Consumer board shifts car repair costs to sellers

The Finnish Consumer Disputes Board says sellers should generally repair faults in cars sold to consumers without charging buyers. The change replaces its previous practice of recommending that repair costs be shared, Yle reports.

The board announced the change in April. However, some car dealers still ask buyers to contribute to repair costs.

Eija, whose real name Yle is withholding, bought a used 2014 Volvo estate from a dealer in Tampere last September. She says the seller told her the car had no faults and was not expected to need repairs for at least a year.

The car failed its inspection four days after the purchase, with four faults involving a front-wheel axle, suspension and shock absorption. Eija also learned that the timing belt needed to be replaced immediately, although she says the seller had told her it would not need changing for at least another year. The inspection faults and the need to replace the belt had already been recorded in a document prepared by another dealer about two months earlier.

After several days of emails and disagreement over who should pay, the selling dealer agreed to cover repairs for the faults listed at the inspection. It asked Eija to pay 40 per cent of the timing-belt replacement cost, or 240 euros.

Board chair Katri Kummoinen says most vehicle disputes brought to the board concern repairs and who pays for them. The board’s recent decisions under the new approach have involved relatively new cars worth tens of thousands of euros, but the principle that repairs should be free to the consumer applies regardless of a car’s age or mileage, she said.

There are exceptions. Not every fault in an older, high-mileage car is considered a defect, and sellers may not have to cover the full cost if repairs would approach the car’s purchase price. In such cases, the seller may still have some responsibility, and options can include cancelling the sale or reducing the price.

The board’s decisions are recommendations, not binding court judgments. It says dealers that have received recommendations under the new approach have followed them, but it does not have comprehensive information on compliance across the industry. Companies that do not follow recommendations may be named on Consumer magazine’s blacklist.