Rejecting a car within 30 days

[Cantbleedingcope]

I really need some help

I bought a car just under 30 days ago. This week it has been in the garage. It has quite a few repairs required - PCV valve, rocker gasket cover , injectors - all things I do not understand but I know they need to be done. Basically £1000s of repairs. I also think the automatic gearbox is knackered because it jerks when I put it into reverse

Anyway - contacted the garage, via email, stating that I wish to reject the vehicle as faulty/not fit for purpose and that I do not consent to repairs on it. Honestly I’d just rather have a refund and start again

On a further note - also had to have all 4 tyres changed in the first week as 2 were warped, one was under the legal limit and one had severe damage to the side wall. It had had an MOT the week previously, done by the garage so now I also think that was dodgy as either one of these tyres should have been an MOT failure.

Garage have stated they would like an inspection done on it, by their independent inspector which would take 2 weeks. To add to this, they also want me to return the car to them which is about 100 miles away, and about 3 hours worth of train changes to get back home. All in all a complete nightmare.

I can’t be without a car for 2 weeks. Do I have a right to refuse this inspection? I can’t find any information online about refusal of this when you’ve had the car under 30 days, only reference to this is after youve had it for 30 days. And also on a further note, I’m guessing they can refuse to refund? I have no trust at all in their ‘independent assessor’ when the MOT doesn’t seem straight either

i also can’t afford to buy a car to use in the meantime!

MOT ISSUE: If you go online you can see who completed the last MOT. If it was them, you can mention that the tyre issue alone is worth reporting to the DVSA and encourage them to do an investigation. I would try and get the garage to change the tyres to send you an email confirming the state of them and the fact that they would not have passed an MOT in that condition 7 days prior.

I wasnt sure about the rest, but i was curious, so i asked chatgpt:

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015:

You have an absolute right to reject a faulty vehicle within the first 30 days of delivery and get a full refund

The fault must make the car not of satisfactory quality, not fit for purpose, or not as described — all of which seem clearly applicable here

You do not have to accept a repair or inspection if you're within the 30-day window

What You Should Do Now

1. Reassert Rejection in Writing Reply firmly by email (or post) stating:

> "Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, I am exercising my short-term right to reject this vehicle, as it is not of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose. The rejection is being made within 30 days of delivery. I do not consent to repairs or independent inspections, and I am requesting a full refund within 14 days."

1. Do Not Allow Delays The garage’s demand for a 2-week inspection is a delay tactic. You are under no obligation to let them stretch the process past the 30-day window.

1. Document Everything

Save emails, repair quotes, tyre evidence, and MOT certificate

Take photos of defects or invoices (e.g. for tyres)

Record mileage at time of sale vs now

1. Mention the MOT Concerns Include that the MOT may have been fraudulent (dangerous tyres passed), and you may report this to the DVSA.

🚗 Returning the Car

You are expected to return the car if rejecting it — but the dealer must not make it unreasonably difficult.

If they insist you bring it 100 miles back yourself:

Ask them to arrange collection at their cost

Alternatively, keep proof of all travel expenses if you arrange transport

🏛️ If They Refuse to Refund

You can escalate via:

Section 75 Claim if you paid any part by credit card

Chargeback (for debit cards, within 120 days)

Small Claims Court — the Consumer Rights Act supports your position

Thanks! I’ve gone back with a few things and mainly that they are stretching out the period. Wanting 14 days to inspect then 14 days to issue a refund IF it’s deemed to have the fault is beyond a joke

They have already threatened solicitors - so I’ve informed them that we do have legal cover. Which we do - up to £100k worth so I’ll be consulting a solicitor on Monday as a matter of course for just in case

Ive also gone back and mentioned again about the MOT check - it has been done by an actual company. But on a further note they also passed it with a cracked headlight mount - and I can definitely confirm this as the garage posted me a headlight the following week which I had fitted. I’ve informed them it’s overall fraudulent.

The cracked headlight mount was something we noticed upon purchase prior to the MOT

I believe you can reject within 30 days for any reason. It doesn't have to have a proven fault.

Research it.

Tell them you are happy for them to inspect what they like but you are rejecting the car now and not waiting for any inspection results.

I think unfortunately you'll need to return it to them.

This is what I thought - and I have said I am happy to drive the car back to them for refund. They are wanting to inspect claiming my garage aren’t qualified to deem it faulty. My garage have washed their hands of it and said it requires a specialist, that’s how bad it is.

The garage is really chancing it by being awkward delaying the refund as far as they can, probably in the hope that I will give up

The thing is, I have access to another car I can use occasionally (thank god for elderly mothers who hardly use their cars!) so can deal with the inconvenience a little. And I’m off work for about ten days beginning of August, have loads of annual leave I was planning on taking with the kids anyway, so I don’t think they realise I’m at the point that I can and will push this.

I’ve sent him an email as a final email addressing all the points, that I can report the MOT as fraudulent, and that the consumer rights are on my side, not his, and asked him to reconsider his position. Legal bills won’t cost me a penny - but he will be left with a hefty bill.

Did you pay on a credit card by any chance? They would also be on the hook for a refund.

Trading standards will be interested in that garage and mot station. Dodgy as hell.

Who paid for the 4 tyres? If it was you did you inform the garage before replacing. What did they say?

We had an issue with the last car I bought. We notified garage immediately. In hindsight we should’ve driven it immediately back to the garage as the issue was evident on our initial journey in the car! They wanted nothing to do with it. We bought it from a dealership 200miles away, however we weren’t allowed to return it to a local branch. The local branch left a message on my answer machine & the employee swore (not realising it was still recording - she thought she’d hung up). We used this as leverage however they wouldn’t back down & insisted car be driven to the garage we purchased it at. Long story short, after getting a solicitor involved, & using the answer phone message as leverage, the garage admitted the major clutch issue should’ve been picked up on during vehicle inspection & during the service works they’d apparently carried out prior to our purchase. They fixed it - at their expense - however it left us without a car for 6wks as they refused to grant us access to a loan car.

I had an issue with my daughter’s car, the place I bought it was dodgy, he stopped answering any calls or messages. When he did he agreed things but didn’t follow through. I ended up contacting the garage on the recent MOT and asked if they did the MOT because I wasn’t sure if it was legit. This seemed to do the trick. The got in touch with the actual owner of the garage I bought from and he agreed to do the repairs. I assume he knew I wasn’t going to back down.

Did you take out warrantywise at all? I did when I last bought a car via a garage and it covers all sorts of things like this, if they are involved at all then you could at least ask them about it as they’d have some advice as to what your rights are. You should just be able to take it back to them for a full refund anyway, it’s not what you wanted, so they’re in the wrong.

How did you pay for the car OP? If it was by credit card it might be worth getting in touch with them to advise of the issue to see if a chargeback would be something they would offer if the garage aren’t cooperative.
If you’ve used a finance company, they might also be quite helpful as essentially they’re financing a car that isn’t worth the money as it’s not fit for purpose.
Hope you get it sorted. Sounds like things are in your favour!

It may have already been said but if you send any of the information it needs to be sent via registered mail and signed for.

I have previously successfully rejected a car within the 30 days but mine was a brand new car with a serious fault. The most important thing is that time is of the essence. You MUST reject the car in writing before the 30 days are up. As long as you have issued the rejection, then further negotiations can still continue to try to resolve the matter but at least you have filed your rejection within the timeframe.

If you go one day over the 30 days, your rights to reject diminish and they are allowed to make certain reasonable deductions for wear and tear, etc. So do not delay and send them a rejection tomorrow morning. Email is fine. Do an online search and you should be able to find a template to adapt. Good luck!

Ok so you are completely in the rights here, but a few confusing things. Why did you not get a one year repair guarantee from the garage? Why did you not check the car over or test drive it before paying for it? A cracked headlight or warped tyres are fairly obvious? You can get MoT reports online too? Why would you buy a crap second hand car 100 miles away? Finally did you pay cash or card? You can also try to make a claim for faulty goods via your bank? I wonder how much you trust that second garage too!

I had an issue with a finance car i bought garage tried to wiggle out of it but the plonkers had left paperwork with the documents they gave me proving the fault was there at the point of sale they had to fit a new gearbox and pay for collecting and delivering the vehicle I was also compensated generously by my finance company for the time without my car

Thanks for all your replies. It’s all a bit of a nightmare really. I’ve never known anyone manipulate the law so much in my life as the garage we bought it from

So as not to drip feed - we paid via bank transfer for the car. So I can’t get help from bank or finance. Learnt my lesson here though - think next time I’ll do finance and then just pay it off immediately. We aren’t ’cash rich’ - I just happened to have the exact amount of money for it in my account from selling my previous vehicle and we were mid remortgage application so I couldn’t take out any finance agreements

We do have a 3 month warranty - massive issue we have had is finding a garage who are willing to take on the suggested repair AND deal with the warranty company AND be within a reasonable timeframe - some garages are booked up until September around here just to take a look, and we’ve had a lot of ‘we don’t deal with warranty work’ too. We’ve also spoken to the warranty company and explained our position and they have said whilst the repair required is not something they would normally cover, as we haven’t had the car long they will see if they can under goodwill. Really - shit situation for them too as in a way the garage have fucked them over too. But I’ve made sure to get everything recorded by them too so there’s no question over when the issues started.

The garage we bought it from, the owner is the most infantile person I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. And that’s putting it politely. Quite literally I have had an email off him saying “I can do what I want” and “this isn’t going to go the way you want it to”

As it happens over the weekend I also fainted - stress induced. I’ve now got concussion and a black eye. DP has called the garage seeing if he can get anywhere with it - he’s absolutely blown the owner up.

We have finally found a repair garage willing to have a look at the car and deal with the warranty company if it can be repaired and isn’t anything serious. BUT DP has also said to the sales guy that once we have the report of what is wrong with the car, that if deemed ‘serious’, that we will be returning the car without question (also allowing the garage to get their own independent report done too) - and we also have agreement with them that they will provide a courtesy car for me to use. So far this seems to be the only approach we have with them that doesn’t involve courts and solicitors.

So I’m waiting for Monday now for the car to go into the garage to be looked at. They are specialists of the type of car I have, and the woman on the reception desk is properly scary and she has said she is more than happy to speak to the warranty company too to get this covered if they can. She’s also said they are happy to fully look over the car and look for ‘serious’ issues with it in order to strengthen our case to return it. They were really booked up but I think they have taken pity on me a little as I walked in there with a black eye and I was just completely defeated.

All in all, not the situation I want, but just trying to resolve this as much as I can. I’ll either a) have a car repaired that I will be selling as I’ve lost faith in it (already tested the water and looked like I’d be losing around 10% of what I paid if I sell) or b) hopefully get a refund which might be dragged out slightly with a further independent report on the car. Either way, slight progress but I am EXHAUSTED!!

Also once we are where we need to be, the garage will be being reported to trading standards and the MOT garage to DVSA. I will be leaving reviews about both absolutely everywhere I can including social media pages in their local area. I will be trying to prevent anyone else ending up in the same situation as me.

I had the same situation happen years ago, with a garage who sold me a car which within the first week turned out to have serious issues which were not apparent during test drive or inspection. The garage owner was very threatening, and it quickly became clear he was a cowboy who had entirely knowingly sold me a car which had serious faults. He refused to take the car back and laughed at me when I tried to explain my statutory rights to return within 30 days. When I pushed it he became physically threatening.

The advice I had from a friend who knows the motor trade well was that the only thing that was likely to make a difference was hitting him where it hurts - leaving scathing reviews everywhere I could, printing out posters warning people not to touch the garage with a bargepole, and plastering them all over the local area. My friend had done this before and found the garage in his situation miraculously took the car back one their business started to be affected.

I would have done this except I'd travelled quite a distance to buy the car, was worried about the physical threats I'd received, and the car was cheap enough I could afford to chalk it up to experience and move on.

I sympathise with you though. I felt physically sick at being taken advantage of so nakedly.

So helpful to read about these car stories and seriously sorry it happened to you…it makes me very cautious about thinking of buying a second hand car. I thought that having it inspected and tested would be enough of a reassurance. In fact, my original question was about asking a recommendation for an inspection company!!!!