Dispute With Dealer

[steve m]

Hi all just wanted to update people on my dispute with a lotus dealership over the brand new elise i purchased which turned out to be damaged repaired. My car has now been at dick lovetts body shop for 4 months left outside in the weather and i doubt very much that it has even been started in that time. It is now well over two months since i officially rejected the car through solicitors and dick lovett have not even replied to them in any way, they have spoken to me in person and said i,d have to go to court against them. Lotus offered to repair the car and respray under warrenty but strongly deny they repaired the vehicle in the first place.But why should i accept that i paid for a brand new car and that is what i want I have to the dealers have given me an elise as a courtesy car but last week informed me they had sold it and wanted it back even though my car is stood outside there garage with the clam shell removed. . I have strong suspicions that the damage and repair was caused by the dealer on the p d i check as the delivery time mysteriously went from a promised 7 days to 12 days. All in all the whole experience has been a nightmare i'm now gathering evidence to take them to court a slow and expensive process. Also i'd love to hear from anyone else who has had trouble with dealerships and how they got on.

[Ladders]

Sorry to hear about that Steve

 

Best of luck with your claim!

[Scott_Mac]

Yeah, best of luck sorting that mate.

 

[ally]

Did a bit of hunting around regarding sales of goods act. And it states very clearly that it is the responsibility of the previous owner to proove the damage didnt happen there, not the responsibility of the new owner to proove it did. This part of the law came about through things just like this. Basically if DL's cant proove it didnt happen there they are liable.

In my brief experience of these things, companies often threaten court as they no most people wont persue it that far. I bet you that if your lawer issues court proceedings under the conditions above you will have a cheque in your hands before you no it. It will cost DL's a lot more in court than it will to settle out of it. My only other bit of advice is to give them dead lines to reply to, or otherwise they will just ignore you. I had the same thing with ford and they soon sat up and listened when i went round to the show room and started telling all the customers that their customer service was crap and not to buy a car from them.

Good luck mate

[Scott_Mac]

That seems strange... i would've thought it the other way round, surely it is nigh on impossible to prove where damage occured?

 

I could drive down the road and buckle a wheel... take it back and say it was like that when i bought it... seems dodgy if you ask me. Bonus for the consumer if that is the case though.

[Mark H]

Probably not best for people to start emailing him from here or to mention it on the web too much if you are going to be taking it to court IMO.

 

Good luck though

[ally]

Thats what i thought too Scott, however this came from a lawer at 'Which consumer.' Mind you I imagine there is more to it than that. I would have thought it is designed to protect us (the consumer) against minor cover up faults that arnt easily detected , rather than more obvious faults such as windscreen chips, buckled wheels etc.

I am no legal expert though so i imagine there is all sorts of other bits that need to be considered. But it is nice to no the law is on our sides

Ally

[strees]

From a lawyers veiwpoint, I would strongly recommend that you remove the request for people to email the MD of the garage. I am sure your solicitor would not be happy if this were to happen. This is because this could seriously prejudice any claim you make against the garage and ciould ultimately result in the claim being lost.

[ally]

Strees, am i correct with the sales of goods act stuff i have put above, or have i misunderstood the process??

[Jonathan E]

Steve M,

My advice would be to take a softly softly approach,be firm,but I wouldn't advise you to go slagging off the dealer in the public domain.Its a brand new car,how did you find out it was repaired??.

Don't get me wrong I think you should be given your money back or a replacement but take it from somebody who took on Lotus and one of thier dealers,it aint cheap and they won't like you telling other Lotus owners about it.I was lucky and agreed to a "settlement" regarding the situation I was in,some folks on this board are aware of the diagreement and the settlement that I came to with them but sadly I'm unable to allaborate,due to the afore mentioned "settlement"

Good luck with getting a happy result,try and keep it out of court if at all possible.

Regards

Jon

[steve m]

Thanks everyone for your advice amended my post as suggested for the best i think. wrote it after a very frustrating day. The whole situation is enough to drive the most placid person a little crazy. The end of the day i paid for a brand new elise and thats what i want. The first signs of the damage i saw with in two weeks but the main repair didn't show up for a couple of months when as told to me by an expert the filler they used had 'shrunk back'. I would recommend anybody who buys a new car to take an expert because if i had then apparently they could have spotted the front clam and the doors had been re-sprayed. But like most people when my car arrived i just wanted to drive it and not go over it with a fine tooth comb, mistakes i wouldn't make again. So please everyone don't be as nieve as me and expect your brand new car to be perfect hate anyone else to go through this, I've now missed a whole summer of using my lotus gutted.

[steve]

Correct me if i'm wrong (i'm not a lawyer either) but...

 

You should be able to claim for the "loss of enjoyment" of your new vehicle. You had a contract with them and they were in breach of the contract (they have admitted this by offering to repair your car under warranty,) as a result of this breach, you have paid for a car that has sat in a yard for a good (ish) summer.

 

Maybe Strees can elaborate (or just tell me that i'm a fool and i should stick to building!)

 

all imo.

 

Steve

 

PS - really hope you get a good result (remember - the right result usually leaves both parties mildly pissed off!)

[Scrappydog]

Steve,

 

unfortunately this sort of thing happens all too often. When I had by RS-150 (rip) kit installed at Specialised Paintworks in Reading a "brand new" sport 190 was transported in for bodywork damage repairs. Car wasn't even registered.

 

Also shocked to hear that at another dealer one of the cars had been involved in an accident with a roadsign which wrecked the sill and probably damaged the chassis on a test drive. Chassis was "repaired", rather than replaced and I guess the car was sold on without the buyer knowing any different.

 

My advise would be to spend a little money now on good legal advice now (incl. strong letter from a reputable law firm) rather than drag it out and ultimately not getting what you want. I know it's gaulling to spend money when it's not your fault, but it's often cheaper in the long run.

 

Hope it all get's sorted,

 

Andy