Hi guys,
I bought a car from a private seller in Brisbane two weeks ago for $45,500. While driving back to Sydney I smelled burning oil, so once home I booked it in for a diagnosis. The car was serviced by Land Rover 3 months ago but the car has basically sat still for those 3 months (as evidenced by the km's on the service receipt).
The oil burning smell is a $3,500 job to repair (probably more at Land Rover), myself and my mechanic suspects they knew of the leak and told the owner to spend big or sell it, which he did.
As I was suspicious I emailed the Land Rover who serviced the car pretending to be the previous owner and asked them to remind me what the cost was to fix the oil leak. They wrote back confirming in writing they were unable to diagnose the oil leak last time and need the car again.
There was no mention of the oil leak in either the service book or sellers add. The car has big plates underneath the car so no oil drops to the ground. In addition, the dealer didn't even stamp the book, I only knew it was serviced due to the small sticker on the windscreen which shows the next service isn't due for another year and so I rung them and got confirmation when it was last serviced, again pretending to be the old owner.
I believe this is deceitful that we cannot rely on the service books or the seller to be open about the issues of the car when it is clear they knew. Do I have a leg under Australian Consumer Law to stand on to request they pay for the repairs? If so, who should I approach, the seller or the mechanics?
Thanks
I bought a car from a private seller in Brisbane two weeks ago for $45,500. While driving back to Sydney I smelled burning oil, so once home I booked it in for a diagnosis. The car was serviced by Land Rover 3 months ago but the car has basically sat still for those 3 months (as evidenced by the km's on the service receipt).
The oil burning smell is a $3,500 job to repair (probably more at Land Rover), myself and my mechanic suspects they knew of the leak and told the owner to spend big or sell it, which he did.
As I was suspicious I emailed the Land Rover who serviced the car pretending to be the previous owner and asked them to remind me what the cost was to fix the oil leak. They wrote back confirming in writing they were unable to diagnose the oil leak last time and need the car again.
There was no mention of the oil leak in either the service book or sellers add. The car has big plates underneath the car so no oil drops to the ground. In addition, the dealer didn't even stamp the book, I only knew it was serviced due to the small sticker on the windscreen which shows the next service isn't due for another year and so I rung them and got confirmation when it was last serviced, again pretending to be the old owner.
I believe this is deceitful that we cannot rely on the service books or the seller to be open about the issues of the car when it is clear they knew. Do I have a leg under Australian Consumer Law to stand on to request they pay for the repairs? If so, who should I approach, the seller or the mechanics?
Thanks
