I have a dispute with a motor dealer over a faulty used vehicle. What can I do?
Miss SH was a single mum of two living in Bristol. In 2019 she decided to treat herself to a new car as her old one was on its last legs. She had always wanted a BMW and had savings put by, so she started the search for her dream car. She found one advertised online that was perfect but slightly over her price range. It was a 2011 BMW X1 2.0 Diesel and looked like it was in good condition. At this time, she was unaware of the historic problems that diesel BMWs were prone to. It is a common fault for oil starvation issues or timing chain failure on BMW 2.0 Diesel vehicles which causes catastrophic damage to the engine which then requires replacement. A replacement engine for this type of vehicle can range from £3000 - £6000 at an independent garage and up to £15000 in a BMW main dealer. She had travelled nearly 100 miles to view the vehicle and the salesman was very convincing, so she agreed to buy it, paid for it in full and drove home with a big smile on her face to show the family her new car.
Approximately 10 weeks later the vehicle developed a fault. There was a loud clunking coming from the rear of the vehicle and warning lights on the dashboard. The vehicle started vibrating badly and she couldn’t drive it any further. She called the dealer and explained the issue and they said there was nothing they could do and recommended she had it recovered to a garage for investigation. She didn’t have breakdown cover in place so paid an independent recovery company to recover it at a cost of £250.
The garage she took it to immediately identified the fault as a failed differential unit (part of the drive train) and explained to her that it was going to be approximately £2000 for them to fix it. Miss SH contacted the company she bought it from to ask how she went about getting the repairs done under the 3-month warranty they had given her. They told her that unfortunately the warranty was only on the engine and gearbox therefore the differential unit wouldn’t be covered. She was devastated, she had spent her entire savings on this vehicle and less than 3 months later was looking at a repair bill of £2000.
Miss SH had suffered with severe anxiety and depression for most of her life. Recently with help from doctors and friends and family she had been able to manage it quite well, but this situation was starting to put her in a ‘Bad Place’ once more. She explained the situation to the vendors who denied any responsibility but offered to help her out (how nice of them!). They said that if she supplied the parts they would pay for the labour as a goodwill gesture. Not knowing her legal rights she agreed to this and after a lot of difficulty searching, she found a second-hand differential on eBay for the sum of £300. She contacted the garage, and they told her to bring the vehicle back to them so they could fit the part for free. She explained that it could not be driven and would need to be recovered to them which would cost approximately £400. They said that wasn’t their problem and refused to assist any further, so she paid a local mobile mechanic to fit it for approximately £400. When she approached them for a contribution towards the cost they refused and told her not to contact them again as the 3-month warranty had now fully expired. She still did not realise at this point that UK law states that any vehicle purchased from a motor dealer, purchase price of £2000 or more is covered by 6 months warranty as standard.
Miss SH was devastated as this extra money she had now paid out and it really had an impact on her finances, affecting her ability to provide for her 2 sons. But she thought, at least she now had her BMW back up and running and hopefully with no more problems. But that was not going to be the case for long.
3 weeks later she was driving the vehicle when she heard a loud knocking noise from the engine, all of the warning lights came up on the dashboard and the vehicle came to a stop. She once again had to get the vehicle recovered to a garage at her own expense and to her horror, they told her that the big-end bearings had failed causing damage to the bottom-end and the only way to repair it was with a replacement engine at a cost of approximately £10,000. She felt like the world had collapsed all around her and her depression immediately took control. She had a panic attack at the garage and had to be collected by her Mum. She was in a very bad place and did not have the energy or ability to deal with this nightmare vehicle anymore.
Shortly after this we received a call from the Mum of Miss SH who explained the situation. We could not believe what we were hearing. This was one of the worst cases of a garage shirking their responsibilities towards a customer that we had ever come across. We assured the Mum that her daughter had an excellent case and that we would almost certainly be able to get the repairs carried out at no cost to her. Furthermore, we were confident that we would also be able to get the money she had paid for the differential repair and the recovery fees refunded also. She was so excited to tell her daughter the good news and we requested Miss SH call us in person to instruct us to act on her behalf on a No Win – No Fee basis. Her Mum called us the following day to inform that unfortunately Miss SH was in such a state of depression that she could not speak to anyone at this time. Also, she had told her Mum that she didn’t believe anyone could help her with this situation. But she gave her Mum the authority to act on her behalf and to deal with us directly.
Motor Claims Helpline specialise in dealing with cases of this nature and when motor dealers are this unhelpful towards customers, we are even more determined to get justice. We immediately instructed Mum to send us all of the information she had which included the sales receipt, costs of repairs she had been forced to pay, and also an entire set of text messages between Miss SH and the vendor which confirmed their refusal to assist and denial of any liability. Another wonderful surprise for us was when we discovered that Miss SH had also partly paid for the vehicle on a credit card. At this point I informed Mum that our chances of success had now gone from 80-90% to 100%! We guaranteed her that we would get justice for her daughter.
We arranged for Miss SH’s BMW X1 to be recovered at no cost to herself to a local engine specialist who confirmed that a replacement engine would be required at a cost of approximately £6000. They carried out removal of the engine and stripped it to ascertain the exact failure which didn’t turn out to be the notorious ‘BMW N47 Timing Chain Failure Issue’. In fact it had suffered oil starvation, but it was due to a previous poor repair that had been undertaken just prior to its purchase by Miss SH. The outcome however was still the same, the engine was totally destroyed and beyond economical repair.
We then contacted the vendor who had sold Miss SH the vehicle and requested that they assist with the cost of repairs. They had already told the Mum that they would not assist as it had passed the 3-month warranty period, but we thought we would try anyway.
We referred to the dealers obligation and the customers legal rights quoting the section 75 consumer credit act 1974 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/75 in relation to credit card purchases, the sale of goods act 1979 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54 , along with distance selling regulations 2000 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/2334/contents/made. The dealer seemed unphased, and insisted they were not liable and that if we proceeded with legal action, they were confident they would win. We had given them the opportunity to assist which was declined so we moved on to our next stage of the case.
Quite often we liaise with Trading Standards and Citizens Advice Bureau on cases such as this. The reason being is that if the case does progress to legal status and Court Proceedings, a Judge will always appreciate that all avenues have been exhausted to try and reach an amicable solution by the claimant. Approaching these authorities proves that we have attempted to resolve things whilst at the same time mitigating the losses of all parties. But with the evidence we had already gathered we knew that this case would be resolved quicker than most and would not require a court hearing.
By this time, we had thankfully convinced Miss SH that she had a very strong case and her Mum had managed to get her to speak with us directly. When we explained how confident we were of a win we could hear the relief in her voice over the phone, and it truly was a very emotional moment, knowing that someone who had been so sad over this whole situation, could now see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Miss SH gave us written authority to deal directly with her credit card company, as due to her anxiety she was not able to cope with potentially stressful situations. We contacted them and furnished the department with all of the evidence gathered including the copies of the text messages. This particular credit card company were actually more accommodating than most, they even had a department that dealt with motor dealers and vehicle issues which made things much easier. They requested we get an additional independent engineers’ inspection and report carried out on the vehicle which we did at no cost to Miss SH and the findings were submitted. The report confirmed the engine failure and the requirement of a replacement engine along with numerous other components such as turbocharger and injectors which made the vehicle beyond economical repair (a total-loss / write-off). It also confirmed that a second-hand differential unit had been recently fitted.
The credit card company who had also been in discussions with the vehicle vendor wasted no time in confirming they were liable for all of the faults on the vehicle, and that Miss SH should not have been forced to pay for any previous repairs or the current ones required. As the repairs required to make the vehicle roadworthy again came to more than the value of the vehicle, they recommended that instead, they refund the entire purchase price to Miss SH which she accepted. They also agreed to reimburse her for the previous repairs and all recovery fees she had paid and gave her a generous amount as compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused. They also covered all the fees incurred by us for pursuing the claim on the customers behalf.
Miss SH and her Mum were so happy with the result that they couldn’t thank us enough. But they had one more request, as now the case was resolved Miss SH had no car and was reluctant to fall into the same trap by buying another dodgy car from an unscrupulous motor dealer. Could we help them? Yes we could, and through our contacts in the motor trade we found her another similar BMW, 3 years younger with fewer miles for nearly the same price she paid for the previous one. And best of all it came with a 12-month warranty. A perfect outcome for a lovely family thanks to Motor Claims Helpline.