This whole sad story is a good reason why every second hand car (or even a new one) from any dealer should be paid for in part (£100 or over) on a credit card, even it it is just the deposit. You could then have got the credit card company involved straight away, but as you did not answer my original question, I'm assuming you didn't use a credit card anywhere in the purchase.

Anyway, I've been speed reading, so if this has been posted already, then I apologise:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/scotl...ption_e/the_car_you_bought_is_a_write_off.htm

frupi said:

Anyway, I've been speed reading, so if this has been posted already, then I apologise:

Click to expand...

Indeed you have, Frupi.

That link only applies in Scotland .

This is the English one.

jrkitching said:

You have.

That link only applies in Scotland .

Click to expand...

I could be very, very wrong here and if I am, then so be it, but I did in fact notice it was a Scottish link. I am also aware that the laws in Scotland are different, but in this case concerning car purchase that clearly goes wrong, I suspect it equally applies UK wide.

jrkitching said:

You have.

That link only applies in Scotland .

This is the English one.

Click to expand...

Lol! now we're cross posting! But yes, thanks for posting the English one!

I've been speed reading both the Scottish and English links, and they look suspiciously the same to me!

frupi said:

I've been speed reading both the Scottish and English links, and they look suspiciously the same to me!

Click to expand...

The first link looks the same to me too, but if you then start clicking on additional links, the content will be different depending on which country you've selected; the Court process in Scotland, for example, is not the same.

Damned speed reading!

Following link worth a little read:

http://www.rac.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?12775-Cat-C-write-off-Dealer-never-told-us!

Hello everyone I'm sorry I'm staying in an area with awful coverage. Yes that is the company I bought it from. I paid £1500 deposit on my credit card. Thank you all for the links and info. When I'm back with wifi I will be able to read them all. Fleet car sales have been very unhelpful to me in the past when I've had slight niggles with the car so I'm prepared to hear every excuse in the book before they hand anything over.

Nice. You've got them over a barrel with the credit card payment.

EllieBoxall said:

Hello everyone I'm sorry I'm staying in an area with awful coverage. Yes that is the company I bought it from. I paid £1500 deposit on my credit card. Thank you all for the links and info. When I'm back with wifi I will be able to read them all. Fleet car sales have been very unhelpful to me in the past when I've had slight niggles with the car so I'm prepared to hear every excuse in the book before they hand anything over.

Click to expand...

that's good, if they give you any hassle at all contact credit card company ChrisUK can advise on that part

EllieBoxall said:

Hello everyone I'm sorry I'm staying in an area with awful coverage. Yes that is the company I bought it from. I paid £1500 deposit on my credit card. Thank you all for the links and info. When I'm back with wifi I will be able to read them all. Fleet car sales have been very unhelpful to me in the past when I've had slight niggles with the car so I'm prepared to hear every excuse in the book before they hand anything over.

Click to expand...

Ellie, enjoy the rest of your away break.

Let us know when you're back and I'm sure we'll have some ideas on how you can best sort all this out.

jrkitching said:

PB, I guess you posted this before seeing Ellie's post a couple of minutes before. Given Ellie's latest revelations, this clearly isn't Fiat's fault or responsibility.



Ellie, can you just confirm you bought it from this dealer.



I take this back. You haven't been unlucky, you've been scammed.

It appears you've bought a previously written off car with a fake service history and clear HPI check.

If the dealer you bought the car from is a reputable one, and this was an honest mistake, they'll refund your money right now.

If they won't give you you money back, I'd say that Trading Standards is the next logical step.

Ellie, did you buy the car on finance? If so, then you may also have a claim against the finance company.

Click to expand...

Citizens advice have advised me to write a letter of complaint to the dealership and the finance company stating they sold me a car that is not as described. If a resolution doesn't come from the letter then trading standards need to get involved. I'm going to write a letter and send it tomorrow recorded delivery but I've also been advised to call trading standards tomorrow to give them a heads up. I believe Citizens advice has been keeping trading standards in the loop with my case anyway. I bought the car on finance, do I just walk away from the whole thing and ask for a refund, let them deal with the car??? Thanks for your help, and yes that's the company website where I bought the car, I was recommended by a friend who has bought cars from their previously from one particular sales man, who was very helpful to me when the salesman I bought my car from took two weeks to look into a problem in my car which happened the day I drove it away. In hindsight I should have known...

dave said:

its very strange that it was hpi clear in february and sold only 1 month later undisclosed recorded and repaired.

Click to expand...

Do you know if there is anywhere where I can obtain information about my car from before I had it? I only know it was written off because Fiat head office told me, but for legal reasons they couldn't tell me anymore .

Hope it gets resolved quickly and you get yourself the car you deserve

portland_bill said:

My earlier post overlapped with Ellie's latest.

Broken mount quite likely to have been caused due to collision.

Time to go back to the seller. As said above they should refund full purchase price, plus current expenses without question. If they do not, visit Trading Standards on Monday.

Good luck and let us know the outcome.

PS. I see Fleet Car Sales have a Facebook page. If they don't offer a full refund, time to post on their page I think. Just a summary of the situation, without anger or accusation. Along the lines of "Bought car, service history and clean HPI, engine mounting broken, now found written off and service history not real." Add a few more words, but nothing inflammatory, just facts. They may well remove your post, but all their followers will have a copy on their pages.

Click to expand...

I agree with you, they should give me my money back no hassle, it took me 20 seconds to search google and see that the 'full service history' was all forged. Even if they weren't aware, surely they should have checks in place for cars they are selling. My opinion is the salesman was lazy and was looking for a quick easy sell, when I sent the car back to them two weeks after having it, they forked out about £600 replacing the battery and break pads. I feel silly writing all this back now and realising I should have picked up a problem, but with the car being so new, and this is the first car I've ever bought on my own, I just didn't pick up on it.

Well these things happen. I bought a 406 that was a bit of a lemon, was a cheaper mistake though.

varesecrazy said:

accident damage was my 1st though when you said it was broken at such low mileage,

then you said other things that allayed my fears .

TBH,
nothing is ever "invisibly mended" a garage that have had your vehicle for 10 days or more should have spotted the signs MUCH sooner,
like when working on it..

as others have said,
approach supplying garage,
then trading standards,
did you pay via card..??

to be frank these type of "car sales" outfits just buy from auction..so it may be news to them.. BUT they should still have insurances to cover YOU,

Charlie

Click to expand...

Looking back on it now and writing replies here has made me see that I should have picked up on something, but I'm a 23 year old girl and I was buying my first car on my own. I'm writing a letter to Fleet Cars (because that is what citizens advice have told me to do) but luckily (and with help from all of you) I now know I can also contact my credit card company because I paid my deposit through that. So thank you!

GrandeGuy said:

Cat C,D must be disclosed, if private sold as seen, if trader the money can be recouped, if main dealer then no questions asked money back. Get trading standards involved,
Usually local paper threat is enough to solve this, no main dealer wants that.
I think they are not doing HPI's or forgot, or maybe it slipped through the net as a trade in.
I've known it happen recently.

But don't forget the words "fiat used approved"
Which means they approve selling written off cars?
Especially as fiat said"no evidence of fiat approved repairs"

Click to expand...

Do you know where I can get category information from? I'm going to call trading standards tomorrow so will update when I have more information!

EllieBoxall said:

Do you know if there is anywhere where I can obtain information about my car from before I had it? I only know it was written off because Fiat head office told me, but for legal reasons they couldn't tell me anymore .

Click to expand...

The first thing I'd recommend is that you get your own HPI report on the car. You can do this online by going to www.hpi.co.uk. It'll cost you £19.99.

If this is materially different from the HPI check given to you when you bought the car, then you could use it as evidence that the car was not as described. IIRC it is illegal for a trader to sell a car that has previously been written off unless they disclose this to you before you buy it.

I'd also recommend that you keep making any payments due to the finance company, or they'll record a default on your file which will make it difficult or impossible to get credit for at least the next six years.

If you authorised the garage that currently has the car to do any work, you'll also need to pay their invoice when it becomes due.

I'd agree that your best course of action in the first instance is to request a full refund + costs from the selling garage and at the same time inform the finance company of the situation. If Fleet Car Sales won't play ball, then you may also be able to get some redress from the credit card company you used to pay the deposit, and from the company providing the finance for the car. The advice you have been given by the CAB is sound and you should follow that in the first instance.

Note that you will only be able to claim against the finance company if the loan was secured against the car - if, for example, you just took out a personal loan from a bank, then they won't be liable.

It would help us to help you if we could see a copy of the HPI check. If you don't want to post it on a public forum, you can PM it to me and I'll keep it on a 'need to know' basis.

EllieBoxall said:

Do you know if there is anywhere where I can obtain information about my car from before I had it? I only know it was written off because Fiat head office told me, but for legal reasons they couldn't tell me anymore .

Click to expand...

EllieBoxall said:

Do you know where I can get category information from? I'm going to call trading standards tomorrow so will update when I have more information!

Click to expand...

jrkitching said:

The first thing I'd recommend is that you get your own HPI report on the car. You can do this online by going to www.hpi.co.uk. It'll cost you £19.99.

Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

good luck

EllieBoxall said:

Do you know if there is anywhere where I can obtain information about my car from before I had it? I only know it was written off because Fiat head office told me, but for legal reasons they couldn't tell me anymore .

Click to expand...

I'm assuming here that the garage you bought the car from, is the last recorded keeper on the V5 (log book)? If it isn't the garage, then it should be the last recorded private owner and it should state their name and address on the log book IIRC.

If the last previous private owner is shown on the V5, why not write to them and ask what happened to the car whilst it was in their ownership? This could be quite interesting, especially if the car had been written off in an accident and as far as the last owner was concerned, the car had been disposed of permanently. If only the garage is listed as the last recorded owner, you could try writing to DVLA requesting information of previous keepers of the vehicle. You will have to pay for the information though but of course they might say no anyway due to the Data Protection Act. However, in the case of suspected fraud, you may have 'good cause/reason' to request the info.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...an-individual-for-information-about-a-vehicle

https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla

http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/dvla

Also, has the car had an MOT yet? If so, you should be able to find out what was picked up on the last MOT test, if of course it was all legit:

https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history-vehicle