I recently bought a 2007 MINI Hatch One from a dealer for £3300. The car had 104,000 miles on the clock, full service history, one month’s MoT. Twenty miles into the journey home (I live 80 miles from the dealer) the engine started smoking and had to be recovered.

I took it to my local garage, who said it could be head gasket or water pump failure. The garage also advised me that the brake discs were shot (literally could pick rust away) and two tyres had a large gouge in them - making them illegal.

I rang the garage I bought it from, to say what had happened, and they said to return the car, so they could inspect it, so I did. They said that tyres and brakes were "wear and tear", but they would look at the engine. This was not good enough for me, so I told them I wanted to reject the car, for a full refund. They said no, they would not give a refund, so I left my car at the garage, and got my solicitor onto them.

After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing (at great expense to me with solicitors costs), I could see they weren't going to refund. My solicitor advised me that there wasn't much more they/I could do, apart from take them to a small claims court. I know that this could take a long time, and I didn't trust that the garage would "lose" the car or something, so I decided to concede and give them the chance to do the repairs.

I collected the car yesterday (the engine has been rebuilt) but the brakes, and tyres are still the same. Do you think that I should again try to return the car, or should I get the repairs done, and send them a bill?