Brooke

BUY AT YOUR OWN PERIL

I purchased a Vauxhall Insignia from these cowboys last week via distance sale, the car was advertised as great condition. They delivered the car to me last week and within an hour I had emailed them photos of smashed door cards only to be told that that was common damage, they did reluctantly agree to send me new door cards after initially refusing. I then found further undisclosed damage to the body work and the paint was all flaking off the rear Alloys so I started a complaint with the finance company. Over the weekend the EML came on and the brakes were squeaky so I took it to Kwik Fit to be checked and have a diagnostic, they told me the car had a faulty NOX sensor, the front discs were perished (but had new pads, work that one out), and the rear wheel bearing had play, rang the dealer from the garage and he said that Kwik Fit were incompetent and that there was nothing wrong with the car and he would not pay for any repairs. The dealer told Kwik Fit to delete the sensor so that the error code wouldn't come up again, which the garage obviously refused to do. The dealer then denied saying this to the finance company, luckily all of my phone calls are recorded. So a couple of days later I took the car to a local reputable independent garage who checked over the car, and again ran a diagnostic and said the same thing, the front discs are perished and there is a faulty NOX sensor (£1000 worth of work). The dealer then offered to collect the car, leave me a hire car, look at the parts that had been reported as faulty, and then return the car to me. Who would trust a dealer to complete repairs who has already had a false MOT put on the car, denied that anything is wrong with the car and told a garage to delete a sensor? Furthermore, driving long distance on perished front discs would cause further damage to the vehicle. So I declined. I relayed this information back to the finance company who agreed I could reject the car under the 30 day fault part of the consumer act 2015, but the dealer wanted to keep the delivery fee (£250) and charge me £1 a mile for every mile I've driven in the car and for me to return it to the dealership over 200 miles away (with faulty brakes?!). This is totally illegal. Luckily I know my rights and won't be gaslighted or bullied in to accepting any cost due to being sold a faulty car. The dealer has now accepted he can't charge me the £1 a mile and has to return the delivery fee, but still wants me to return the vehicle at my cost. So it will be sat on my drive for the next 8 weeks (maybe longer) until the dealer and the finance company accept their legal obligation to collect the car and give me a full refund. I've owned a lot of cars bought from a lot of different garages and I have NEVER had such a terrible experience. The dealer has no customer care at all, once they've got your money that's it, and they seem to either be incompetent when it comes to motor law, or they are bullies who think it's OK to sell dodgey cars. The car had a fresh MOT so that garage has been reported to VOSA, and Carscene has been reported to Trading Standards, Autotrader, and anyone else who I can find that accepts complaints about dodgey businesses.