Used car warranty – the law and your rights

Warranties available on a used car

A warranty is a form of insurance cover against certain faults the car may develop, over and above your statutory rights. It does not override or replace your rights under the Consumer Rights Act, but it covers a wider range of faults which would not be acceptable reasons for rejecting the car altogether.

There are several different types of warranty that may apply to the used car you are buying, and it is important to know which applies to you.

New car warranty

A fairly new used car (less than three years old) will almost certainly still be covered by whatever is left of the manufacturer’s new car warranty. This is the best kind of cover you can have, as it is usually more straightforward to make a claim via a franchised main dealer.

The car has to be regularly serviced for the manufacturer’s warranty to stay valid and, although the car companies prefer you to have any work carried out by a franchised dealer, they can’t force you to. However, if you have it serviced by a non-official workshop, make sure it’s done to the manufacturer’s schedule and using approved parts.

Most manufacturers offer a three-year warranty on their new cars, but some offer more. Many also offer extended warranties at extra cost, but be aware that these may not offer the same terms and benefits as the original warranty.

• New car servicing – do I have to take my car back to the dealer?

Approved used car warranty

Main dealers of big brands will also usually have an “approved used car warranty” of some sort, usually for 12 months. These are usually branded as a manufacturer warranty, but are mostly managed and underwritten by a third party insurer.

Often this type of warranty has an attached requirement that the car has to be serviced by either the selling dealer or another franchised dealer for the warranty to be valid. This is enforceable because, unlike the new car warranty, the cover is not actually provided by the manufacturer.

Aftermarket used car warranty

The majority of traders will offer some form of warranty on their used cars, but the value of these warranties vary massively.

The term offered may be as little as a week or maybe a few months – anything more than three months is fairly unusual – and there will be very specific areas that are excluded from the warranty cover (usually the most expensive components to repair).

Older, cheaper, higher-mileage cars tend to be offered with warranties that cover significantly less than those offered on newer and more expensive cars, so check what level of cover you’re getting.

Usually, the dealer will hope to sell you a longer-term used car warranty over and above what’s included in the purchase price. Bear in mind that, like most things, a dealership is about the most expensive place around to buy extras like warranties and insurance.

If you’re interested in protecting your investment over and above what’s included when you buy the car, shop around online to compare what’s available with what the dealer is peddling. You’ll almost certainly find an alternative that’s cheaper and/or more comprehensive than the dealer’s offer.

No warranty at all?

A warranty is not a legal requirement for a used car, and it’s fairly common on very cheap used cars (less than a couple of thousand pounds or so) to be sold without any warranty at all.

Unlike your statutory rights, a dealer can also offer you a discount in return for waiving the warranty. However, you should be very wary of any dealer who makes this offer, as it is making you financially responsible for any fault that is not significant enough to reject the car.

A dealer may tell you that if you bought the same car privately you wouldn’t get a warranty, and it makes it impossible for a dealer to trade profitably if they have to provide an expensive warranty on a cheap car. By not offering a warranty, they can pass on the savings to you. That may be true, but it does leave you exposed so consider your position carefully.

Your statutory rights on any used car

Many buyers confuse warranties with their legal rights, but they are two different things. Warranty or not, you are still covered by your statutory rights if the car you’ve bought is faulty or not roadworthy.

Any used car purchase by a private individual from a trader is covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which means you can reject the car if it is not as described or is faulty. You are also covered by the Road Traffic Act 1988, under which it is an offence for a trader to sell an unroadworthy vehicle (unless the buyer knows that the vehicle is unroadworthy and has no intention of driving it on the road in its present state).

You should also read: Rejecting a faulty car – what are your rights?

It does not matter whether a used car is priced at £500, £50,000 or £500,000; if you are private individual buying a car from a trader then you are covered by the Consumer Rights Act. These rights also cannot be waived in return for a discount or any other offer.

Although there is no specific legal description, a faulty used car is generally considered to be a car that is not roadworthy and/or is not safe. Secondary or more minor issues, like a broken stereo or paintwork problems, are generally not acceptable reasons to reject a car under the Consumer Rights Act. However, the legislation wording is not very clear, so ultimately it can come down to who makes a better case in court, should it get that far.

If you end up taking your case to court, the judge will take things like age and mileage into account when considering whether a fault is considered significant enough to reject the vehicle. So if your car is ten years old car with 100,000 miles on the clock, it will probably be given considerably more leeway than a two-year-old car that has done 10,000 miles.

The key thing to remember if you are considering rejecting a used car is that:

“A car with a fault is not necessarily a faulty car”

The Car Expert