In January this year I purchased a Suzuki Jimny from a main dealer.

After purchasing I asked the garage to quote to fit some additional things.

When they didn’t respond I contacted a different Suzuki main dealer and they duly quoted.

In addition, however, they advised me that they would also deal with the outstanding safety recall which had been issued in July 2021.

I reverted to the garage I purchased from and asked why I hadn’t been advised of the recall.

They replied to me saying there wasn’t one.

I told them I had been advised by another main dealer that there was one.

No response so I sent them a couple of internet links, including one from gov.uk showing that it had been issued over 6 months prior to my purchase.

The salesman then rang to apologise and admit the garage hadn’t covered themselves in glory but he had had to pass the matter to his group compliance.

Compliance eventually emailed as follows:

When a manufacturer issues recalls, they can impact a very large amount of vehicles, sometimes tens of thousands or more, and therefore they issue the recall letters / notifications in batches so as not to cause an influx of appointments in their manufacturer dealer network, as there will only be certain amount of approved manufacturer workshops able to carry out the work. Appointments are already quite booked up and so it would not produce a good customer experience if they were to clog up the dealer network appointments with a sudden rush of appointment requests for recalls. The recalls are usually issued in batches of say five / ten thousand as an example with certain batches of vehicle chassis numbers being used at a time.

Official figures, that I can find, show that the Jimny traditionally sold approx 1200 each year in the UK although 2019 (year of manufacture) was expected to be 20% up, so say 1500 sold, definitely not “tens of thousands”.

With regard to actually fixing the recall, the other garage advised me that due to supply chain issues the part was currently in manufacture and might not be available for a further couple of months. I heard a week ago they now have it and can do the work.

It has been suggested to me (but I am not alleging this happened) that the original selling garage knew full well of the recall. They also knew of the manufacturing delay and that The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 say that dealers must get cars with outstanding recalls fixed before selling a vehicle to a consumer. If they don't, they can be prosecuted by Trading Standards. However, I believe they chose to ignore it in this case as everyone knows dealers need to sell cars, not have them parked on their forecourt for 6 months or more.

I should make clear that my wife loves the car and we don’t want to return it or want any financial retribution but surely a main dealer can’t get away with this sort of behaviour?

When buying a used car from a main dealer, or other garage, how many people actually ask, or check themselves, if there are any o/s safety recalls?

I have never thought of doing so before but will always in the future !