A dad has voiced his anger at a car dealer over a Vauxhall Insignia which allegedly started "pouring" oil within weeks of purchase.
Daniel Morgan, from Llanelli, has complained about the condition of the car he bought in August from New Road Motors in Pengam, Caerphilly county.
Mr Morgan, 38, was "absolutely disgusted" by his experience with New Road Motors. He claimed: "I've bought a car and it's become completely undriveable within about two weeks."
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A spokesman for New Road Motors denied any wrongdoing over the Insignia. They claimed the business had "bent over backwards to accommodate" the customer, adding: "[The dealership's owner Evan Courtney] earns a living, and is bound by all the laws and regulations that cover the motor trade."
Dad-of-six Mr Morgan bought the car on August 24 by exchanging his non-roadworthy Mitsubishi Outlander and paying £1,500 on top. He claimed the Outlander was valued at £1,500 in the deal. The Insignia had seven previous owners.
"Within a couple of days I'd noticed the car was burning oil away," claimed Mr Morgan. "I had to top up every day or two.
"On September 10, I pulled up outside my house and it flashed up that the engine coolant and oil were low. When I turned the engine off I could hear bubbling. I looked under the car, and fluid and oil were pouring out on the road."
The New Road Motors spokesman said Mr Morgan reported the oil leak "within a week or so" of buying the car. "We immediately offered to have the vehicle back, in order for it to be checked," they added. "He accused [us] of not checking the vehicle before it was sold to him. This was totally wrong."
The dealership collected the car on September 12 and found its head gasket was broken. Its repair was outsourced to another garage.
Mr Morgan claims that when he asked for an update on the repair, New Road Motors staff spoke to him with foul and inappropriate language. The dealership denies this. Its spokesman alleges such language was instead used by Mr Morgan, which he denies.
The customer alleges that New Road Motors has failed to honour a three-month warranty period. He claims the garage doing the repair has told him that the car will be ready on Friday but that he will have to pay £1,200 for the fix.
The New Road Motors spokesman claims that Mr Morgan's behaviour meant the dealership "no longer wanted him as a customer". The business offered to refund him the £1,500 and return the Outlander, which the customer rejected. Its spokesman said: "This would have put Mr Morgan in the same position as he was before the contract commenced, and was in line with the advice that we had taken from a highly experienced trading standards officer."
But the customer disagreed it would have put him in the same position. He told WalesOnline he had already paid £720 in insurance and tax on the Insignia. "Plus the Outlander would have devalued even more after signing over to them as the number of previous owners would have risen," he said. "Regardless of that, I would have been more out of pocket as I'd have had to pay for another trailer or recovery vehicle to pick it up."
Mr Morgan said he may have to borrow from his uncle to cover the Insignia's repair bill. He added: "For the past few weeks I've been completely stuck, walking my son three miles on a Saturday morning to get to his football. It's affected everything from day-to-day shopping to school runs. I'm lost without a car. I suffer from depression and anxiety, and my stress has gone through the roof because of this."
New Road Motors claims that Mr Morgan failed to tell the dealership that the Outlander was not roadworthy. The customer described this as "absolute nonsense", claiming: "The Mitsubishi Outlander arrived up there on the back of a trailer with no MOT and they checked the car over — hence giving £1,500 for a vehicle that if you do a valuation on Auto Trader comes back as £4,500."
The New Road Motors spokesman claimed: "We have spoken to a trading standards officer [from Carmarthenshire Council] who confirmed that by offering him his money back, we had discharged our duties and legal responsibilities. Hence there is no action being taken by trading standards, who are the body responsible for policing and investigating such complaints."
The council's sustainability cabinet member Aled Vaughan Owen said: "Our trading standards officers have offered their assistance to Mr Morgan to attempt a satisfactory resolution in the matter.”
The dealership's owner Evan Courtney was previously fined in 2018 for advertising a dangerous Jeep Grand Cherokee with faulty brakes as a "stunning" vehicle and selling it for £2,500.
When Mr Courtney was sentenced in 2018, Cardiff Crown Court heard a Jeep sold by his All Sorts Motor Company business in Caerphilly had "a long list of extremely worrying defects". The sale was made while Mr Courtney was being investigated by trading standards officers "for a series of similar previous offences", we reported at the time. He was ordered to pay £12,436 after admitting two counts of engaging in misleading commercial practice.
New Road Motors, which has an average rating of 2.7 stars after 48 Google reviews, said in a statement: "Mr Evan Courtney does still deal in motor vehicles. There is no good reason why he should not. There is no prohibition preventing him from so doing. The conviction that Mr Morgan is mentioning is not new, and there are no court sanctions hanging over his head."
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