refund

[gerkin]

If you buy a brand new car and it goes wrong within a couple of months, is it possible to give the car back and demand a full refund.

[smptrds]

If you can prove that the car was not fit for it's purpose, I think you can either demand a full refund or supply of another car as future work carried out on this one will NOT be NEW but reconditioned. Contact the C.A.B. or Trading Standards dept.

Has this garage made any attempt to put it right? If the car goes in for repairs, demand another and don't make them put the insurance cover on your policy.

[JudgeJ]

In theory � yes. Under the Sale of Goods Act products must be of merchantable quality, free from defects, fit for purpose, as described, etc etc. Under this act customers have the right, within a reasonable time, to reject goods which they feel do not meet the standard they expect. Note that �reasonable time� and �the standard they expect� are not defined. In the final reckoning it would be for a court to decide what reasonable interpretation should be put on these terms, according to the product concerned.

So, if you buy a toaster, and it does not pop-up your toast as you expected it to, you are entitled to reject it and obtain a full refund from the supplier. This is also the case with cars. However, whilst you will probably have no problem doing this with the toaster, it is a different story with a car. Dealers will always try to persuade you to let them repair the defect. Most people agree to this because they do not want to go through the hassle of ordering another car, waiting for it to be delivered and so on. Problems arise, however, if you allow them to do this (i.e. you do not reject the car outright at the beginning). You then lay yourself open to being accused of �accepting� the product by virtue of allowing it to be repaired. Time, of course, passes whilst all this is going on, and then you get into the �within reasonable time� argument. The difference in complexity (and value) between a car and a toaster is such that the car manufacturers are far more likely to defend their corner to avoid having vehicles rejected because, say, the courtesy light does not work.

In practice unless you reject the car before you drive it off the dealer�s forecourt, you face a long haul to obtain a full refund.

[jake-the-peg]

In the US they have so called "Lemon laws". They vary from state to state but basically if you buy a new car and it goes wrong more than x times or spend more than y days being repaired you can get redress.

Unfortunately over here it's a lot tougher, as others say you'd have to prove "not fit for purpose"

[rugeleyboy]

possibly not the answer you are looking for but....

a customer of mine had a brand new BMW X5, this car went back to bmw quite a few times, and each time it did they fixed it,he was a bit annoyed but in the end, he was never out of pocket due to courtesy cars and them collecting and delivering and times suited to him!!

after 12 months BMW rang him and stated that they were going to replace his car when the new reg came out, like for like with a brand new one again...at no charge!!

they told him, they would iron out the problems with his,and sell it on the second hand market and because they were holding there value,they dont expect to loose a lot!!

you cant fault BMW for that can you!!

[pilchard]

I had a similar experience. I brought the new shape Seat Ibiza in September 2002 (52 reg), after 6 months of owning the car i had many problems and the car was constantly in the garage. They managed to fix all the problems except one, which kept re-occuring. After i complained and they accepted that they couldn't fix the fault they agreed to replace the car. By this time i had run up 20k miles on the clock and was handed a March 04 plate, so i was happy with the outcome.