I would like to know if I have a case here to go to court over. We bought a truck on Memorial Day 2014. The truck was advertised by a big de...

Question

I would like to know if I have a case here to go to court over. We bought a truck on Memorial Day 2014. The truck was advertised by a big dealership but when we went to look at it, at first the sales man couldn't find it. It turned up still in the back lot as if it wasn't ready for sale yet (my assumption). We test drove it, liked it and bought it. Within the first week, it didn't shift right and we took it back to be fixed, which the dealer did. Living in Southern California, it didn't get cold enough for the heater until January of this year. The heater didn't work at all. We took it to our mechanic and were told that the heating coil had been cut and bypassed. The dealership of course refuses to fix it as so much time has passed and they claim this would have been found during their inspection of the truck. In my opinion they advertised the truck prematurely and didn't do a thorough inspection. It was also not detailed yet, which that part we didn't care about. Both our mechanic and the dealership gave us estimates and this is a costly repair at over $800. We contacted the Baureau of Motor Vehicles but other than trying to be a middleman, we had no success. Do we even have a case here? Thank you for your time. Sabine

Answer

The answer can be complex. In some cases, the car dealer might be required to provide a minimum 30-day and/or 1000 mile warranty. In some case, there may be no warranty at all. Itsi difficult to common without seeing the sales contract.

Honestly, your best bet is to file a small claims action if you want to recover the cost of the repairs.