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Hi there,

I bought a car less than 3 months ago from a dealer. The car recently developed what appeared to be a pretty serious issue. The problem arose while I was driving from Wellington to Auckland. I was more than halfway through the journey so I continued on to Auckland on the assurance of a mechanic that it would not cause any more damage to the engine. I have had the vehicle checked by a mechanic in Auckland who discovered that the spark plugs were the complete wrong ones, and one of the plug leads was completely cracked inside and broke right off. If the car had been serviced or checked at all this would have most likely never happened and it has been incredibly inconvenient not to mention costly. Am I entitled to some kind of reimbursement? Also the leads seemed to fix most of the problem but I am fairly certain that there is still something funny going on with my car, but the mechanic who looked at it couldn't pick anything up with his diagnostic system, how should I go about getting this sorted.

I have the invoice from the day of purchase of the car, and the invoice from the mechanic, if that is helpful.

Thanks.

While the CGA is very clear in most areas, your situation is less clear cut. I wouldn't agree that spark plugs and leads are a serious issue and under normal circumstances, I'd say that they're a service item, therefore, your responsibility, not the dealer's. However, the wrong plugs (while not serious) could be grounds for you to request reimbursement from the dealer (ie; they're not fit for the purpose).
But firstly, did you contact the dealer prior to having the work done? While the dealer is bound by obligations under the CGA, so is the purchaser. One of the purchaser's obligations is to offer the dealer the right to rectify the problem even though the fault was rectified in another city.
If you haven't already contacted the dealer, you may not be on high ground. However, it wouldn't hurt to talk to the dealer, asking for a reimbursement. Under the circumstances, he may oblige.
As for further repairs, don't get anything done without getting the dealers authority first, as he is not bound to pay for unauthorised repairs.
While there is no set time that a dealer is bound by the CGA, things like age, mileage and price paid for the vehicle, as well as the mileage you have travelled since purchase could be considerations.

Is there no legal obligation for a dealer to check/service a car before sale? The car was barely driveable after the problem surfaced, I wouldn't consider that acceptable quality for the product. I contacted the dealer before getting the car checked and they said they might be able to partially reimburse my money, however since I was so far away I had to get something done about it in Auckland in order to get the car home. The car has done less than 4000 k's since purchase. Also, as I said in the last post there still seems to be something wrong with the car that the new leads did not fix

The dealer is under no obligation to service a car prior to sale and in fairness to him, if the car was running fine, he would not have known that the plugs were the wrong ones. It's good news that you contacted the dealer and he has agreed to contribute towards the repair, and I would advise you to pursue that.
While you don't specify what else seems to be wrong with the car, as per my last reply, make sure you get the dealer's approval before going ahead with any further repairs. Advise him of the symptoms, get his approval for you to have it looked at, then once the fault is diagnosed, advise him of the costs.