeen airport after being away in africa for nearly 3 weeks and the brakes were siezed so I gently rocked the car and managed to free them. Straight after this the power steering failed and I had to drive the "boat" home with none.

I managed to get it to a garage last night (trusted friend). He looked at it this morning and says it needs a steering rack, front discs and pads (which I knew) and also the strut top mount assembly has collapsed due to the dealer just over tightening the top nut.

Now I have a 6 month warranty with the car (well it is an alfa) but a limit of £500 on this.

My mechanic believes that I should just call the dealer and tell them that the car is not acceptable and they should fix it. A it doesnt conform to the sale of goods act.

Do you guys have any knowledge of how to deal with the dealer etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Have you already made the dealer aware of the issues with the car ... since picking the car up? If so, have you given them adequate opportunity to resolve the issues... or have they agreed to look at the issues? (Get a record of those conversations also).
If you haven't got round to advising them, then do so soon. IIRC, within 6mths of purchase, it is up to the seller to proove that the goods were adequate at time of sale.... after 6mths, it's the buyers responsibility to proove that the goods were faulty.

Andy.

Scottynic wrote:I bought an alfa romeo

You see, there's your problem right there.

Sorry.

I think you may struggle with them due to time/mileage covered since you bought it.

Dan

I though that you generally had 28 days to report/have repaired faults and after that time they became warrenty issues. Bearing in mind that this is a second hand car, that you've had it for coming up to 5 months and have covered 3000miles it's going to be very hard to prove that it's not fit for the purpose.


2p



Mac

Almost certain that you won't be able to do anything with the brakes due to time/miles and the fact you have been using them obviously...

If you could get your friend to do a report that states the other item was definitely Alfa's fault - for tightening it too tight - then you should be able to get that sorted under warranty and anything that goes over it the dealer should cover as its their fault.

HTH

Although the sale of goods act applies to cars it's a bloody mine field when it comes to taking action. Had an A4 which was back and forth to the garage with a gearbox fault 8 times in 3 months, never got to the bottom of it despite having the whole transmission changed throughout the course. Trading standards agreed that it wasn't fit for purpose but to take the garage to court, to get our money back, would have involved going to the sheriff court due to the amount of money involved, over £2500 IIRC. The court could then take into account the fact that it covered some mileage satisfactorily and find partial favour of the garage which would lump you with costs. In the end cut a deal to trade it back in but still took a big hit on the car.

So IMHO the sale of goods act when it comes to cars is a load of ...................

Good luck anyway.

Your best bet is to talk to the garage. The sale of goods act will come into play, should you need it but you will need to give the garage 3 chances to mend the problems. Your biggest problem could well be the time scale. It's worth persuing, and it is certainly possible to get your money back, deposit, payments, everything. I'm proof of that (see signature!)
Have a look over these websites. They were pretty useful when I was dealing with my car problems. There are several cases on the internet that have set the standards for future cases. Have a look and see what you can expect.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=43

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consume ... e8599.html

http://www.govanlc.com/saleofgoods

Let me know how you get on, and if you need more details about what I did, then pm me. Good Luck.