Can I return my car and ask for my money back if issues are not resolved during warranty period?

If the car dealer is a licensed dealer, there are statutory obligations they must meet in terms of offering for sale vehicles that are fit for purpose. That includes selling cars that are working safely and properly.

If you’ve notified the dealer of a problem within the statutory warranty period, then the dealer is still required to fix the problem even if that period has passed. It’s called a pre-existing condition and even though the warranty may now be up, if the problem was logged before that point in time, then it’s still the dealer’s problem to fix it. The law generally allows the dealer to take a reasonable amount of time to make these repairs, so simply waiting for the warranty period to expire and then asking for your money back probably won’t work (in most cases).

If you can’t convince the dealer to make the repairs, then the other way to handle this would be to talk to the ACCC. Consumer law in this country allows for the commission to make a ruling on matters like these, taking into account all the factors from both sides. But before tackling the ACCC, you should first exhaust all avenues with the car dealer in question. If that doesn’t work, your state or territory probably has a conciliation body tasked with settling disputes like this.

Fundamentally, you are required to give the dealer every chance to make things right, and if that takes some time, inconvenient though it may be for you, that’s how it works. The exception is if the car you bought was not through a licensed dealer, but privately or at auction. In that case, all bets are off and there’s no warranty in the first place.