My fiancée purchased a used 2017 car approximately a month ago from a nearby dealership after viewing a listing on Autotrader and seeing reviews of the dealership. We visited, test drove and decided to get the car. This cost approximately £5699. We paid in full, signed all the legal docs including AA warranty cover and the sort. Because of the AA warranty cover, the MOT was less than 6 months which the dealership got sorted the following Thursday which passed with 2 advisories. Was assured the car was in top condition with fair mileage and showed no signs of aging, drove with no problems and was genuinely a nice car which he was so chuffed about getting after driving smaller cars for so long.
They deliver the vehicle on the Friday, no problem. Longest trip we had in it was about 40 minutes tops, wasn't really driven much over the weekend. He booked it into a local garage to be serviced for the Monday which he took it to, then received a call citing £2k worth of damages to the car including a (and I quote from the actual list) disintegrated flexi pipe, a bulge in the passenger front tire sidewall, a faulty turbo and a cracked coolant container. The dealership denied these were problems until the garage gave an itemised list of problems and their quote to which the dealership then agreed to take the car back and fix and offered a courtesy car. A week later, car is returned which their stated everything was repaired and there will be no further problems.
During that same weekend (probably only a few days later) we were driving and the car started jumping which massive puffs of smoke coming out the exhaust after about 30 minutes of driving and then the car threw up a load of lights, to which we stopped and got the code reader out and viewed them all once we got to our destination 15 minutes later. I cannot remember the exact codes, but one of the cited the o2 sensor and 2 other ones there popped up too. Begrudgingly we take it to another garage as the previous one couldn't fit us in quickly, which they call back and gave us another £2.5k repair bill for a broken turbo that needed replacing (despite being new) which was being held on by zip ties. The pipes were installed in correctly and needed completely redoing, as well as some other work that needed doing that had already allegedly been done.
My fiancée then again contacted the dealership asking for either a partial refund to cover the cost of this repair, or a full refund and return of the vehicle. Initially they seemed keen to get the ball rolling after a few calls and emails, but every time he asked about the refund process they just said 'I don't know' or 'It needs to get put into a whatsapp group first' and 'we'll contact you about it soon' then never do. They have since been ghosting, blocking calls and social media as well as ignoring emails and voicemails. My fiancée knows consumer rights thanks to his job role, so he is aware of his duty.
So as of current, we're looking at:
- Sale of a faulty vehicle
- A potential dodgy MOT
- Lack of commitment to work being completed
This timeline spans over about a month (and then some now thanks to the delays and waiting).
What do I suggest my fiancée do from here? He seems apprehensive to go small claims as this amount of money placed on a faulty car he believes should be returned in full, but with the dealership not willing to refund the money I feel there is really no other option.
Happy to try and answer any questions as I can, I just really want the best possible solution for him.