Askcab   

Home ,    Child Trust Fund ,    Sports Clubs ,    Time Out ,    News Archive ,    Freedom of Information ,    Did you know ,    Grants/Charities ,    Consumer ,    Buying a car?    ,   Buying Abroad    ,   Utilities    ,   E-shopping    ,   Complaints    ,   Shopping Rights    ,   websites    ,   Can I Complain?    Youth News ,    Education ,    Health ,    Getting around ,    Immigration ,    Relationships ,    Housing ,    Employment ,    Why Vote ,    Noticeboard ,    Links Page ,    GM Foods ,    How Sorted R U? ,    R U Sorted? Quiz ,    Problem Page ,    Police ,    Benefits ,   

Buying a Car?

So you’re seventeen
passed your test and
you’ve got the money to buy a car

Yeah Brilliant!

Now where should you buy it

From a dealer, the car stupid, not………….
At an auction, now there’s funky or what
The bloke advertising in the paper

Well you could try any of these to buy your car but what can you do if something goes wrong?
No, don’t say it won’t because it can and it will no matter whether you’ve bought a Roller or a Yugo.

OK, if you buy from a dealer you are probably going to be paying more for a second hand car than if you bought at an auction or from an advert in the paper but you're also buying more rights and security if there’s a problem.

So what can I do if things do go wrong?

Firstly go back to the dealer as soon as possible and point out the problem and ask them to put it right because you will have rights under the Sale of Goods Act. It is much more difficult to get things put right the older and cheaper the car is especially as the courts have said that if you buy a second-hand car you must expect faults to develop ‘sooner or later’. If you return the goods in the first six months special rules apply when they will have to show that they didn’t know there was a problem whereas after six months you will have to prove that they knew there was a problem.

If you buy at an auction you still have rights but it’s much more difficult to enforce them and your ability to so do will depend on who the seller was, because the auctioneer is usually not the seller only the sellers agent.

Finally, that ad in the paper. Was it a private sale or was it a dealer acting as a private seller? If it was a private seller then you have very few rights unless the car is unroadworthy when you can make a complaint to either the police or trading standards read this real case to see what can go wrong and what you can do to resolve the issue. go here

The things to bear in mind no matter where you buy a car from are

• an MOT is no guarantee that the car is in good condition


• be wary about someone wanting to bring the car to you and only having a mobile number


• check that the person who is selling the car actually owns it and doesn’t owe any finance and that it hasn’t been written off. There are several companies that do this and charge according to the level of service you want about £30


• think about getting the car checked by one of the motoring organisations spending a hundred pounds or so could save you from buying a real dud

Disclaimer,   Target Audience,   Jurisdiction    Last updated & checked: 04/04/2007