Nottinghamshire trading standards teams have offered their top tips to Gedling borough residents to help them avoid being ripped off when buying second-hand cars.
Problems with second hand cars remain the most common issue that consumers raise complaints about after falling victim to rogue sellers or unknowingly buying a problem vehicle.
There were 6,098 complaints from East Midland’s consumers in relation to second hand cars in the year 2015/16.
The most common reported issues were defective goods (73%), misleading claims omissions (11%), substandard services (5%) and business practices (3%).
A total of 1,520 of these complaints came from consumers in Nottinghamshire, amounting to 15 percent of all complaints received by the County Council’s Trading Standards team.
Additionally, the rise of car sales on online auction sites, online dealers and sales on social media has meant that many people are buying from a person whom they do not know how to locate should problems arise in future.
Some of the most common issues experienced by consumers include:
• traders denying buyers of their legal rights by posing as private sellers
• failing to tell consumers about known problems with the car or past history such as category C or D write off
• misleading claims in adverts or during the sales pitch, and hiding faults in the car
• poor after sales care when rectifying faults, such as traders passing the buck to the warranty company when consumers have rights with the seller
• looking at the vehicle’s history and carry out a history check such as HPI to see if it has been involved in any accidents.
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