Second hand vehicle, feeling majorly ripped off!

[DoughnutDayDreamer]

Looking for some advice..

Brought a second hand vehicle in December (4 years old). Went over 200 miles to collect it. Noticed on the way back something wasn't quite right. Was under warranty, so took to garage. Thinking it was probably something simple. Was serviced by the dealer before I collected it.

Garage couldn't diagnose. Advice was to take to main dealer garage for full diagnosis. Spoke to dealer vehicle was brought from. He confirmed and said to speak to warranty company.

Main dealer garage found a number of major issues. Minimum £4,000 worth of work needed. Potentially entire new engine.

Spoke to dealer. Who confirmed over the phone (and via follow up email). They were aware of oil leak when they sold it to me. (😧) They weren't happy but confirmed I could return for a refund, as was within 30 days of purchase.

I took vehicle back, 200+ miles.

Dealer gave refund, minus £1.00 per mile driven. I only drove home, to the 2 garages & back to him.

If you've got this far, thank you. My question, I feel it's very unfair that im so out of pocket.
Milage charge + (£500)
£150 for diagnostics +
£100 each way on the train +
Fuel for both journeys.

If he'd told me the vehicle had an oil leak, I wouldn't have brought it. I'm wondering whether there's a governing body? Trading standards? Small claims court? Or something I can do to re-claim some of these costs. I don't want to do something that might cost me more money, but I'm so out of pocket and it all feels very unfair.

Also he didn't make me aware of the Milage charge until I was there and basically just transferred to me what I paid, minus this "fee".

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Sorry I have no knowledge in this field but that sounds outrageous. I would try citizens advice consumer line

Small claims? I think the mileage fee is really bloody cheeky!

I kind of get the mileage fee as otherwise people could treat them as free hire cars if you can return for any reason as you often can. Main dealers also quite often over diagnose- I stopped using ours when they told me they’d have to strip out the entire engine to fix a leak in some hard to get to pipe and it would cost upwards of 800- took it somewhere else who fixed it for 125- obvious hole in air con hose.

But selling the car knowing it had a fault- not ok unless flagged.

You should get a full refund for everything other than your train costs.

HMRC milage rate (reimbursed rate for business milage) is 45p a mile. £1.00 is very steep.

I've spoken to the motor ombudsman who said milage rates should be 14-22p per mile.

Surely, he could've had the leak fixed by his mechanic. It feels very unfair that I'm out of pocket and he's made money on a vehicle that shouldn't have been sold it the state it was it.

Ah yeah- fair point on the cost per mile. I guess they are trying to make it prohibitive but even so. Yes I agree with you on fixing the oil leak. He deffo should have done that. My point re the dealer’s list of issues was that it’s likely overcooked because they literally list any tiny thing to get the car back “as new” so I wouldn’t necessarily take that as a reasonable list of faults.