I bought a Ford Focus 1.8 (2000) 75,000 miles roughly two months ago from a Trade Seller - one guy owning a fully registered company. I was generally happy with the vehicle, test drove it for 5-10 minutes and decided to buy this a few days after.

Problem is, since then I've had to pay quite a lot in maintenance and repairs. The first an engine issue only a few days after purchase (ended up replacing the ICV and TPS in a garage), then the alternator died (got this replaced at a local garage) and finally had to replace the front two tyres as they were completely bald on the inside - due to completely out of degree wheel alignment.

In less than two months I had already spent £600 on repairs for a car I paid £1500 for. I didn't want the bother of hassling the trade seller at first (being a supporter of local businesses) but after the third issue I was pretty fed up and contacted the company.

Essentially the seller has said as I didn't contact him with the issues first and didnt give him a chance to repair the faults, my rights under the Sales of Goods Act 1979 are now void. Something along the lines of 'You wouldnt buy a pair of trousers from M&S, get them fixed by BHS and then give M&S the bill.'

I've checked through with the Office of Fair Trading and it never states your rights are void, and that the buyer can claim a full or partial refund of necessary costs during ownership.

Basically, does anyone know what I can do in this situation and is it worth pursuing this course, or should I just throw the towel in and take the hit?