Joshua McMahon paid $3500 for the four-door sedan at Car Nation, on Ballarat Road, Maidstone on Wednesday.

It caught fire after just 40 minutes of driving at Mount Buninyong the next day.

The dealership initially refused to refund Mr McMahon, or speak to him about the incident on Friday.

However they offered to replace the Holden TX Commodore with a similar model car of the same value later that afternoon.

The car was engulfed in flames and ruined before Country Fire Authority crews arrived to extinguish the blaze.

Mr McMahon said he was still “fuming” about the loss of his car after just 24 hours.

“The car catching on fire shouldn’t have happened – I am still bloody pissed off about it,” he said.

“I had my little sister in the back seat, so first priority was getting her out of the car.

“Once I did that, and all the smoke was going up and the flames set in, I was just looking at it thinking, ‘crap there is all my money burning in front of me’.

“I bought this from a car yard, so it should have been completely roadworthy.”

Mr McMahon said he took out a loan to pay part of the cost for the car.

He said the Country Fire Authority crew that responded told him the cause was likely an electrical fault within the car.

“I can’t think of anyway that anything we would have done to it started the fire,” he said.

“We were only going up Mount Buninyong at about 30kms/hr, so there must have been something wrong with it already when I bought the car.”

His mother, Sandy Whatman, said her son was devastated by the loss after working hard to save money for his first car.

“It is not just the money it cost me, it put people’s lives in danger as well,” she said.

“The dealership said we bought a car, drove 250km away, so we could have done anything to it.

“But that’s not the point. We should have been able to drive to Queensland – if we had wanted – without it catching on fire.”

A Consumer Affairs Victoria spokesperson said used cars had a statutory warranty the covers faults and defects after purchase, if the car has less than 160,000km and is less than 10 years old.

This warranty lasts for three months or 5000km, whichever comes first.

“The trader must repair any faults covered during the warranty period in order to ensure the car is in a reasonable condition for its age,” the spokesperson said.

“Even after the statutory warranties expire, consumers still have rights under the consumer guarantees.

“If there is a major problem with a product, such as a car, the consumer is entitled to return it and to seek a refund.”

More information can be found at consumer.vic.gov.au/cars.

The Car Nation dealership did not respond to requests for comment.