I'm hoping you can clarify whether I have grounds to push forward/make a claim regarding a second hand car I bought from a trader that has given me nothing but grief! Brief details below...
The car was purchased in February for £5600, it's a 2003 but with low mileage (46000). It was paid via bank transfer but some of the money used was through bank loan. (The car has now done 52000 miles).
Very soon after purchasing the car started having intermittent gearbox faults, the car would stall (it's an auto!), the gearbox fault light would come on and the car would go into limp mode. This is the main problem, the car also had a battery drain issue, faulty PDC sensor and faulty o2 sensor. The latter problems are things I may expect for a car of this age and did not bother me so much.
I used to work in a dealership of the same manufacturer so have lots of experienced technician friends so I did not both the trader to begin with as I thought I was best placed to get it fixed. Unfortunately it seems the problem is hard to diagnose and is costing lots of time and money, i've been having to borrow cars and on one occasion I couldn't make it into work.
In May I decided to text the trader to make him aware of the problems but stated that I wasn't going to ask him for anything at that point. A few days ago I decided that the car was causing me too much grief so emailed him (after not being able to get through to him by phone) detailing the problems I text him about further and asking for his assistance. His response was that he wouldn't help toward the cost of repair as I had waited too long and continued to use the car which may have made the problem worse. The advice of my technician friends was that it would not cause further problems with the car unless I drove it in limp mode (which I don't, unless i'm half way through a journey and it doesn't reset after turning ignition off and on).
I have limited knowledge about the consumer rights act 2015 but understand that within 6 months if the car is faulty then it must be repaired at the cost of the trader and it is down to him to disprove that the issue wasn't there at time of purchase. I honestly believe that the fault was there at time of purchase, or intermittently before time of purchase...
Is the trader right, will I struggle as I didn't inform him as soon as it happened? Or do I still have grounds to pursue?
I appreciate your help and advice in advance,
B