Yes its the law, all motor traders are covered by it. Sale of Goods Act and another piece of legislation that escapes me at the moment. I bought from an independent dealer, had a 1 month 'warranty' and car broke down 4 months after purchase. It is up to the dealer to prove fault was not preexisting, not up to you to prove it was. I had to speak to the director of the garage I bought from as the garage staff tried to wriggle out of paying but persistence paid off in the end.

Following text copied from Honest John website:

"The Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002, is derived from EU Directive 1999/44/EU which became Clauses 48A to 48F inclusive of the Sale of Goods act in April 2003. This reverses the burden of proof so that if goods go faulty within six months after purchase it is deemed they were faulty at the time of purchase and the trader has the onus of proving that the item is not defective due to a manufacturing defect."

Thanks Kiwibacon.

@ Pete T I bought the car from a car dealer showroom in my local town, do the regulations also apply to those kind of outlets ? I sincerely hope so as spending £6K on a car was quite a big hit for me only for it to want a third of its value spending on it just 3 months later. The DPF light did come on once just after I bought it and I followed the instructions and it went out again... jeez this is a right case of bad luck.

Think I will try and get my local spanner to perform the Mr Muscle trick first, as its the cheapest option.

Get your local spanner to first check all the vacuum hoses to the turbo actuator are in good condition. If they come off or leak you'll also lose all low end boost and power.

To all thinking the selling dealer cant be dragged screaming to paying out. The DPF is a Filter & as such is a consumeable item with a limited life. I had huge run ins with Skoda on this with a previous car & got absolutely no where. The supplying dealer can not be expected to know what state the filter was in as it depends on how the previous owner used the car. As its a replace when full filter he cant be pulled up for missing mileage specific changes to the filter. Any battle down that route will be I think a long one & chances of success are mimimum. Still worth threatening him , he may even make a contribution, you wont know until you try but I think sadly you will get very little joy.

Early DPF's are really bad news, they were botched thinking to keep existing Engines in production. Hopefully as newer engine designs appear & the knowledge base improoves they will become more reliable.

I think once its been removed & remapped you will find it a much nicer car to own if thats any concilation

Stuart_J is right, the DPF is technically a filter but the expense of replacing this (if necessary) would be classed as 'unreasonable' IMHO in the first few months of ownership which invokes the relevant legislation.

You could of course mention the small claims court which may be worth considering if the dealer won't play ball.

Edited 25 February, 201313 yr by Pete T

Stuart_J is right, the DPF is technically a filter but the expense of replacing this (if necessary) would be classed as 'unreasonable' IMHO in the first few months of ownership which invokes the relevant legislation.

You could of course mention the small claims court which may be worth considering if the dealer won't play ball.

My Logic is if you bought a car & 3 months later the clutch went that again is a consumable & you would have a similar fight with a dealer, the old "its the way you have been driving it" statement could apply to that as well.

When I had the rows with Skoda over the Mk1 Superb at one point 80,000 miles was mentioned as a point where the DPF would be on borrowed time. The car posted has done 125,000 miles so assuming & I am assuming similar logic applies a DPF failure at that mileage would be another point not in the claimants favour.

Personally I would go in looking for the lot with a priced estimate from the Skoda dealer, & see where it goes. If you get a contribution to the 2K bill in the end it will go a long way to Sharks bill for sorting it out

The DPF light did come on once just after I bought it and I followed the instructions and it went out again...

I'll have a fiver on this being a dead DPF.

I'll have a fiver on this being a dead DPF.

I'm thinking something else has contributed to that. Possibly clogged turbo vanes.

Possibly, but of all the clogged turbo vane threads I've read the car has ended up in limp-home mode sooner rather than later...