Dodgy Motor

[crgb14]

Too late to do anything now but its been in my head today.

A few years ago I bought a used W reg Saxo VTR from a guy that was registered as a trader with Autotrader. He was renting a house next to a farm in Heywood at the time and claimed to be selling the car for his dad that was away. The guy was probably around 35 at the time.

Anyway, I was really happy with the car until the drive shaft popped around a month later. Then after that was replaced the next one went shortly afterwards. This went on and on and �2000 in repairs later after having it put on a jig to straighten the chassis (yes it had been in a bump) the car still wasn't right.

The guy didn't want to know, trading standards didn't want to know and I was stuck trading it in for a 307 and taking a big hit.

Could I have gone further with this???

[stanleyman]

The car was not fit for purpose and you should have sued him in the County Court and complained to Auto Trader... or set light to it next to his premises!

[erimus1]

Law has changed now stanley man - its not fit for it spurpose anymore, its fit for all its purposes - due to advent of seconhand sales of items - items may still be fit for one of its purposes, but not all.

As a rule of thumb, a registered trader has a legal obligation to let the prospective purchaser know about any previous damage or financial incumbrances on the vehicle, but private sellers are only under this obligation if they are asked if there is any by the prospective purchaser.

I do know that trading standards do like to get involved if a substandard car is sold and it subsequently causes an accident.

I take it you can't find this guy now anyway?? - Just take it as a lesson learned and bite the bullet.

[erimus1]

PS, if you wanted to make a cliam off anyone, I would probably go for the garage that did the original repair - for failing to notice the damage initially!