If you'd bought a second hand car

[SendARavenToRiverRun]

.. on finance from a well known and huge car dealership and said car was found to have multiple problems with the brakes/ handbrake. (Approx £600 of work). I've had to take two days off of work unpaid and spend money on taxis and buses to sort it.
The dealership are fixing it (within the 28 days guarantee). They're fixing it free of charge but I would really appreciate some compensation for loss of earnings. A curtesy car hasn't been offered and it's generally made life really awkward.
Am I unreasonable? Or would you just accept it being fixed.
Just for added info we traded our old car in and did a part- ex. New car didn't have any for sale signs in it. Nor was it displayed with the other cars. It was magically found upon discussion of finance. I believe it had just come in and hadn't been checked properly. We only found out about the brakes when we took it to our local garage for a brakes for life swap over.
What would you do? Tia :)

@B1indEye
Again very true. I just don't often trust my judgement. Definitely no placards 😆. Sorry if I seemed arsey

The MOT Inspector is a thing as I have family who work in the car repair business. It doesn't matter when the MOT was issued, the car was unroadworthy and dangerous. A mechanic cousin of mine purchased a car for his daughter from a well known dealership, drove it home, inspected it and found faults which made it unfit to drive. He reported it to the MOT Inspector who paid a visit to the dealership. A car should be thoroughly inspected prior to sale.

@Tryingtokeepgoing the dealership has agreed to withes Halfords findings. We've genuinely never had issue with Halfords. The guys at our local one are spot on.
I'm just really annoyed. Feels like the cherry on top of a rubbish few weeks.

The OP says the car was MOT’d in June, there’s no recourse now with the tester on worn brakes.

You can report on the DVLA website under MOT test centre. Your car should not have been sold to you without being thoroughly checked. The date of the MOT is irrelevant.
You can also report the matter to Trading Standards as the car sold to you was unroadworthy and therefore unfit for purpose (Sale of Goods Act.)

It’s still nothing to do with the MOT though, there’s nothing to report there. It’s an offence to sell an unroadworthy car but an 8 month old MOT wouldn’t form part of that. The legislation is CRA 2015, Sale of Goods Act was replaced 10 years ago.

It sounds like maybe there's a semantic confusion, I think people are thinking an MOT inspector is solely for the conduct of annual tests rather than someone who has a more wide ranging role which makes sense if the job is to make sure unroadworthy cars aren't being sold

I hadn't heard of that before now

The Law

The Road Traffic Act 1988 and The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 make it an offence to sell or supply; offer to sell or supply; or expose for sale or supply an unroadworthy or dangerous motor vehicle.

Any service or repair made to a motor vehicle must not leave it in an unroadworthy condition; if the vehicle is returned to the customer with a major defect then potentially you will be ‘supplying’ an unroadworthy vehicle.

In determining whether a motor vehicle is roadworthy and safe, various aspects of its construction, including the following, should be considered:
Steering and steering gear
Brakes and braking systems
Tyres
Exhaust systems
Seatbelts and seatbelt anchorages
General condition (corrosion, suspension etc)
Lighting equipment and reflectors
A motor vehicle may also be classed as being unroadworthy if its condition when used on the road could endanger the driver, passengers, other road users or pedestrians.

There are also regulations that set out construction requirements for various components such as brakes, steering, gears, tyres, vehicle construction, weight and equipment of the vehicle. If a motor vehicle fails to meet these requirements it may also be considered unroadworthy.

Finally, recording the fact that the customer was informed will also assist in defending any allegations of negligence should the customer be involved in an accident as a result of the defect.

Yep. So what recourse do you think there is against an MOT tester who tested it 8 months ago?

Yes they are, you're right.

For info.

The Law

The Road Traffic Act 1988 and The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 make it an offence to sell or supply; offer to sell or supply; or expose for sale or supply an unroadworthy or dangerous motor vehicle.

Any service or repair made to a motor vehicle must not leave it in an unroadworthy condition; if the vehicle is returned to the customer with a major defect then potentially you will be ‘supplying’ an unroadworthy vehicle.

In determining whether a motor vehicle is roadworthy and safe, various aspects of its construction, including the following, should be considered:
Steering and steering gear
Brakes and braking systems
Tyres
Exhaust systems
Seatbelts and seatbelt anchorages
General condition (corrosion, suspension etc)
Lighting equipment and reflectors
A motor vehicle may also be classed as being unroadworthy if its condition when used on the road could endanger the driver, passengers, other road users or pedestrians.

There are also regulations that set out construction requirements for various components such as brakes, steering, gears, tyres, vehicle construction, weight and equipment of the vehicle. If a motor vehicle fails to meet these requirements it may also be considered unroadworthy.

Finally, recording the fact that the customer was informed will also assist in defending any allegations of negligence should the customer be involved in an accident as a result of the defect.

The recourse is against the garage that sold it not necessarily the MOT centre. The MOT inspector would investigate BOTH.

Would make zero difference. As the mot was months ago.
It would have been fine at the time of testing , having said that never buy a car with so little mot left. They could have it re MOT b4 sale.
I know that don't help now. But there's nothing VOSA / DVSA will do 9 months down the line

But also the garage are dealing with it.
The op I think is more annoyed at loss or earnings/ taxi fares etc. Sadly nothing can be done about that I doubt.
But the dealership have now done what they have to do.
OP may be worth getting an MOT done on it now. You don't have to wait until June when it expires.

The OP could try and report the garage to DVSA for selling an unroadworthy car but that’s about it. I doubt they’d be particularly interested in a single report and would probably want evidence up to and including inspecting the vehicle in its pre-repaired state.

We assumed the car would have been checked somewhere along the line

Assume makes and ass of u and me, as an American colleague once told me!

You need to look back at the paperwork you signed when you bought the car, does it list what work and safety checks had been done to make the car ready for sale? Has it been given a full service, or just valeted?

You need to know and understand what was agreed before you complain.
Same with the warranty, which is usually provided by an independent finance company. What's in the agreement? Does it include a courtesy car or not? If not they are not obliged to provide one.

Were the brakes actually faulty and dangerous or were the pads just worn? There is an important difference. Our concession garage always say our brake pads need replacing when they service my car, even though there is plenty of wear for the amount of driving I do.

You will need to check your rights, and go to the garage with a specific list of demands or you will get nothing. I have to say I think it's unlikely they will give you a payout, but you might get something like a free valeting or a paintwork protection treatment.

The law says that if you buy a car that is faulty then you can return that car within a 30 day period and request your money back. This was on watch dog just a week or two ago.
30days to 6 months then they have a duty to repair it.
have a google for your rights.
edited due to typo

Don’t know how to link the page but this is what you should read

.

For everyone reading this going forward. A million years ago I bought a car from a garage that claimed it did a 120 point test on any vehicle sold though them. They lied. I ended up returning the car and they upgraded the car to stop me reporting them.

Every since then I have always paid £200 for AA to inspect any vehicle I am buying from a dealership. This paid off recently when I had to reject a car less than 3 years old with less than 20,000 mile on it with a seemingly unfixable fault. They tried, the car even went to the manufacturer garage and even they couldn't fix it. I therefore returned the car and got a full refund because although I had noticed this fault on the test drive and informed them; I had the AA paperwork to prove they too noticed this fault when they did the test drive.

I am not a mechanic and I don't trust anyone. So now I pay for an AA full vehicle check, the garage knows it is is happening so they can try to fix any issue they may well know about. Best £200 I spend.

I am sorry this has happened to you OP.

Thanks all.

Maybe I am an ass for assuming the car would be in a drivable condition. Feel a bit kicked while I'm down though.

Thanks for all the legal links etc.
Tbh I just want the car fixed and to be reimbursed for lost earnings due to their mistakes.

We get what you want OP, we're trying to point out the difference between that and what you're entitled to.

There's lots of good advice for you here, but you don't seem to be taking it on board, which is a pity.

It’s good the Dealer agreed, but with an trustpilot rating of 3.2 I’d always avoid Halfords. They’ve got a terrible reputation!

We had similar issue with arnold clark, car was not even 48hours old when it broke down with me being stuck on a rural rode with DC's. I was assured it was all checked before we collected but clearly not, I ended up with a good week off work as no car in the meanwhile. When buying the car customer service was second to none, after the paper work was signed all that went out the window. Horrible experience and i'd never use them again! Hope you get it all sorted soon OP

Thanks all.
Lots of good advice. I'm taking it all on board. I've taken screen shots and had a google. It's easier now I know what I'm looking for.
I am very appreciative of peoples knowledge and advice.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Like I said this is just the cherry on top of a rubbish few weeks. Maybe we weren't in the ball. But we live and learn.