The dealer's six-month guarantee is below the legal floor, and for twelve months the burden of proof is his
The guarantee on a used car is not something the dealer hands you, it is something the law handed you first.
Two pieces of paper come with almost every used car sold by a trader in Europe. One is the card in the windscreen offering three, six or twelve months of guarantee, presented as generosity. The other is a line further down the contract saying the car is sold as seen and the buyer accepts its condition. Both are written as though they set the rules. Neither does. Since 1 January 2022 the same European law has applied in every member state: when a private individual buys goods from a professional seller, the seller answers for any lack of conformity that becomes apparent within two years of delivery, and a used car is goods like any other. That period can be shortened only where national law allows it, only by agreement, and never below one year. Underneath it sits a second number that decides most real disputes. For the first twelve months, a fault that shows up is presumed to have existed when the car was handed over, and it is the seller who has to prove it did not. So the question worth asking in the showroom is not what guarantee the dealer is offering. It is which of your existing rights the contract in front of you is quietly trying to trim, and whether it has done so in a way that actually works.
Two years is the default, one year is the floor, and nothing below it counts
The European rules on the sale of goods make the seller liable for a lack of conformity that appears within two years of delivery, and they allow member states to let a buyer and a professional seller agree a shorter period for second-hand items, provided that period is never less than one year. Belgium and Germany both permit that reduction for used cars, which is why a one-year figure appears on so many contracts in those markets. The Netherlands did not go down that road at all: Dutch law asks what you could reasonably expect from a car of that age, price and mileage, and on a nearly new example that expectation can reach beyond two years rather than stopping short of it. What none of them allows is a shorter number. A dealer offering three or six months of guarantee is not describing your legal position, he is describing a commercial product sitting on top of it, and a commercial warranty never reduces the statutory one underneath. The same separation explains why servicing outside the main dealer network does not cost you your rights.
For twelve months, the seller has to prove the car was fine
This is the provision that decides arguments, and it is the one almost no buyer knows. Any lack of conformity that becomes apparent within one year of delivery is presumed to have existed at the moment the car was delivered, and member states are free to extend that presumption to two years. Germany doubled its own period from six months to twelve on 1 January 2022 for exactly this reason. Read it in practice and it means that if the gearbox lets go in month eleven, you do not have to prove the car left the forecourt with a failing gearbox. The seller has to prove it did not, on a component that has since covered thousands of kilometres in your hands, which is a genuinely difficult thing to do. Once the presumption lapses the burden flips to you, and proving a latent defect after the fact usually needs an expert report you pay for. That is why the delivery date on your invoice is a more important number than the mileage on the dashboard, and why a fault you have been quietly tolerating is worth reporting before the twelfth month rather than after it.
Sold as seen cannot take back what the law already gave
The rules are mandatory, which in legal drafting means a contract term that waives or restricts the consumer's rights before a defect has been raised with the seller simply does not bind the buyer. A blanket sold-as-seen clause in a trader's contract is therefore closer to decoration than to law. Germany went further after the 2022 reform: shortening the period to one year is valid only if the buyer was specifically told about the shortening before signing and it was expressly and separately agreed in the contract itself, rather than buried in the standard terms on the back. There is one carve-out, and it is narrow but real. If the seller specifically informs you about a particular deviation before the sale, and you expressly and separately accept that specific point, it stops being a lack of conformity. A signed, itemised list saying the air conditioning does not cool and the near-side sill has corrosion is enforceable. A sentence saying the buyer accepts the vehicle in its present condition covers nothing, because it identifies nothing.
The guarantee attaches to the seller, not to the car
All of this applies in one situation only: a consumer buying from a trader. Buy the identical car from the person who owned it and you fall outside the European rules entirely, into national hidden-defect law, which typically requires you to show the seller knew or should have known and stayed quiet. That is a far harder case and it is the single biggest reason a private car is cheaper than the same car on a forecourt, which cuts both ways when you are the one doing the selling. A trader posing as a private seller, which Belgian and Dutch consumer bodies call hidden trading, is doing it precisely to escape this liability, so an advert with no company details, a meeting point that is not an address and a stream of other cars sold from the same phone number is worth treating as a legal warning rather than a bargain. Buying from a dealer in another EU country keeps the guarantee intact, but be realistic about the geography: the obligation sits with that seller, so the repair will normally happen where you bought the car. Everything you can verify before money changes hands still matters, starting with whether the mileage in front of you is real.
Repair comes first, your money comes later
The remedies run in a fixed order, and knowing it stops you asking for the wrong thing and being refused. First comes repair or replacement, free of charge, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you. On a specific used car replacement is rarely possible, so in practice it means repair, and the seller is entitled to carry it out himself or have it carried out. That detail catches people out constantly: take the car to your own garage, pay the bill and send it to the dealer, and you will usually be told no, because the seller was never given the chance the law reserves for him. Only when repair fails, is refused, takes too long, or the defect is serious enough on its own do you move to the second tier, a proportionate price reduction or unwinding the sale, and a minor fault does not justify handing the car back. Two practical footnotes. Some countries require you to notify the seller within a set period after you discover a defect, which can be as short as two months, so speed protects you. And every step should exist in writing, because the paperwork that comes with the car and the paperwork you generate afterwards are the only two things a dispute is ever decided on.
What to actually do
None of this costs anything. It is ten minutes of reading before you sign, and one email on the day something goes wrong.
Get the delivery date in writing on the invoice. That date, not the registration date and not the mileage, starts both clocks.
Look for a one-year reduction in the contract before signing. Where it is allowed at all, it has to be a visible, separately agreed clause, not a line in the standard terms.
Ask for every known fault to be itemised in the contract. It is the only thing that legitimately narrows your rights, which makes it a price negotiation rather than a concession.
Treat a blanket sold-as-seen sentence as unenforceable against a trader, and do not let it stop you making a claim.
Report a fault in writing on the day you notice it, by email or registered letter, with the date, the mileage and the symptom. A phone call is not evidence.
Give the seller the chance to repair before anyone else touches the car. Your own garage's invoice is usually not recoverable.
Keep count of failed repair attempts. Repetition is what moves you from repair to a price reduction or unwinding the sale.
Diarise month eleven. Anything you have been living with should be reported before the twelve-month presumption expires.
If the seller stalls, take it to your national consumer authority, or to the European Consumer Centre in your country if you bought across a border. Both are free.
Frequently asked questions
The contract says sold as seen, with no guarantee. Is that valid?
Not against a consumer buying from a trader. The European rules are mandatory, so a term that waives or restricts your rights before you have raised a defect with the seller does not bind you, no matter what you signed. The exception is specific rather than general: if the seller told you about a particular defect before the sale and you expressly and separately accepted that point, that defect is excluded. Between private individuals the picture is different and an exclusion clause can hold, although a seller who knew about the fault and stayed quiet usually cannot rely on it.
Is a dealer's three-month guarantee legal?
As a commercial offer, yes. As a description of what you are owed, no. The statutory guarantee runs for two years, reducible to one year only in countries that allow it and only by agreement, so a three-month figure sits well below the floor. What a dealer's own guarantee product can legitimately do is add something on top, such as covering wear items or offering a courtesy car. Read it for what it adds, not for what it appears to limit, and never accept it as a reason to close a claim you are still entitled to make.
Does the legal guarantee cover wear and tear?
No, and this is where most claims genuinely fail. The test is conformity: whether the car matches what you could reasonably expect given its age, price and mileage. Brake pads, a clutch and a battery wearing out on a nine-year-old car are normal use, not a defect. A turbocharger, a gearbox or an injection system failing within months of purchase on a car sold as sound is a different conversation, because nobody buying that car would reasonably expect it. The line is not the part, it is whether the failure fits the car you were sold.
I bought from a private seller and it broke. Do I have anything?
Not the legal guarantee, which exists only between a trader and a consumer. What remains is national hidden-defect law, and it generally asks you to show the defect existed at the sale, was not visible on inspection, and makes the car unfit for normal use, with the seller's knowledge often decisive. That is a heavier burden and it usually needs an expert. One thing worth checking first: if the seller turns out to be trading in disguise, selling cars regularly for profit while presenting as a private individual, the full consumer rules apply to him after all.
The dealer wants to repair it again. Can I just ask for my money back?
Not straight away in most cases. Repair comes first, and the seller is entitled to attempt it, free of charge and within a reasonable time. You move to a price reduction or unwinding the sale when the repair fails, is refused, drags on, causes you significant inconvenience, or when the defect is serious enough to justify it immediately. Document every attempt with dates, because a refund is granted on a pattern, not on frustration, and a minor fault will not get the car taken back however annoying it is.
