Non Refundable Deposit Lost -- Car ESP ASR system faulty

Due to someone reversing into my fiancée's car recently and resulting in it being written off we were in desperate need of a replacement vehicle.

We found an ideal looking car (Peugeot 3008 SJ61OXL) on car giant and our car finance company recommended that we book a test drive and put a deposit down as soon as possible as cars sell really quickly.

On Friday 20th of February I went and took it for a brief 8 minute test drive ( 0.6 mile round trip into an abandoned part of an industrial estate) and all seemed okay then so I proceeded with the paperwork and put down a "non refundable deposit" of £200 to hold the car for three days, feeling pressured into doing it because if you don’t you could lose the car to someone else. i signed the contract and went home feeling reasured that we would have a car the following week.

(oh and another thing they forget to mention on the website, if it is longer than three days the deposit increases to £400 plus if you pick up the car after midday on the weekend you are subject to another charge. Again not mentioned on the website.)

My fiancée, her father, our son and I went to collect a car on Wednesday 25th February from car giant.

Firstly, we were told there was very little diesel in the car so we decided to check how to open the fuel cap, Upon checking the car we noticed there was no petrol cap, we raised this issue (they had our reg on a post it note and seemed to know about this) and about 20 minutes later a technician arrived with a petrol cap. I left to go to my car (the one we arrived in).

Upon stating my car about 8 minutes later, I received a call from my fiancée to say that the cars ESP ASR system faulty
warning lights were on on the dashboard and that the car was juddering, they had literally driven about 100 feet. I went back inside to report this and the gentleman I spoke to said it was because there was only a little diesel in the car. (Really????), It doesn't take a mechanic to know that was rubbish. He asked us to go to the cafe and have a drink on them while they had their mechanics run a diagnostic and let us know in half an hour.

Half an hour later and having been completely put off the car and having googled the fault and the potential cost (circa £900 ABS Pumps, worst case scenario) to repair we decided to call our finance company to get their advice about cancelling the agreement. They advised us to just hand back any paperwork and leave.

When my father in law went back they told him they had fixed the faults and adjusted the sensors, the person we spoke to said and I quote " most of these cars with sensors you just reset the lights " unqoute. Now I'm no mechanic but the warning and faulty lights are there for a reason, and if the warning lights were just meant to be reset then there would be a reset button on the dashboard for the driver to reset.

Absolutely disgusted at this point I handed back all documents and keys. As the vehicle was unsatisfactory, unfit for purpose and not of satisfactory quality and I wasn't prepaired to accept it.

Also, unbeknownst to us they never informed us that the car was previously a disability car and for those reasons we were unable to tax it on site (none of this was mentioned on the Friday when I left the deposit, I was told we could use the computer in the collection area to tax the car).

All of this was more than we were prepared to handle and we were not prepared to accept the vehicle after all the hassle, faults and issues, so we handed everything back and left.

We are however short the £200 deposit "non refundable" fee that we paid on Friday. I feel that I would be able to get this back as the deal never went through and we were sold a vehicle that was not as advertised (working) or fit for purpose. I have since called them to get the money back, they nearly said yes but the lady went off the phone for a moment then came back and said no.

We have since gone with Robins Day Peugeot , the difference is night and day, plus they offered to cover the first MOT, 1 year warranty and the next service. None of which were offered at car giant.