Update on my car

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:36 pm

Just an update: it turns out my car is an mot failure so I'm in the process of (trying) to get a refund.

I will let you know if I have any luck ...

That is all. Transmission out.

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:42 pm

What did it fail on?

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:47 pm

Kitch wrote:What did it fail on?

Rust and some bad welding on the underside.

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:56 pm

Ah well, good luck with the refund.

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:05 pm

Hoping I'm successful, I can't afford to fix the car so I either get a refund or I'm stuck with it, then I'll probably have to scrap it which I really don't want to do as you can imagine

I will post what happens, case has now been open for a day or so ...

Hurricane · Post by **Hurricane** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:40 pm

Tourist wrote:Hoping I'm successful, I can't afford to fix the car so I either get a refund or I'm stuck with it, then I'll probably have to scrap it which I really don't want to do as you can imagine I will post what happens, case has now been open for a day or so ...

To be fair I would be absolutely fuming if I were in your position finding all these problems but then again, I'd have to step back and think, ''well I had the opportunity to check before I bought it, why didn't I discover these things?''.

We checked our Hurricane over on 2 occasions as much as we possibly could and took it for a test drive before we bought it, about 3 miles up the road and back. I don't think you will find many BX's for sale now that haven't got something wrong with them, even if it's minor and ours is no different.

Thankfully it is about 6 small problems with the Hurricane which will easily be fixed in the garage soon, it's perfectly driveable though and hasn't put a foot wrong since we bought it. It's turned out a belting car overall condition and running wise.

It's a shame yours hasn't turned out well, on the eBay listing it looked a sound car.

Good luck Tourist with the re-fund.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:50 pm

As much as it's a complete bummer that you bought a car with lots of faults, given that it was a private sale there's not a hope in hell you'll get any money back. There's no comeback like "not fit for purpose" or sale of goods act etc. Buyer beware, and that's it.

You could have bought the car and it fell into a thousand pieces 20 yds down the road... Guess what? Your problem.

An expensive lesson to learn, but let's face it, you won't do that again will you?

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:52 pm

Eh? Have I missed something? The original eBay advert says it has 12 months MOT - was this not true? Or did you take it for a retest as a quick cheap way of carrying out a safety check?
Either way, if it doesn't have 12 months MOT it is not as described, and if it does, and subsequently is not capable of passing an MOT due to corrosion, action can be taken against the test station issuing the MOT. Have a look here for more info.

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:58 pm

Hurricane wrote:Good luck Tourist with the re-fund.

Thanks

I didn't want to take action, I would have been happy with a partial cash refund but the seller is determined to bat me away so I'm trying for a refund on the grounds that this car has pretty much had it. Given money it would make a good project car but I bid on this one because I thought, and was told that it actually worked!

I can live with and would expect to find small problems with any BX but this car has some very serious, very expensive repairs needed to make it sound.

On the grounds that this car is an mot fail ... he's having it back!

Edit: thank you for the link, I'll look into it. FYI the car did have 12 moths mot but I had it re-tested and it's a fail. Thanks again.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:00 pm

My understanding is that once a car has been mot'd, if within 3 months of having been passed & it gets mot'd again & fails, the original mot'er is responsible for fixing the vehicle free of charge in order to pass its new mot.

Tourist, as above, did it actually come with 12mths mot or was that a slip up by the seller?

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:09 pm

Tourist wrote:Rust and some bad welding on the underside.

The problem with faults like these is that they are very subjective. The MOT book says something like "under firm thumb pressure". Some testers do just that, and pass something that another garage would poke holes in with a screwdriver and then fail.

Mulley wrote:My understanding is that once a car has been mot'd, if within 3 months of having been passed & it gets mot'd again & fails, the original mot'er is responsible for fixing the vehicle free of charge in order to pass its new mot.

Sorry, that's completely wrong.

There is some comeback within the first 28 days after an MOT, or 3 months for corrosion issues, whereby you can have the vehicle inspected by VOSA, and they will make a judgement as to whether the MOT test was valid, but you have to bear in mind that the day after the MOT, all the bulbs in the car could fail, the wipers could pack up, the horn could fall off, the windscreen could be hit with a brick, the tyres could all be changed for bald ones, a "marginal" corrosion problem could be massively worse due to salt on the road, and the exhaust could fall off.

The MOT test is a judgement of the car's condition at that time only.

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:14 pm

Seeing as I bought the car with a full mot, and it is not road-worthy, I want to use the fail against the seller in the hope of getting a refund, do you think this is possible? Bear in mind I got the car on eBay, I also have records of all communication sent and received via email if I need to use it.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:55 pm

As I've mentioned above, the MOT is based on the condition of the car when presented, and nothing else. It even says on the certificate that you should not rely on an MOT test certificate as proof that the car is in good condition.

The fact that it's failed one now is neither here nor there.

You can try to get your money back, but I suspect you're wasting your time. Even if you took the seller to small claims court, the Judge could never find in your favour, as it's a private (and hence unregulated) sale. You've absolutely no-one to blame but yourself.

What you should have done was taken someone who knows what they're doing along with you when you went to get the car to look over it and see if it was worth it. If not you could have simply walked away. Despite the fact that I regularly buy cars unseen, I wouldn't recommend anyone else do it unless they're completely confident they know what they are buying. Also, I don't spend over £500 on a car. Hell, I rarely spend over £100 on a car.

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:11 pm

I will still aim for a refund, if I can't get one then I'm screwed ... what would you say is the best plan of action failing a refund?

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:17 pm

Doc and his trench compactor?

Go to CAB? Contact the MOT station that passed it? I'm not sure what you can do TBH, but try everything you can think of within the law. And when that fails... well it's up to you!