TERMS AND CONDITIONS

All of our sales will be made under one of the following 3 conditions.

a) RETAIL PURCHASE – I am purchasing this car for my use, and am driving this away with a private insurance policy in place. 

b)    TRADE SALE – This car is purchased with the intention of onward resale in the course of my business as a motor dealer. I will be given the full V5 where available.

c)     FOR SPARES OR REPAIRS –  I’ve been advised that this car does not meet the required standards as set out in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and therefore cannot legally be sold in accordance with that act.  This car must therefore be transported away and should be considered unfit for use on the public highway. 

The legal consumer protections for the above classifications differ, so it’s important that your invoice reflects your true status as a buyer, please correct our staff if there is any error at the point of sale.

Please be mindful of the fact that we mostly sell higher mileage vehicles, which are less than perfect, but the price will always reflect that.   Consequently, you can expect to have to incur imminent expenditure on certain items for example window mechanisms or controls, locks, bodywork, suspension or brake components, sensors, or any wearing parts or consumable parts.  This includes things like ball joints, bushes etc. None of which will be specifically designed to last the lifespan of the vehicle, these components will have a finite life.  In a bid to give you some specific forward guidance of such expenditures, we will endeavour to provide a brief overview of some of the items we check for in the form of a checklist.  Please note, this is NOT an exhaustive list by any means, it is merely a record of our check of these items.  Please be aware some of the content of which may be subjective, for example noise assessment’s or bodywork appraisals, also, just because we may have checked an item on a particular day, does not mean to say that item will be in the same state when purchased by yourself, so you are encouraged to check what you are considering purchasing carefully, and bring a mechanic if you fell unqualified.

The majority of our sales will be categorised as retail, and in such consideration, we will provide a 30-day warranty covering all Major Mechanical Engine and Gearbox issues, which sits in addition to your consumer rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

At the advertised asking price, we will provide a 31 day warranty cover against major mechanical engine & gearbox failure.  This is extendable at additional cost to cover 6 months, 1, 2 or 3 years.  You can opt for an extension within the first 30 days of vehicle ownership.

Please note in the event of any claim whereby we have provided you with an external warranty cover, you will need to contact the warranty company directly in the manor in accordance with the instructions on the documentation provided to you.  Your claim will be dealt with entirely by them in accordance with their terms and conditions.

Where you have not been provided with an external warranty, or there are grounds for us to address any suspected breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, we will do so with due regard to the act.  Please note, the act has provision for a number of considerations, for example fair wear and tear, description of goods, and specifically public statement about the specific characteristics of the goods.  We will require you to notify us by email to claims@sterlingcars.org within 24 hours of the problem arising where possible, and we will endeavour to provide a 24 hour response time.  We reserve the right to ask for the vehicle to be returned to us for inspection or repair if necessary, with any vehicle movement costs being borne by the buyer.  Please see our notes below entitled aftersales below to give you an idea of how we respond to claims.

Please note, where a vehicle is fitted with a timing belt as appose to a chain, unless we have provided proof to you that the belt has been renewed in accordance with manufactures recommended time/mileage intervals, it is incumbent upon the buyer to have this renewed within the first 31 days of vehicle ownership to avoid this prejudicing your position in the event of a claim which is related to a timing belt failure.

Please note all sales are subject to a £95 administration fee. This is included in the sale price of the vehicle and is non-refundable.

Warranty, all our retail sales carry a 31 day Major Mechanical Engine & Gearbox warranty.  IF ANYTHING IS AGREED BEYOND THIS, IT MUST BE IN WRITING PRINTED ON THE INVOICE and it is your responsibility as the customer to ensure this is done before you leave our office, as any claim may otherwise be repudiated.  Similarly, if you are sold an additional warranty cover, you will be emailed the details of such the same day.  If you do not receive this email YOU MUST CONTACT US imminently to resolve, any claim will be repudiated should you not be able to provide the email as proof of cover. 

TERMS OF DELIVERY

Any vehicle being delivered will be subject to a non-refundable delivery charge. This may be inclusive in the total cost of the vehicle but will be quoted as a separate charge and must be paid prior to the vehicle being released from our premises.

You are within your rights to test drive and inspect the vehicle at point of delivery and it remains within your rights to reject the vehicle but under any circumstances the delivery fee will be non-refundable.

AFTER SALES CARE & CONSUMER PROTECTION LEGISLATION 2015

Thank you for your consideration of Sterling Cars as provision for your car.   As a consumer, you are afforded certain legal protections under Consumer Rights Legislation 2015, which we take extremely seriously.

For the most part, these protections are fairly clear, and fairly easy to navigate, but with all legislation, there are grey areas which are open to interpretation, or reasoned argument, and the purpose of this text is to explain a little more about such, and give you, the consumer, an insight of our understanding of these areas and our interpretation of what our obligations are.

Although not legally obliged, we give a 31day Major Mechanical Engine and Gearbox cover as standard to consumers.  We do this because it’s a quick and easy way of assuring customers that if the engine or gearbox suffer a major mechanical failure in that time, there is protection that we will provide automatically in that time frame without question. 

It is impossible for any law to cover every eventuality, and all the nuances, because the possible variables are endless, and hence the existence of courts to make these fine judgements after pontification of the relevant arguments.

We are, in this text trying to highlight a few of these such grey areas that may be relevant to you, and try and convey our understanding of the legislation, in order to manage your expectation of our response, should you every need to anticipate such.

For example, if a customer purchased a £1000 Ford Fiesta, and a fortnight later the radio stopped working, that under consumer rights legislation, there would be no legal duty for us to fix it.  The vehicle is still perfectly functional, and of satisfactory quality in the eyes of the law.  Alternatively, if somebody purchased a £23,000 Range Rover and the radio failed after a fortnight, as a consumer, I would expect us as a company to have to address this problem in some capacity.  The reality is, arguably, it’s the same fault, but with different outcomes in terms our response.  If I had to articulate our response as a company, it would be this.  A £1000 car is being purchased fundamentally for the purpose of transport.  A non-functioning radio will not inhibit that.  The customer is getting what they have paid for, transport that is fit for purpose.  It not a legal requirement for us to fix the radio so we wouldn’t.   Someone paying us £23,000 for a Range Rover for example, (assuming they are paying market value) is clearly buying something more than just transport, they are paying for a degree of luxury, such is significantly compromised if the radio fails after a fortnight, and in such circumstance, they are not getting what they paid for, so we would feel duty bound to address this claim in some capacity.  If the radio on the Range rover failed after a month, we would take a different view, and be more inclined repudiate a claim.    This begs a number of questions, for example, would we cover a heated seat that failed on a Range Rover after a week, or how about an electric window?  Our view would be we would not cover a heated seat, or a window, however, if the driver’s window failed the next day after purchase, we would feel inclined to rectify this, if it was 28 days later we wouldn’t!  There are so many possibilities, they are endless, but we hope to herby give you some guidance to our thinking.  We would try and see any non-critical failure through the context of the purchase, (by that we mean what car has been brought, how much has been paid, and when was it brought relative to the claim, and what impact that failure has) and deal accordingly.

Engine Management Light (EML)

An EML light can come on for any number of reasons, and in the vast majority of cases, they do not indicate a serious major problem.  On any car, there are various sensors monitoring information all around the car from air intake temperature, to cooling fan switch position, oil temperature, exhaust gas pressure, fuel input, crank shaft and camshaft position sensors, the list is endless!   The engine ECU (computer) on board the vehicle is constantly monitoring all these inputs, and if it receives a value from one of these sensors, that is outside of expected parameters, it will illuminate the EML light.  This typically means that one of the sensors has failed, OR in more limited cases, there could be a problem with the car.   ENGINE MANAGEMENT LIGHTS VERY SELDOM HERALD MAJOR PROBLEMS.  Major problems are usually always heralded by other means, which we check for prior to sale in the first place!  For example, an oil pressure light or warning, cross contamination of fluids, overheating, undue excessive engine noise, excessive smoking, or smells etc. 

Our Policy on someone returning with an EML light claim is one of diagnosis first.  If the fault is demonstrably down to a failed sensor, which is not inhibiting the cars performance, this is not something we would typically be pre-dispositioned to address.  If, however, the EML is indicating for example a blocked DPF filter with associated compromised performance, this is something we would typically address, assuming appropriate proximity to sale.

Often in grey areas we may seek to find a compromise solution, but in any eventuality there are 2 golden rules we will always try and adhere to.

A)    To be totally complaint with Consumer regulations at all times.

B)     To be as fair and reasonable as we can be to our customers with due regard to what they have purchased and the price paid.

We hope that this may be helpful in provided some general guidance as to our interpretation of the legislation as a company, and gives you a very rough feel for what you can reasonably expect us to address and what we will not.

If in any doubt, we will always welcome a conversation.