In June this year my wife and I bought a Lexus L400 form a dealer (not Lexus dealer), on checking the car we found that the spare tyre was flat, so the salesman said it would be sorted out, it was put in for an MOT where they did some work on it to get it through the MOT.

On picking up the car I checked to see if it had been blown up and it had.

Yesterday on cleaning the boot out, I had to take the spare out because something had fallen down past it, and the spare is bald and has a great big gash in it.

Took the car back to the dealer and they say that there is no legal requirement for the car to have a legal spare tyre for them to sell the car, ?????????, which I find hard to believe, they offer to do a new tyre at trade price at the garage which did the MOT. I always thought it was a legal requirement to have five legal tyres for an MOT but the garage says not so. So I asked if they had taken the spare out to inflate it they said no they hadn't, so someone at the dealer's took out the spare and inflated it, and put it back in the car. That person must have seen the state of the tyre.

I am wondering if anyone could advise on the legal requirements of selling a car with illegal tyres and on MOT's?

I am going to speak to a lawyer to find out where I stand

Its not a requirement to have a spare, but if you do have one it must be legal to pass the MOT.

If you took it out of the car for the MOT it would pass fine.

i would check anything you may have signed, usually says sold as seen somewhere

the dealers will say they had an mot done and it passed
the mot peeps will say it was either not there or was legal at the time

a month or so later you could have wrecked it yourself (not saying you did)and then go back and say it was like it when you brought it

basically its your word against theirs
wouldnt hold on to too much hope!!

[quote name='ricky_is200' date='Jul 31 2003, 12:35 PM']Its not a requirement to have a spare, but if you do have one it must be legal to pass the MOT.[/quote]
The MOT centre do not look at the spare on an MOT but if they notice it and it is not legal then they have to inform the car presenter of the illegal tyre.

Legal advise I have taken say it basically my word against there word if I take to a small claims court, but suggested going to trading standards and see what they say.

He may NOT have noticed it was worn as it is possible

to inflate the tyre whilst it is lying in the boot

I think that the crunch is the written and / or verbal contract you had with the seller. You bought the car in good faith that the spare wheel needed pumping up not replacing.
If the seller had said,' The spare wheel is flat and has no tread' your immediate response would have been to negotiate the purchase around this matter. The seller should have replaced it free or altered the price of the sale.
The Lexus spares fit so tightly in the boot that it is necessary to take them out to check the tread.
Any responsible garage would have done this prior to the car being sold and handed over.
I solicitor would certainly charge more than the cost of a new tyre and if I was you I would sound out the local Trading Standards to get their view. They may have had other reports concerning this garage and may be a position to put pressure on the proprietor to appease you.

Cheers for all the advise, will look in to going further.