Bongo Fury

There seems to be a depressing number of 'bad' Bongo purchases in the threads these days.

Ok, there will always be 'dogs' as well as good cars, but it seems in some cases as tho' buyers aren't even giving themselves a fighting chance with their purchases.

You DO have a surprisingly good deal of protection even when buying privately. The only situation where it's fully mea culpa is when buying at an auction ( and I DON'T include eBay in this...). Even with proper car auctions, you will often be given considerable details about the vehicle which MUST be true.

As a very brief overview, when buying from a trader the vehicle must be 'as described', 'fit for its purpose', 'road worthy', 'of satisfactory quality', etc. You DO need to allow the purchase cost to determine the validity of these points, of course - you wouldn't have so much of a claim against a dealer if you bought a Bongo for £1-2k, for example.

With a private purchase, very simply the car must be 'as described'. This is where you REALLY need to plan ahead before buying. ASK about every detail that's important, and get the answers IN WRITING. That's it! Ok, this clearly isn't complete protection - if something goes horribly wrong with the car after purchase, you'd need to be able to show that the seller must have known about it. However, from reading some recent threads on here, it appears that some of these sellers MUST have been fully aware of their Bongo's serious problems.

Making a claim these days is child's play. You either go the Small Claims Court route, or even do it on-line (MoneyClaim.gov). If it's pretty obvious to you that the vendor must have known about the fault and misled you before the sale, then it will be equally obvious to the judge - they are human, sensible, and fair.

The seller would have to be bonkers to allow a claim to proceed - not only will he almost certainly lose, but will end up with a CCJ against him - highly undesirable, and a pretty persuasive argument for just saying 'fair enough' and recompensing you.

Hence my suggestion for a 'sticky'. We all know the Bongo's Achilles Heels - coolant probs, rust - (plus anything else...), so every planned purchase should be preceded with at least these Q's in writing.

Thoughts? A list of Q's to ask?

Don't forget a lot of people only post when they have a problem, there are thousands out there with no more troubles than any other car owner.

Have you loked in the FAQ section at the top of the Forum - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =43&t=7229 - the info is there, people just have to look, unfortunately it's usually after the event - you can lead a horse to water......

missfixit70 wrote:Have you loked in the FAQ section at the top of the Forum - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =43&t=7229 - the info is there, people just have to look, unfortunately it's usually after the event - you can lead a horse to water......

Trouble is by the time some horses are eventually lead to water they've already had a drink and it's left a nasty taste.

"Have you looked in the FAQ section at the top of the Forum..."

Here's me suggesting putting the info together, and it's already there...


The slightly different angle I was trying to get at (what a bodyswerve...) is to try and gain maximum protection for your purchase by covering yourself - legally - as best you can. I'm sure most of us will have asked the seller the usual questions - the "have you had any problems with it...?" type stuff but, should the car subsequently blow up, where does that question actually leave you?

However, if you were to ask - in writing, so you have a written reply - whether the car has suffered from any overheating/coolant loss, whether any mechanical work has been done on it, etc etc, and the car turns out to be an 'alibaba', then there's a good chance you DO have protection.

I know, Max - many 1,000s of happy Bongos out there!

I was just taken aback by the seemingly large number of problem purchases recently, many of which seem to have the same things in common: (1) obvious problems which clearly existed immediately prior to purchase and which the seller should (must) have been aware of, and (2) the buyer feeling they don't have a leg to stand on despite suspecting strongly they've been duped.

It makes me GRRRRRRRRR (having been there myself.)

Trouble at t'Mill wrote:I know, Max - many 1,000s of happy Bongos out there!

I was just taken aback by the seemingly large number of problem purchases recently, many of which seem to have the same things in common: (1) obvious problems which clearly existed immediately prior to purchase and which the seller should (must) have been aware of, and (2) the buyer feeling they don't have a leg to stand on despite suspecting strongly they've been duped.

It makes me GRRRRRRRRR (having been there myself.)

As we already have a "what to do before you buy" FAQ how about writing a "what to do afterwards if you consider you've been royally shafted by an unscrupulous seller" FAQ?

"what to do afterwards if you consider you've been royally shafted by an unscrupulous seller" FAQ?

Good idea but the best advice is probably to contact your local Trading Standards, as they know more about the legalities and how to proceed than we do.
This link gives pretty straight forward advice on what to look for when buying a vehicle
And Trading Standards gives basic advice on your rights when buying a vehicle on this link. And how to proceeed with a complaint on this link.
You can also phone or email them to talk things through.

Trouble at t'Mill wrote:"Have you looked in the FAQ section at the top of the Forum..."

Here's me suggesting putting the info together, and it's already there...


The slightly different angle I was trying to get at (what a bodyswerve...) is to try and gain maximum protection for your purchase by covering yourself - legally - as best you can. I'm sure most of us will have asked the seller the usual questions - the "have you had any problems with it...?" type stuff but, should the car subsequently blow up, where does that question actually leave you?

However, if you were to ask - in writing, so you have a written reply - whether the car has suffered from any overheating/coolant loss, whether any mechanical work has been done on it, etc etc, and the car turns out to be an 'alibaba', then there's a good chance you DO have protection.

Check out the last link on the FAQ - I added the recent discussion with your very useful input

I had forgotten about that too. Thanks, Kirsty.


The whole point about getting this stuff in writing is that you're on pretty decent legal ground afterwards IF the seller was 'trying it on'. If it was purely a verbal 'deal', then the seller could lie through his teeth about how good the car is before selling - and how could you prove he said anything different afterwards?

Ironically, I think in many ways buying privately could actually be 'safer' than buying through a small dealer (as I did). The bottom line with my purchase was, if the guy decided to fold his 'Limited' company as he said he would do - citing the downfall in the economy as the reason - there would be no way for me at all to get any money from him. In fact it was only the threat of criminal action (I believed he had obtained some additional money by deception) that finally made him move. Otherwise, I could well have been stuffed.

With a private sale, the threat of a CCJ as well as having to refund the purchase price would , I think, make 99% of sellers think very carefully about defending their dodgy action.

Obviously, the safest way to buy is via a large, known, respected dealer - but that usually comes (rightly) with a premium price tag.



BUT YOU NEED THAT INFO IN WRITING!!!

scanner wrote:

missfixit70 wrote:Have you loked in the FAQ section at the top of the Forum - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =43&t=7229 - the info is there, people just have to look, unfortunately it's usually after the event - you can lead a horse to water......

Trouble is by the time some horses are eventually lead to water they've already had a drink and it's left a nasty taste.

You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think.


It could be coat time folks