Trying to reject a Seat Ibiza 2012 through Stoneacre. I owned a Fiat 500 on finance through them and returned for my second car. The day after purchasing it I noticed it was advertised on their website for 4995 when they sold it to me for 5995. I went back into the dealership to discuss and after getting my point across they said they would raise it as a complaint and come back to me. They did a few days later and agreed to reimburse me £1000 via cheque. The same day I was at a junction which was quite a steep hill. I engaged the handbrake and took my foot of the brake. The car rolled back and nearly smashed into the car behind me. Also noticed a strong smell of petrol coming from the car when getting out of it, the vent on the dash board sounded like it had gas escaping from it when the heating or air con was on. Also window wipers were not working as they should.
I sought advice from CAB and Which? Legal and they advised I was within my right to reject the vehicle as I had owned it less than a week by this point. So I wrote the dealership a letter and hand delivered it last Saturday stating I was rejecting it under the consumer rights act etc. They said they would take the car in and give me a courtesy car and the service department would look at the Seat on Monday.
Monday comes around and they don't contact me by half 5 (service shuts st 5) so I ring the sales dept and speak to the salesman that sold me the car. He was really rude and basically said there's nothing wrong with the car, I explained there is I have experienced it. He vaguely mentioned something about brakes being fixed but wouldn't be specific. Surely if they have replaced something there was a fault? I also did not give them permission to fix/replace anything. I said I was within my right to reject it and he said "it doesn't work like that" so I hung up. Called back and spoke to the a manager and he basically said they will take the car back but because I partexed my fiat 500 which the settlement figure was around 5K on the finance agreement and the value was only 3600, I was in negative equity of 1758.23 which if I was to return the vehicle I have to pay that as it's "my debt". If I paid this I would not get the fiat 500 back. If I paid the 5000 and something I would. They said they would do this on a "ex-gratia" basis but admit no liability and do not think I have the right to reject.
Are they allowed to do this? I almost feel like giving up and paying the 1758 just so I can be done with them. I have received no apology from them and have spent countless hours trying to sort this out. I was thinking about hiring a solicitor but I don't know if I even have a case. I also have to return the courtesy car they gave me on Monday and buy a cheap car to get to and from work as I won't take the Seat back. The finance company have been no help as they said as Stoneacre have put the agreement as an unsecured loan, they are not the legal owners - I am. I have spoken to Stoneacre head office and they are just as rude as the dealership. Really don't know what to do.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
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You've dug yourself quite the hole here. As soon as you discovered you owed more on the Fiat than it was worth you should've walked away and kept the old car. Instead the garage encouraged you to take out a loan to cover the outstanding amount and to buy another car. You didn't even seem to be aware of what you've signed up for! I've no doubt also that this loan will be at an extremely uncompetitive rate too and thus the reason why they never tried to hold on to that extra £1,000. This is an example of how doing your homework first really pays off.
The good news is that these wee cars are rarely much bother and it sounds like you've just needed the handbrake cleaned and adjusted, not an uncommon issue on these but hardly catastrophic. As for the gas/petrol smell I suspect it'll just be coming from the air con which is bad for condensation and bacterial build up. Easily cured by leaving the heater on full with the fan running and air con off for a couple of mins at the end of every journey to dry it off. My Polo (same car underneath) suffers this and has been no bother since I started doing this.
You've two options. First, let them check and fix the car, it's unlikely to have much wrong with it, these are generally very robust wee cars and pretty simple things depending on what engine's in it. Then check that loan APR then check if there's any penalty for early repayment and go find a much cheaper loan from one of the high street or supermarket banks then pay off the high rate loan. This I suspect will save a sizeable sum of money.
Secondly, you could claim that you've been missold the finance. You seem to have been unaware that you were taking out a personal loan and not car finance. Did they explain everything clearly to you and give you copies of any documentation you signed? If not then you could claim that you were missold the finance. A visit to trading standards, citizens advice or your lawyer may be a good bet if you desperately don't want to keep the car.
Look out the documents first and tell us what the APR is on that loan and if there's any other charges such as PPI included which you didn't ask for.
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