Roadster issues

A mate just brought (thorugh e-bay) a 71 wizzard roadster, when he was first looking at it i told him to confirm that it had blueplate/correct paperwork of which he was told its all fine. The car was roadworthy'd apon sale.

So they did a deal and the car was sent down. He brought it round for me to see and only a quick look showed a rather large hole in the left side inner wing that would have never passed roadworthy. So bit more of a look found a lot of oil on and around the engine( on my driveway to!!) so i asked him for a look at the paper work.

No blue plate and no other paper work saying its a wizard convertable or any other than a sedan beetle. He went into main roads and on there system its a sedan not a convertable and he cant trasfer the rego and the blue slips states convertable.

Now the question i am asking is what way to go next, does anyone have any real idea of how to go about this. The price of the car was 7 grand and it went into the local blueplater and he said it is going to have to have a full inspection before he could blueplate it with a high cost.

From what i can work out the people who did the roadworthy are liable for any costs or if main roads are involved the full refund of the price of the car. is that right? We have spoken the the people he brought it of and his answer is (its got a roadworthy and u brought it so not my problem) so he contacted the roadworthy station and they have been sort of forth coming but very stand offish.

When he had the car looked at today they also did a roadie on her and the front discs are well under legal limit, one of the rear drums is totaly sezid so that there is no brake movement (wheel turns freely but brakes dont work at all) and they tryed to remove the drum to see but its stuck fast. the big hole,oil leaks,windscreen wipers dont work, washer jets dont work and a couple of other things tha slip my mind but u get the jist of it..

The car came from north Qld and we are in C'qld so its not like we can pop to their station to sort this out ... poor blokes done his arse on this and doesnt have the sort of money to get it right plus for the price he payed he shouldn't have to...

one last thing would there be any way other than main roads we can find out if this car had ever had approvel papers ? from vin numbers etc? or do any of you know the car, i am lead to belive it was red before but its been painted (quite badly i mite add grey)


ihave taken a couple of pictures on my phone and will try to post them up tomorow.

any help, ideas (bar going up north and knee caping the bastards!!) would be great .

cheers

steff...............

I would go through ebay and have the car returned and get his money back. The seller has sold him something and said things that he knew to be false. I hope he has saved the answers from the seller to show proof of their conversation. Did he pay with paypal as he might even be able to get the money back off ebay as they have an insurance policy (I think).

Good luck with it all, Kev.

I'd contact the seller and tell them and the person who roadworthyed it, that if your mate doesn't get all his money back, including all costs that you will tell the following people about them.

The Police fraud squad,
Their local council They may be backyard mechanics,
Their local Motor Traders Association, as above,
The Taxation Dept., if they are a business.

I know that there is a general attitude of "Caveat emptor" or "Let the buyer beware", but this seems like an extreme case, that the above people may be interested in knowing about.

Ring the local paper to see if they are interested in a story on dodgy roadwothy issuers. If you get a positive reply send a copy to the guys that did the road worthy to see if they will come to the party. If you have no luck contact main roads as all roadworthy stations have to be approved and they will investigate. If the workshop is RACQ approved contact them and they will investigate the shop and cancel their approval if it is found guilty. Park the car out front of the shop with a list of the faults on the window and a big lemon sign. Good Luck.🥷

Hi

I really feel sorry for the guy, I hope he can get his money back and then get a good car to enjoy.

I didn't think we had wizard roadsters in Australia, I thought they were a UK market thing.

This sort of stuff is typical of when the chop top Beetle craze was in last century, I used to see the worst Beetle that could be found hacked up with a new coat of paint, shiny wheels and silly looking roof that was made by a boat trimmer and the poor new owner had usually paid well over the real price for what was a worn out car, they then wondered why it was going to cost thousands of dollars to make car safe to drive, and many good VW were lost to these shonks as well.

Steve