My son purchased a Focus ST3 from a dealership at the beginning of June for approx £13k. It was purchased online, paid for, and delivered a week later on the 8th June. His old car was part exchanged and he paid £400 for warranty.

The following day it had an engine service now warning, and subsequently over the course of the week reverted to limp mode. Due to the distance from the original dealer, it was booked into a Ford Main Dealer to investigate at the earliest available date on 23rd June. It required a new sensor (not sure which) and a remap relating to a recall for emissions. Ford stated it should not have been sold with this outstanding ? They also fixed the Traction Control and the Auto Stop/Start (these had been unplugged !). The car was collected on the 30th June. Cost £295 paid by the original dealer.

The day after the fault re-appeared and was booked into the Ford Dealer for the 7th July and subsequently a MAF sensor was replaced at cost of £190, paid for by my son to then claim on warranty. the car was collected on the 9th July.

The fault re-appeared the same day and was booked into Ford for the 13th July. This time Ford did a thorough inspection of the car and found that the Throttle body was an aftermarket part (and is cracked), as was the Air Filter Box. They also identified damage to the vehicle at the front and rear of the vehicle. My son has not yet collected the vehicle so cannot confirm the extent of the damage, but Ford believed it had been in some collision.

The continuing fault has been sufficient for my son to request the car is returned and a full refund which the dealer has accepted but they are unable to collect the car until the month end (staff shortages, Covid etc) and advised that they will not refund money until the car has been inspected.

He has had a courtesy car from the Ford dealer, against current policy, but they felt sorry for him as he needs a car for work. Without the refund he cannot source another car.

The concern now is, that when they eventually get the car back at the original dealer, they may find the damage and blame it on my son, when it has not been caused by him. Until we can view it, we can't determine if its obvious that it occurred some time before, even though it had to.

He has asked them to provide a refund or at least the bulk of it so he can try and source another vehicle, but yet to hear back. He had to pay a week before the car was delivered, but they won't refund until they have the car back, which seems somewhat unfair given all the hassle that he has had to lead on to try and resolve.

Where does he stand in all of this ?

Regards

Edited by Swildon on 14/07/2021 at 17:50