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It seems that every week I read a similar story in Auto Express about a driver who has bought either a new or used car that has turned out to be a complete dog then struggled to get their money back. The fact is that the law is very clear on this point. If you buy faulty goods and a fault is found immediately or within the first 6 months you can return the goods and insist on a full refund. And the supplier must give you a full refund. On the other hand you can give the supplier the opportunity to either repair or replace the goods without losing your right to insist on a refund. In the latest case that Auto Express came to the rescue on a buyer of a new Hyundai i30 found the car starting to judder. The driver gave the dealership the opportunity to repair the fault which they attempted without success. The dealer and Hyundai offered a replacement but couldn’t guarantee that the fault would not exist in the replacement. This was 8 months later! The driver decided that he simply wanted his money back, which he received, after Auto Express stepped in – as a ‘gesture of goodwill.’ A gesture of bloody goodwill! It’s his legal right and he should also be entitled to compensation for the inconvenience. This infuriates me because dealers, supported by the manufacturers, feel they are above the law. It’s a disgrace but I really think that Auto Express should employ the services of a solicitor to bang off a formal letter each time they have a similar case to point out the driver’s legal entitlement and tell them to stick their ‘gestures of goodwill’ where the sun don’t shine. Have you experienced similar problems with a dealer not honouring your legal rights? Here’s a little graphic that I found on a Government website that may explain your rights a little easier than my wording:

By Graham Hill

DVLA figures show that one in ten motorists have points on their licence. The figures have been broken down by age sex and number of points. It also shows that the Government has collected £280 million from the 3.9 million drivers with points on their licence over the last 4 years (the minimum amount of time before points are cleared. That’s out of a total 37 million licence holders. The majority of drivers with points have just 3 points (3.2m). Just under 600,000 have 6 points and 92,000 Read more »

In 2008 there were 14 million sat navs in use in the UK, by now it is assumed that over half of all cars on the UK roads (30 million) now has a driver with a sat nav. According to psychologist Dr Victoria Bourne, writing in Fleet News, research shows that up to 78% of accidents are caused by distractions. The question is – are sat navs more distracting than a mobile phone? A secondary question is – are sat navs less distracting than a paper map? The reason why the safety experts and police are Read more »

I know it’s a subject I talk about a lot but as we run up to Christmas I’m onto drink driving. It was shocking reading for the Government, about to launch their Christmas campaign, that one in four drivers admit to drink driving recently. The survey was carried out on behalf of insurer Quinn Direct but the real shock was that nearly 80% of under 24’s said they had never driven under the influence of alcohol whilst 25% of the over 55’s admitted to driving whilst over the limit. 31% of men admitted to Read more »

I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that there are ways to get hold of dodgy MOT test certificates although since everything is on central computers now I believed that it wasn’t possible to fiddle certificates any longer. Well to prove me wrong a garage owner has been jailed for 6 months for passing 2,500 vehicles without failing a single one. Video evidence was collected against Noor Hussain for presentation at Preston Crown Court. It showed cars going in and out of the test bay in 7 Read more »

Our Government said that they would review some of our health and safety regulations with a view to reduce the ridiculous levels that some regulations have reached making it difficult for companies to function properly. After releasing his report Common Sense, Common Safety, Lord Young has been criticised for ignoring some of the improvements in conditions that health and safety regulations have introduced into the workplace. Whilst it was Lord Young’s intention to reduce bureaucracy Read more »

I was talking to a client recently after he had been to a dealer for a test drive. Whilst there, he was shown a ‘pre-registered’ car that had just 10 miles on the clock and was £3,000 less than the list price. He was interested in the car and asked my advice and as this is quite a common occurrence I thought I would share the facts with readers of my blog. First of all there is no such thing as a pre-registered car with respect to dealers. This was made illegal by Stephen Byers at the time he was Trade & Read more »

I loved the story about those responsible for vehicle fleets attending the recent Fleet Van conference. These people are all responsible for making sure that drivers act lawfully and adhere to all areas of vehicle, driver and employee legislation. But whilst they were listening to the speakers, ATS Euromaster had nipped out to the car park with their tread gauges and checked all the vehicles. The attendees were then confronted by the fact that 9% of the vehicles were given Red Tyre warnings. This Read more »

It would seem that magistrates have gone soft, as a result of the recession, if you have accidentally reached the automatic driving ban of 12 points on your licence. Some say this is wrong and that the ban should be automatically imposed, especially in extreme cases like the driver who was allowed to keep his licence even after he amassed 54 Read more »

Graham Hill’s new book, Graham Hill’s Simple Guide To Car Finance, get’s released through Press Box. Follow the link below:

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Financial/INAPPROPRIATE_CAR_FINANCE_IS_COSTING_MILLIONS_EVERY_YEAR_547708.html