WA Purchased a Lemon Car - What to Do?

[Linda73]

Hello,

I bought a car a little over 12 months back and we have been having an issue with the selling dealer over what we could say was a major fault ever since! I have emails, photos, etc. to back this up. It's a safety issue among other things and was not disclosed when I signed for the car.

I did not discover the major fault until I got the vehicle home some 470km away! Now we would like to trade this car as we need a bigger vehicle now, but do not want to pass this issue on as we feel it would be morally incorrect to do so. Also it vastly decreases the value of our vehicle!! Help!

We did all the right things, clearly stated our demands only to be rebuffed and quite often ignored. Excuse after excuse. It nearly caused me a breakdown, so I left if for about 8/9 months. Has it been too long to take action?

We have only just learnt about these "lemon car laws".

 

[Victoria S]

Hi Linda73,

I assume it was a second hand vehicle that you purchased from the dealer? I will start by recommending you have a read of some other similar posts and the following articles:
Lemon Car? What You Can Do Under Australian Consumer Law - Legal Blog - LawAnswers.com.au
Faulty Second Hand Car? Your Options as a Buyer - Legal Blog - LawAnswers.com.au
VIC - Bought a Lemon Car - My Options Under Australian Consumer Law? | LawAnswers.com.au
VIC - KIA Repair Problems 14 Times - Take Case to Court? | LawAnswers.com.au

If you purchased your vehicle from a dealer then Australian Consumer Law applies and the consumer guarantees that apply to all goods will also apply here, including that the vehicle is of acceptable quality. However, what is meant by acceptable quality will depend on a variety of factors including the age and condition of the car you purchased, the price of the vehicle, any representations made about the vehicle etc.

Therefore, simply purchasing a second hand vehicle that turns out to have a major mechanical issue down the track may not of itself entitle you to a remedy by the seller. It will depend on a number of factors.

If you are unable to establish a breached guarantee of acceptable quality, you may have recourse to a remedy against the seller if the seller made false representations about the mechanical conditions of the vehicle. However in order to prove this you would need to obtain mechanical records that indicate that the seller knew of a mechanical problem but represented that the vehicle had no known mechanical problems. So this presents its own difficulties as well.

It does not help that you left it so long afterwards to take action, but does not preclude legal action.

 

[Linda73]

Hi,

The vehicle was 7 months old at the time and I paid 17000 for it. They had replaced the rear parking sensors according to their service dept, but on another occasion had " no such record". If they replaced the sensors the would have had to have seen the damage underneath. Also, the service dept had no record of a first service being performed. Later on they did!

All the dealer history is on their computer, but with a few keystrokes it seem to change. How do I fight that?