Do I have any legal recourse against a garage that didn't disclose my car had been damaged?

I bought a MINI from an approved dealer 12 months ago, it was an ex demonstrator. It recently developed an issue with the air con. When I took it into my local authorised MINI repairer they said it was because of a leaking coolant, caused by two pipes rubbing together. But said this may not be covered under warranty because the pipes may not have been put back correctly when the damage was repaired when the front end was replaced. This is the first I have heard of the MINI having been in any collision and having had any work done on it. Should the garage that sold it have informed me that it had been in a crash? What, if any, recourse do I have?

Asked on 14 March 2017 by Ade Hammill

Answered by Honest John
Yes, under the 2009 CPRs the original selling garage was duty bound to tell you that the car had been damaged and repaired and is liable for the consequences of not having told you. It's covered here, but quite a long way down. Summary first, then a link to the entire guide: The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations May 2008 (CPRs) contains a general prohibition against unfair commercial practices and, in particular prohibitions against misleading actions, misleading omissions and aggressive commercial practices. The Regulations are enforceable through the civil and criminal courts. This creates an offence of misleading omissions which would not previously have been an offence if the consumer had not asked the right questions. So if a salesman knows a car has, for example, been badly damaged and repaired and does not tell the customer, he could later be held liable if the customer subsequently discovered that the car had been damaged and repaired. Link: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/consumer-rights/
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