Contact your local council. Every council has a Trading Standards Department. If you want this cleared up quickly and you want to show your dealer you mean business this is the way to go. They will contact the dealer themselves and take whatever action necessary on your behalf. They will start with a letter outlining the situation and the allegation that the car is not fit for the purpose it was sold for, which is a clear violation of the Sale of Goods act. The letter will invite the dealership to reconsider their refusal to replace/refund your car before any action is taken. A few letters will be passed back and forward from the dealership to the Trading Standards department, all of which you will probably be copied in on. Then, hopefully you will get what you want.
Basically big companies, and some small companies, rely on the ignorance of joe public of the sale of goods act and exactly what their rights as consumers are. If you were BMW and a customer brought a car back wanting a refund, you would say no and hope that they give up. They've got nothing to loose by saying no and refusing to give a refund until they absolutely have no other option.
This whole 'we've not had a reasonable chance to rectify the fault' is a bit of an iffy one. I may be wrong, but I think the position is: if an item sold is not usable for the purpose it was sold due to a fault or damage that may be fixable, they seller has one opportunity to rectify the problem (ie one trip to the service department to fix the roof). If the first attempt to rectify the problem fails, the seller must provide the buyer with a full refund for the sale price at the buyers request.
I work in retail and have some experience with Trading Standards. I hope I've helped. Any questions feel free to PM me.
Basically big companies, and some small companies, rely on the ignorance of joe public of the sale of goods act and exactly what their rights as consumers are. If you were BMW and a customer brought a car back wanting a refund, you would say no and hope that they give up. They've got nothing to loose by saying no and refusing to give a refund until they absolutely have no other option.
This whole 'we've not had a reasonable chance to rectify the fault' is a bit of an iffy one. I may be wrong, but I think the position is: if an item sold is not usable for the purpose it was sold due to a fault or damage that may be fixable, they seller has one opportunity to rectify the problem (ie one trip to the service department to fix the roof). If the first attempt to rectify the problem fails, the seller must provide the buyer with a full refund for the sale price at the buyers request.
I work in retail and have some experience with Trading Standards. I hope I've helped. Any questions feel free to PM me.
