Christopher Luke to refund Belinda Victoria Howse over 2013 Volkswagen Multivan

A car dealer has been ordered to give a full refund to the buyer of an “immaculate” van after it was found to be a lemon.

A VW van similar to the one sold on the Gold Coast.

A Gold Coast car dealer has been ordered to give a full refund to the buyer of an “immaculate” van which he said “drives perfect” after it was found to be a lemon with a “major failure” of defective fuel injectors.

Christopher Luke must refund Brisbane woman Belinda Victoria Howse $24,772 once she makes the 2013 Volkswagen Multivan she bought on December 30, 2022 available for Mr Luke to collect.

“The vehicle should not be driven further until the defects are remedied,” Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal member Michael Howe noted.

In his ruling on January 31 he concluded that the refund was owed because a reasonable consumer, aware that one or perhaps all fuel injectors were defective and required replacement within months of purchase would have bought the car.

Mr Howe added that the reasonable consumer certainly would not have bought the car if they knew that if the fuel injectors were not replaced that the van would need a new engine at a cost of $16,000 or two-thirds the purchase price.

A quote from a mechanic advised, given the van was nearly a decade old, that the engine assembly should be replaced as a complete unit, the tribunal heard.

Mr Howe noted in his decision that when Ms Howse bought the car it had travelled 223,435 kilometres, “yet the price was quite high, $24,300”.

Ms Howse was also entitled to a refund of her registration payment, the QCAT ruling states.

She used it to transport her child with a disability and her terminally ill mother, the tribunal heard.

Mr Luke was ordered to refund the sale of the VW van.

The tribunal heard that on this sale Mr Luke was the sole dealer but he usually traded together with his brother, traded as Luke Family Motors based in Ashmore.

The van was blowing black smoke from the exhaust from the day Ms Howes bought it when she drove it home to Brisbane from the Gold Coast, Mr Howe found.

She told Mr Luke about the issue that afternoon or evening.

A mechanic who inspected the vehicle within four days of purchase diagnosed the problem as one or more, perhaps all, of the fuel injectors being defective.

By June 2023 the same mechanic diagnosed a blown head gasket caused by over-fuelling problems associated with the defective injector or injectors.

Mr Howe accepted his evidence that that was the problem with the van and the defect existed when the car was sold.

Mr Luke admitted that was the case during the QCAT hearing.

Mr Howe also accepted the mechanics opinion that the defective injector or injectors caused over-fuelling, which led to the blown head gasket and overheating.

He rejected Mr Luke’s submission that a lack of oil in the sump, the result of poor maintenance on the part of Ms Howse, triggered the blown head gasket.

Mr Luke told the tribunal that he was not allowed sufficient time to rectify the problems with the van, and also that Ms Howse “was careless in not acting swiftly in dealing with the problems”.

He blamed Ms Howse for delaying the return of the van to possibly causing additional damage, claims which Mr Howe rejected.

Ms Howse wrote to Mr Luke requesting a refund on January 16, 2023, two weeks after purchase, but three days later he replied that the problems were probably service items easily rectified and he was happy to help with servicing but refused a full refund.

Ultimately Mr Luke serviced the van on March 2, 2023, but when it was returned to Ms Howse and a warning light came on, she took it back to her mechanic.

Mr Howe was critical of Mr Luke saying that after servicing the van in March, Mr Luke returned the van to Ms Howse “without doing anything about the defective fuel injector or injectors or indeed address the black smoke problem flagging the defective injector problems”. “I do not accept Mr Luke’s evidence that when he drove the vehicle back to Brisbane after servicing the vehicle he noticed “… it had a little bit of like black smoke on steep acceleration only”,” Mr Howe noted.

Originally published as Christopher Luke to refund Belinda Victoria Howse over 2013 Volkswagen Multivan