Hopefully someone with some expertise will be able to advise me on my current issue because frankly I know little about this. I bought my car from a small dealer in Oct 2015 and was told the MOT was due Feb 2016. I was very happy with the car (not that i know anything about cars) and the service at the dealer as far as I was concerned was very good. However, when finding out the exact date of my MOT due date to book a new one I found out on gov.uk that an MOT had been carried out in Sept 2015 (even though it wasn't due until Feb 2016) and that the car unfortunately failed for the following:
Reason(s) for failure
rear Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases silencer (7.1.2)
Fuel system component leaking at top of engine (7.2.3)
nearside Headlamp not working on dipped beam (1.7.5a)
nearside rear Road wheel bead rim badly distorted (4.2.A.1a)
Exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke 1.97 1/m (7.4.B.3a)
Advisory notice item(s)
front brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened x2 (3.5.1i)
offside rear Road wheel with a slightly distorted bead rim (4.2.A.1a)
I have no way of knowing who carried out this MOT (I can only assume it was the dealer. Who else would do an MOT 5 months early?) but part of the deal to buy the car was 2 free MOT's from them so they are scheduled to do my MOT next week. It seems some of the problems have been fixed. The tyres have been checked out by Kwikfit last month and were passed and the headlights work perfectly fine so its clear that some work has been done but no following MOT was done. The exhaust however is old, falling apart and seriously corroded with some smoke issuing from it so its clear that this issue has not been fixed and will presumably fail at MOT. I should have checked i know but was naive enough not to. The car seems to run smoothly so I looked no further.
I guess I have a few questions.
1) My car wasn't due an MOT until Feb so does failing in Sept mean that I have until Feb to fix all issues or has my car been un roadworthy and I've been at fault for driving it since I bought it?
2) I was never notified that the car had failed an MOT. I never thought to check the history since I was told that the next MOT was due in Feb. Does the dealership have any liability here? They sold me a car that wasn't roadworthy without telling me? You can understand my new mixed feelings towards this dealer that I was previously very happy with.
3) If my car fails for exhaust issues (the same issues that it failed an MOT for before the car was even mine) am I the one who is supposed to pay for a replacement or am i entitled to claim it from the dealer who didn't notify me that they were selling me an unroadworthy car?
The car will be have an MOT from the dealer next week and I'd really like to be armed with my rights and what I'm entitled to. It's hard not to be distrustful of a place that i was previously very happy with. Any information anyone could provide would be great so that I can get through this situation less naively this time.
Many thanks in advance
Reason(s) for failure
rear Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases silencer (7.1.2)
Fuel system component leaking at top of engine (7.2.3)
nearside Headlamp not working on dipped beam (1.7.5a)
nearside rear Road wheel bead rim badly distorted (4.2.A.1a)
Exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke 1.97 1/m (7.4.B.3a)
Advisory notice item(s)
front brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened x2 (3.5.1i)
offside rear Road wheel with a slightly distorted bead rim (4.2.A.1a)
I have no way of knowing who carried out this MOT (I can only assume it was the dealer. Who else would do an MOT 5 months early?) but part of the deal to buy the car was 2 free MOT's from them so they are scheduled to do my MOT next week. It seems some of the problems have been fixed. The tyres have been checked out by Kwikfit last month and were passed and the headlights work perfectly fine so its clear that some work has been done but no following MOT was done. The exhaust however is old, falling apart and seriously corroded with some smoke issuing from it so its clear that this issue has not been fixed and will presumably fail at MOT. I should have checked i know but was naive enough not to. The car seems to run smoothly so I looked no further.
I guess I have a few questions.
1) My car wasn't due an MOT until Feb so does failing in Sept mean that I have until Feb to fix all issues or has my car been un roadworthy and I've been at fault for driving it since I bought it?
2) I was never notified that the car had failed an MOT. I never thought to check the history since I was told that the next MOT was due in Feb. Does the dealership have any liability here? They sold me a car that wasn't roadworthy without telling me? You can understand my new mixed feelings towards this dealer that I was previously very happy with.
3) If my car fails for exhaust issues (the same issues that it failed an MOT for before the car was even mine) am I the one who is supposed to pay for a replacement or am i entitled to claim it from the dealer who didn't notify me that they were selling me an unroadworthy car?
The car will be have an MOT from the dealer next week and I'd really like to be armed with my rights and what I'm entitled to. It's hard not to be distrustful of a place that i was previously very happy with. Any information anyone could provide would be great so that I can get through this situation less naively this time.
Many thanks in advance
