sold unsafe car

[SmellsLikeTeenStrop]

DH and I recently bought a second hand car, it was from a dealership albeit a small independent one.

We collected it early last week and we've driven approximately 100 miles so far since purchasing it. Today, on a family day out we noticed a strange knocking sound coming from front passenger side, the knocking steadily got worse and the front passenger (me) started to feel vibrations that coincided with the knocking.

The AA was summoned, they jacked the car up and found that the front passenger wheel had not been fastened properly. The car was given a full MOT before it was sold to us, one of the problems identified was the need for new break disks. The wheels would have been removed for this and most likely scenario is that that particular wheel had not been secured properly afterward.

Nobody has been hurt, we were just damn lucky that we discovered the knocking while travelling slowly on country roads rather than at speed on the motor way.

Is there any legal recourse for us that we were sold a car in an unsafe condition, unsafe because of the negligence of the mechanic who replaced the disk breaks. If the wheel had come off, the result could have been a fatal accident.

did you get it surveyed?

Cars are covered under the Sale of Goods Act and a secondhand car bought from a dealership must be of 'satisfactory quality' and 'safe', check out What Consumer

no, just HPI checks

thanks for the link hellhasnofury, I think a reasonable person would expect the car to have wheels that are securely attached to the rest of the car :)

Have you spoken to the dealership?

not yet blackouthesun, that's what we'll be doing tomorrow morning

What exactly do you want out of this? If you're after compensation then you're on a hiding to nothing, you suffered no loss financial or otherwise.

Definitely complain, but the actual car has nothing wrong with it and you are entitled to nothing. The problem is with the quality of workmanship of the mechanic not the car.

Meant to say, glad you are OK, a similar thing happened go my DH and the thoughts of what might have happened were quite scary!

trixy we want the car re-MOT'd at a garage of our choice because I don't feel confident that they did a through and proper job and I think they should cover that expense.

I'll speak to them, they might suprise you.

Same thing happened to dp when we got new tyres on my car. Started to make the ratterling noise so dp was on his way to the garage for them to take a look. On the way the front wheel came off as he was getting off a roundabout. No one was hurt, the garage recoved the car and repaired all damage, cost over £1k. The poor bloke who fitted the tyres was nearly in tears when he saw the car seat in the car. They really couldn't do enough for us, even got a new car seat delievered the week after which we wasn't ecpecting.

we are planning on speaking to them, but it's always good to know what your legal rights are first.

Geez, just read my first post back and it comes across a bit harsh! Sorry, didn't mean it like that!

That seems reasonable to ask for them to cover the cost of an MOT.

It was a reasonable question. This incident gave DH and myself a hell of a shock and we want to know that there are no other unwanted surprises waiting for us, but not at our expense.

the MOT only checks certain things, its just a check-list! a car can be unsafe and pass, it could pass at 10 garages, our garage passed our car and also told us it was unsafe for reasons not covered on the MOT

How did you get on OP?

Thing is wheels should be checked 30 miles after being refitted. We had same happen to our car last year, was hanging on by one nut!
Hardly something they can foresee

A mechanic from the garage came round to check the tyres were ok, and as a good will gesture is replacing the spare tyre free of charge. He was very apologetic.

Though DH said that as the spare wheel wasn't usable, they should have done that anyway as the car was advertised with a spare wheel.