My neighbour, a taxi driver, needed a newer used car. A local dealer had nothing suitable on his stocks but said that his wife was selling her car. My neighbour went to view the car at his house. He liked it, but told the dealer he would require finance. The dealer said he could arrange this through his company. A price of £5,000 was agreed and finance was arranged and my neighbour took possession of the car, together with a bill of sale from the dealer’s company. Within 9 days the car suffered gearbox failure. He went back to the dealer at his home to ask for help but nothing was forthcoming. The said it had been a private sale. As my neighbour needed the car for work, he had no choice but to have it repaired, which cost £2,300. He then wrote to the dealer at his home to ask for a contribution but received no reply. He persisted and this finally produced an offer of a goodwill payment of £500 from the dealer’s wife, still implying this had been a private sale. He declined the offer as he would still be paying £1,800, not to mention loss of earnings and is considering making a claim through the Small Claims Track of the County Court. At this point my neighbour is unsure as to the dealer’s position in his company, be it owner, director, or employee, but has this person acted properly, avoiding responsibility for the repair under the terms of a private sale when he arranged the finance through his company to make the sale possible and issued a company bill of sale?