Anyone know about motors? Think have been sold a lemon with dodgy MOT to boot...

[bohemianbint]

Bought a camper van yesterday from a dealer (through Ebay) but when driving it home turns out the speedometer and odometer don't work (meaning the "low mileage" could be anything) and the brake lights are out.

It was supposed to have been MOT'd a month ago, by same garage I bought it from. Any one of these things would have failed outright, so have they issued it with a dodgy MOT to sell it?

I'm going to call the bloke later but does anyone know legally what the situation is here? We can't drive it again until we get all these bits fixed, but it was bought on the basis it passed an MOT a month ago...

If you bought it from a dealer/garage, did you not get any warrenty with it?

Nope, no warranty, just "sold as seen" but the only reason I opted to bid for it was that it had 11 months MOT and things like this should not have got past the MOT, surely?

I have a feeling that the faulty speedo/odometer would have got past an MOT. The brake lights wouldn't. However the MOT is only proof of a vehicle's road worthiness on that day. Any of these faults could have developed after the test.

OTOH, it should not have been sold without these faults being pointed out to you. A good dealer will sort them out for you free of charge.

IIRC, with a car purchase from Ebay you have the right to pull out of the deal if the item isn't up to standard/the description when you go to inspect the vehicle. Not sure if the fact that you've driven it away makes a difference here.

Lack of warranty, even a month's warranty, would have made my alarm bells ring straight away I'm afraid. No way I would have bought it if they weren't willing to stand by its roadworthiness for even one month. They know they've sold you pup I'm afraid.

Bugger. We paid cash at the time, and these faults weren't immediately noticeable. DP drove it back and I followed and it was only when someone got out at the lights and told DP that there were no brake lights that we realised (I hadn't noticed!)

Have driven it 60 miles home now as well, can't move it again until these things are fixed, which mean we can't take it back. Should he be liable to fix them? When I got home I looked at the current MOT and the last one - it has apparently only done 200 miles in a year. Has he nobbled the clock? What do I do if so? And surely the brake lights couldn't have gone in a month of just sitting on the forecourt?

I doubt he's nobbled the clock - if the odometer isn't working there would be no need.

I think you need to contact the dealer to see what he says/is prepared to do. I believe you are allowed to drive it back though. Brake lights are probably easy if it's the bulbs that have blown - you can probably get new ones from Halfords for very little. the speedo is a different matter.

Contact the dealer and see what he has to say. You could always contact trading standards.
Do you have any old MOTs with it ?

It just came with 1 MOT, last year's.

He'd waited for us to arrive as he was going away, and once he's shown us round the vehicle and done the paper work he was off, so by the time our insurance policy started and it was ok to drive, the garage was shut.

Is it illegal to sell a vehicle with brake lights out?

Thanks for all the advice, by the way. Have just checked the VOSA website and the MOT seems to be ok.

try Trading Standards tomorrow, they might have had similar complaints.

Brake lights can go at anytime. You would think that he would have checked it over before you took it away.

I was sold a complete lemon from a NETWORK Q garage!!!! Long story short, a few things happened that made me doubt they had done the "114 point check" that the car was sold with so I bit the bullet and got the AA to come out and assess it for me.

It was not good news, he slated their 114 point check saying that he thought much of it had not been done. I took it back to the garage armed with the report from the AA and they swapped it for another car (but not without a fight and I had to speak to the manager)

I never mentioned Trading Standards but it would have been my final resort had they have not taken the car back.

Technically I should have taken the new car and then grassed them to Trading Standards but I was young and naive. I regret not doing it because you just know that they will have sold that car again with the same 114 point check.

Every time I buy a car now even from a reputable dealer I STILL get an AA report done as they can see stuff like paint jobs, damage from accidents etc and it is worth the money, around £130.