Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not)

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Mon 20 Aug 2018 12:50
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - Adam Law
Hello,

Last Tuesday I bought a 2004 Ford Focus from a man who informed me in writing that he was a car trader and that the vehicle was faultless and drove without issues after a 34 mike trip home we had found this fault with the vehicle as shown in this video. Ford Focus Coolant thank reservoir is spraying coolant. (Video of fault with vehicle vimeo.com/285809035)

After informing the individual he told me it could be the cooling thermostat which was either him informing me that he knews this prior selling the car or because of mechanical knowledge. I said I would investigate and after investigating it was intact the coolant tank reservoir which I told him would need replacing plus a coolant replacement, I performed a simple coolant flush and changed the bottle which was quite simple and because I gave him a choice of a garage doing it or myself and he said he wanted to go with the cheaper option. Therefore he transferred monies to my bank account of £30 for coolant and a new coolant reservoir tank. The next day I now noticed leaking coming from the vehicle and after investigating I have discovered it looks like it’s leakinf from the readiator and now it will need a replacement radiator at a cost of between £40 to £100 for the part itself and I have quotations from garages nearby between £145 to £200 to replace it.

I informed the man of this issue and he said he won’t be giving me anymore money because I bought the car cheap (£525) he knew it was for a first time driver my partner and my young infant daughter under 1 years.

He told me he was a trader and the car was faultless and he wouldn’t sell a car with any issues, I asked him this in writing a few times and he told me he wouldn’t make me drive 35 miles to a car with issues.

I didn’t notice any faults with the vehicle at time of purchase although the individual did Limited our test drive distance by one having zero fuel and secondly telling me where to drive to and back.

When we returned to the house I did notice some liquid on the floor however i couldn’t smell or telling what it was at first I thought maybe oil but it didn’t stick like oil and after checking the oil itself I didn’t notice these issues. The issues only occurred after driving home 34 miles safely so would suggest they were their before.

If I pay for the repairs via garage of approx £200 would the courts award this to me.

He told me it was faultless, he told me he was a trader and that there wasn’t any issues and he also offered to pay the full bill of repairs in a social media chat history. Therefore I believe I have a case.

When I did the coolant flush as well the coolant was quite pink as if it was fresh and recently been topped up maybe linking that it had these issues before.

Any help please


(Edited) I must also add he never mentioned at any point in time the vehicle was sold as seen.

Edited by Adam Law on 20/08/2018 at 12:52

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Mon 20 Aug 2018 16:09
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - SLO76
You have been incredibly naive. You bought a car for £525 which is one step from the scrap yard. Only buy sub £1,500 cars if you understand that they will have faults and will require ongoing repairs and maintenance, you won’t find anything at £525 that doesn’t need something done. The only fault here was that the guy made you a promise that the car was faultless which was utter madness for anyone selling such a cheap vehicle to say. He deserves taken to the cleaners for such stupidity.

Yes on paper you have legal protection but the age and value of the car will be a factor in any judgement plus you’ll have to be able to prove that he was indeed a dealer which I’d be amazed if any trader would sell such a car without you fully understanding the risks.

I’ve flogged loads of old trade-ins over the years. I listed any faults I found upfront and buyers of sub £1k cars got the offer of a car at private money or they could pay an extra £500 for retail terms and a major mechanical warranty. Everyone took the cheap option and anyone I believed didn’t understand that they were buying an old banger was politely asked to shop elsewhere.

Edited by SLO76 on 20/08/2018 at 16:10

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Mon 20 Aug 2018 17:35
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - gordonbennet

sounds like the coolant reservoir might not have been leaking after all, but you the OP have diagnosed the problem and fixed it, or maybe the top tank was leaking but during replacement the radiator has received a clout and is now leaking due to that.

That's what the seller would say if you tried to pursue this in a small claims court, and he'd probably be heard sympathetically, not saying this is what happened in any way but it isn't at the price range where you would expect the full 6 months to cover nearly everything and nor would i expect a judge to think that either.

As SLO76 has explained, this is a cheap car, if its a decent runner i'd be satisfied with that and be quite prepared and accept that i'd have to do a few jobs on the car now and again to keep it running well, and i'd be grateful the seller did'nt tell me to sling my hook but instead sent me a few quid because i'd complained about this coolant leak.

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Mon 20 Aug 2018 17:40
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - Palcouk

"Sold as seen" is a meaningless phrase. You purchased a vehicle for £525 which is banger money.

If purchasing a vehicle for this sum you need to be a mechanically minded persion, capable of doing your own repairs

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Mon 20 Aug 2018 19:20
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - RobJP

In answer to your question about whether a court would rule in your favour or not, the answer is 'Maybe. Or maybe not."

As others have said, you bought a car that is one step from the scrapyard.

The law talks about 'reasonable expectations' of a buyer. In my opinion, for £500 you can 'reasonably expect' very little : a car that is in legally roadworthy condition is about it, really.

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 12:19
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - pd

If all that is wrong with a £500 car is a dodgy radiator that is arguably a bit of a result is it not?

I don't think this passes a reasonablness test. Would a reasonable person be surprised that a 14 year old £500 car might need a radiator? Arguably not. A £500 Focus only needs to be as good/bad as an average £500 Focus.

It will cost you as much in money, time, reports or whatever to go to court than simply fix it so if the car is otherwise OK I'd just get it fixed and leave it at that.

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 13:25
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - Bromptonaut

Looking at the video and the bubbling in the coolant I suspect there's something, possibly a head gasket fault, that's allowing combustion/compression gas into the cooling system causing it to be over pressure. Pressure is finding it's way out via a weak spot, firstly in the expansion bottle and then the radiator.

Get it properly tested for that and for oil/combustion products in the coolant.

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 13:29
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - nick62

Looking at the video and the bubbling in the coolant I suspect there's something, possibly a head gasket fault, that's allowing combustion/compression gas into the cooling system causing it to be over pressure. Pressure is finding it's way out via a weak spot, firstly in the expansion bottle and then the radiator.

Get it properly tested for that and for oil/combustion products in the coolant.

+1.

A pound to a pinch of salt, blown head gasket.

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 13:30
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - RichardW

Odds on that's got a knackered head gasket....

Not sure that would pass the reasonable ness test, even for a £500 car - mind you, debatable whether the seller would either!

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 15:28
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - pd

Blown headgasket is certainly more of a case but, even then, it'll probably cost £500 to try and find out with court costs, engineer reports, days off work, travel etc.

It's a £500 banger - is it really worth it?

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 15:49
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - skidpan

Simple fact is £500 is only a couple of weeks wages for a 17 year old on minimum wage. When I was 17 my first car cost £80 and was a right pile of carp but it was exactly what you got and expected for £80. £80 at that time was 4 weeks wages for a 17 year old apprentice. But it worked (to a certain extent) and as expected it cost me money on several occations.

If I had paid the grand sum of £40 (2 weeks wages) I would not have got a runner. More than a few mates paid that kind of money and then spent more than £40 fixing the engine and welding the underbody. Basically this is what you have bought.

If you want a decent car with a worthwhile warranty you have to pay for it. As has been said many times "you get what you paid for". You paid little more than scrap money and got little more than a scrapper.

And one other thing, always remember the first 3 rules of car buying.

1) All salesmen are liars

2) All salesmen are liars

3) Refer to rules 1 and 2

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Tue 21 Aug 2018 19:10
Ford Focus - Faulty Car (Small Claims Court or Not) - galileo

As skidpan says, when you could buy a car for less than £100, (as I did a few times in my youth) the expectation was that within 6 months it would need one or more of:

A new exhaust

A new battery

A new radiator

New tyres

One also expected to spend time re-setting contact breakers, cleaning/replacing spark plugs and changing your own oil and filter, because you couldn't afford to pay a garage to do these things.

So you allowed for this when buying 'bangers': the scrappage scheme of a few years back and increasingly strict MOT's have meant that most cars in reasonable condition are now £1000+ and even these may have minor faults.

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