unroadworthy car

L

L.Mul

Guest
hey all, need a little advice. a friend bought a car privately three weeks ago. its a 86 toyota carolla gti coupe and he paid 6500 for it and was told the body work was mint. at the weekend a part of the car, cant remember what it was called but its like a strut brace, fell off from underneath the car. on inspection the car is totally rusted underneath and had been covered up buy the last owner wit a black tar like substance. my friend had not seen the rust because of this and it passed an nct in november but we are fully sure that if the rust damage was seen the car would never have passed and the car would have been deemed unroadworthy as it is. i know the law is funny with cars bought privately but should he be intitled to get his money back as the car is compleaty unroadworthy? the part that fell off can not be rewelded as there is nothing to weld it to as it is so coroded. the last owner is refusing to give a refund.
 
Are you saying that your friend paid €6500 for a 1986 Toyota Corolla ???? If they did they need looking at before the car or the last vendor.

An inspection by a mechanic should have been undertaken. I would say your friend will need to speak to their solicitor fairly handy.
 
Unfortunately the word "privately" is the key here.

Your friend has no comeback unless there was provable misrepresentation. He should have carried out his own checks - "mint" indeed. It's 22 years old - €6500??

The law isn't funny - caveat emptor.

Live and learn.

SSE
 
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for someone paying that kind of money for a car over 22 years old. In today's climate, there's plenty of fantastic GTI-type motors less than 10 years old that you can get for under 5K. What's the saying "Fools and their money are easily parted".
 
6.5K for a Twin Cam Corolla and doesn't get a mechanic to check it out ???
Considering that these cars are ragged to within an inch of their lives by everyone who owns one, I think your friend should count his blessings it didn't kill him.
If it's like a strut brace but is underneath, it's probably the Anti-Roll Bar.
Also, the NCT guys aren't stupid, if they saw what looked like a cover up, they should have seen through it.
Get an AA engineers report on the car, then go to the NCT if it implies that they were negligent in passing an unroadworthy car, then go to the small claims court if that's what you want.

Sad to say though, I think your friend is fighting a losing battle.
 
There is some protection under the sales of goods act 1980, I dont have time to look it up, but I do remember being at a lecture where we were told we as private citizens could be liable for an accident as a result of selling a defective car. I know there was no accident here, but it may be worty looking up.

The small claims court will be no use here as it appears to be purchased from a private seller. But are you sure it was a private seller? Could it be a guy selling a few cars every month privately???

My advice go to a solictor to discuss this. There may be a few things s/he might use to try to help
 
I'm not surprised that amount was paid for the car - these motors have a caché and would be thought of as something of a classic.

Unfortunately, the person who bought it did not carry out the necessary checks to establish that it was as mint as had been implied by the price and the seller's lack of honesty.

It might happen that there is something that the purchaser can do and the FLAC service offered by the CIC might be the best option, but the fact that the cash was handed over so readily doesn't demonstrate that the buyer exercised caution and was the victim of a well-hidden deception.

I find it hard to believe that NCT testers missed bodged rust like that - they can pick you up for your CO being several percentage points out or your indicators not being amber enough, yet they miss lumps of the underside rusted through? Is it a genuine NCT?

If the buyer truly values this type of car, then it might be money better spent to contact a bodyshop that specialises in restoration work and get a quote to carry out an effective repair. A running restoration could then be carried out because surely the buyer didn't expect an 86 car not to be in need of ongoing repairs and replacements?

At that stage, it will be clear whether its worth it, but it is the case that you never get back in value terms the money you spend to repair or rebuild a car.
 
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