Your consumer rights when you buy a vehicle from a dealer
If you bought the vehicle from a dealer, you will have certain rights under consumer law.
A secondhand vehicle must match its description, be fit for its purpose, and be of satisfactory quality. However, the standard for meeting the requirement that the vehicle is of satisfactory quality will be lower because it is secondhand. A secondhand vehicle should be in reasonable condition and work properly. When deciding whether a secondhand vehicle is in reasonable condition it is important to consider the vehicle’s age and make, the past history of the vehicle and how much you paid for it.
If a secondhand vehicle needs more extensive repairs than seemed necessary at the time it was bought, this does not necessarily mean that the vehicle is not of satisfactory quality. A secondhand vehicle can be of satisfactory quality if it is in a useable condition, even if it is not perfect.
If the vehicle develops a problem soon after you bought it, you may have a right to return the vehicle to the dealer and get your money back. This would probably need to be within about three to four weeks at the most of buying the vehicle. The problem would need to be fairly major, and you would need to take into account the age, mileage and price of the vehicle when deciding whether it is reasonable to take it back.
You must stop using the vehicle at once and contact the dealer. If
you traded-in a vehicle, you are entitled to have it returned if it is still available, or to have the full value allowed on it, if it has been disposed of. If you have left it too late to claim a refund, or you don't want one, you may be entitled to ask for a repair or replacement. The fault must have been there when you bought the vehicle. If you do agree for a major fault to be repaired and the repair turns out to be unsatisfactory, it's not too late to ask for your money back.
If the dealer won't agree to put the problem right, you can take legal action up to six years from the date you bought the vehicle (five years in Scotland). However, it is probably unrealistic to take legal action for a fault in a secondhand vehicle, especially an older vehicle, once you have been using it for a reasonable length of time.
If you take the vehicle back within six months of buying it, the dealer should accept that there was a problem when the vehicle was sold and offer to repair or replace it. If the dealer doesn't accept that there was a problem when the vehicle was sold, they will have to prove this.
After six months, it will be up to you to prove that there was a major problem with the vehicle when it was sold. You will have to provide evidence of this so it may help to get an independent report which
could establish the condition of the vehicle when it was sold.
If the dealer agrees to repair the vehicle, the repairs have to be carried out within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you. The dealer must pay the costs of the repairs. If the repair has taken a long time, you may be able to use a service loan car or claim compensation, for example, for the cost of hiring a vehicle. If the dealer refuses to repair the vehicle, you are entitled to get it repaired elsewhere and claim back the cost from the dealer. If the vehicle can't be repaired or replaced or this is considered too expensive, taking into account the type of fault, you may have the right to get some or all of your money back. You will have to negotiate with the dealer to decide on what would be a reasonable amount. In deciding what is reasonable, you will need to take into account how much use you have had out of the vehicle.
