Dodgy Lawyers Show Car Dealers How To Defraud Consumers

Thursday, 19. November 2015

In another expose of dodgy advice being given to car dealers by crooked lawyers in order to avoid customers exercising their rights under the new Consumer Rights Act 2015, in particular the customer’s right to return the car within the first 30 days, they are recommending that dealers carry out a new car style pre-delivery inspection (PDI).

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The lawyers suggest that the dealers check everything per a standard check list and provide the customer with a copy so that if the customer returns with a fault on the car the dealer can refer to his PDI and suggest that the fault didn’t pre-exist. This is wrong because many faults with cars are what I refer to as ‘the final straw syndrome’.

A badly stressed part inside a gearbox, as a result of poor manufacture, may appear to be sound during a test but give the car some welly and that could be the final straw. If this happens and the part shatters within a few days or weeks of taking delivery of the car the customer has every right to return the car and ask for his money back.

It is wrong to suggest to a car dealer that provided the gearbox was performing fine during the PDI that the fault developed post delivery. And it doesn’t stop there. These lawyers, in an attempt to stop cars from being legitimately returned, have now suggested that dealers take a video of the car before it is collected to show customers that say a burn mark in the seat that wasn’t noticed at the time of purchase was clearly showing in the video so the return of the car is rejected.

They even go so far as to say that if the car is being returned for a full refund that the reason should be substantial and not minor. In fact the law states that you can return the car for a full refund for ANY fault, not just a serious fault. Let’s say a few days after taking delivery of your car you find that the rear wiper on your hatchback doesn’t clear the dirt from the screen.

Even though this could probably be resolved by changing the wiper blade you still have the right to reject the car and ask for a full refund. Now I may not agree with this but it’s the law. I noticed one lawyer, whilst advising car dealers, said that drivers had no right to return a car if the fault is ‘relatively minor’. This simply isn’t true. Also for the sake of clarity a car can be returned within 30 days of taking delivery of the car and the customer is entitled to a full refund, even if he has added a further 5,000 miles to the speedo.

However, between 30 days and 6 months you can still reject the car but only after the dealer has been given one opportunity to fix the fault. If it is still faulty, and not necessarily with the same fault, the car can be rejected and a full refund claimed less an amount considered reasonable for the use of the car for the period concerned.

This isn’t the cost of hiring a car for that period and it isn’t the difference between what was paid for the car by the customer and the current trade value. If necessary the court will decide what that amount should be. By Graham Hill