Rawdon Motors Ltd review: Hyundai Tucson vehicle

Misled into buying a faulty vehicle and trader ignoring consumer rights.

Purchased a vehicle in May 2022 to the tune of £15k. It was 5 years old and had done 40k miles, certainly not an older banger and I thought it would be a reliable car.

I test drove it for a few miles and everything seemed okay. Was assured on enquiry and date of purchase it was a pristine and outstanding example. I have screenshots of their advert claiming this, which I screenshot and submitted as evidence later on.

In fact I documented every single conversation I had with all parties involved, and boy am I glad I did.

On the drive home, around 40 miles away from their showroom a fault developed with the vehicle.

I managed to get the car home and phoned them straight away, along with a local main dealer of the vehicle manufacturer and another local independent garage.

Advice from Rawdons was to drive it around for a few days and see how I got on. Probably the worst advice you could be given when the fault relates to a red warning light relating to engine oil pressure.

The other independent garage and main dealer both advised I should return the car, as when a fault is found within the first 30 days of purchase consumers are entitled to their money back in full.

I was happy to see if the vehicle could be repaired first, and to be fair to Rawdons they paid the bill for a diagnostic and a replacement of a faulty sensor which a diagnostic had picked up. This was about £400. This was done by a local independent garage, as they didn’t want to pay the main dealer prices nor did they want to collect the vehicle. I was not willing to drive 50 miles back to them given the serious and potentially dangerous nature of the fault (engine malfunction). I should also note, per the consumer rights act (2015), it is up to the dealer to ensure the consumer is not inconvenienced, hence the request for them to collect.

Unfortunately the fault persisted after the initial repair, and likely a larger fault was at play. Although the initial repair fixed the component that was replaced, the fault remained.

I got a follow up diagnostic from my local main dealer, FOC as it was included as part of the initial diagnostic paid and the technicians report from the follow up diagnostic stated the fault was still present. The report also stated that the work carried out by the independent garage on the part replaced was to a satisfactory standard and the part operated as expected.

I explained this to Rawdons and requested a refund, within the 30 days of purchase.

This is when they started getting difficult.

Ignoring calls became the norm, and when I could get through I was met with false promises and call backs that just never materialised. The owner Mark was never available, and there was always a convenient excuse for him to hide behind his sales men.

When Rawdons finally agreed to collect the car to inspect it themselves, and this is after escalating the refund request and after 2-3 letters to them, outlining my rights to a refund, I finally got through to the owner. The vehicle was towed back to them. Proof again the vehicle was deemed unsafe to drive, and they knew it. Although they were quite happy for me to run the risk of driving it.

After a few days wait and then being told there was nothing wrong with the car, and that I would not be getting my money back and then the cheek of being asked when I will collect the car from them, I informed Mark I would be enlisting the help of a solicitor and using every resource available to me to get my money back.

He was completely delusional and insisted that if this went to court he would win the case.

Solicitor letters were sent to Rawdons, not surprisingly they were also ignored. I decided to contact the bank to start the chargeback process before issuing court proceedings. This was the final step before going to court, that would come at the least cost and convenience to me.

I also contacted the DVLA and explained the situation to them, and they agreed I would no longer be the registered keeper and get the vehicle tax I had paid back. This was also submitted as evidence to the bank.

Every step of the way I ensured I was acting within the guidelines of the consumer rights act (2015), so I knew exactly what I could and should be entitled to.

After three separate evidence submissions and detailed written reports outlining every step of the awful experience, including a copy of the solicitors letter that was sent, the technicians report from the diagnostic and the follow up diagnostic report, the chargeback was resolved in my favour in January 2023.

The car was purchased May 28th 2022. The refund request was made June 2022 and I finally got every penny back by January 2023.

Let this be a warning to anyone who may be thinking of doing business with this trader.

Do yourself a favour and take your hard earned money somewhere else.

I’m fairly confident the majority of the 5 star reviews about this place are fictitious, and after digging a bit deeper I have found a number of other unfortunate consumers who have found themselves in similar positions to myself, some more financially worse off!

I was without my money and a car that I could use for its intended purpose for a total of 235 days.

Rawdons behaviour and lack of professionalism was completely abhorrent. They demonstrated pretty much zero accountability in selling me a faulty vehicle, whether that was intentional or unintentional, but what was intentional was their total lack of disregard for my consumer rights and lack of ethical conduct.

Now that I’ve got my money back I will be pursuing claims for damages and costs incurred as a result of being without the vehicle for so long.