I was sold a dangerous car?

My partner bought a used Ford Focus from Evans Halshaw in August 2016. It had only 7000 miles on and it basically looked brand new.

Anyway, fast forward till January 2018 and she has her MOT and the mechanic said that "he has never seen anything like it before" and that it looked like it had been in a crash. It failed on over 10 things and was deemed unsafe to be on the road. He even said that some of the parts were incorrectly wired. We were absolutely confused because we have been in no accident nor had we botched it up via a backstreet mechanic. So we contacted Evans Halshaw and inquired about the state of the car. They said that everything was fine when they sold it to her - so we contacted the service company who serviced the car to send us the check-sheet on them carrying out the service of the car, and again everything was fine.

Therefore we can't go to trading standards because it's Evans Halshaws and the service company's word against ours. We have now had to pay £600 to get the car completely fixed. We have been having a problem with Evans Halshaw ever since we were sold the car - we still haven't received a contract despite us chasing them on it, and they failed to disclose that this was previously a hire car.

I was just wondering if we have any rights?

The problem with buying any used car without an independent mechanic's inspection is that things like this can happen. A mechanic needs to be trained to look for and find accident damage, which is not done on basic service inspections. Evans Halshaw is just an intermediary dealer and more often than not they may not know about this car's history either. They get cars and sell them as quickly as they can. You can find a solicitor and look into taking then to court, but it could cost you more in legal fees than it might be worth.

After 1.5 years you have no case. If you chose not to have it checked out before you bought it it's your problem.

You've had the car for 2 years. YOU pay for repairs.
I don't know who "Evans Helshaw" is. Is this a private person or a dealer? If private person, you bought the car AS IS.
If a dealer, odds are, it was sold to you "AS IS"
You should have had the vehicle inspected upon purchase… 2 years later, it will be difficult to prove that you didn't cause the damages.

In the US, lemon laws only apply to newer vehicles (under 5 years, and in some states, it's even less than that!)

Hence the joys of buying a used car.

You have no come back on them after owning the car for 18 months, it is your car, your problem

Get an independent engineer's report.
The AA or RAC both offer these.

I have seen MOT testers making work.
A friend had a car he was told was dangerous.
They only let him drive away when he made it clear they were not getting the work and started to organise to have it towed.
He took it to another garage and their MOT tester said the car was fine no problem.
The second garage had a good reputation but did not do discount tests.
Another friend was told it was going to cost over £3000 to pass it's MOT. An honest garage charged him just over £300 including replacing 2 low but legal tyres.
Do not believe all MOT testers.

Suck my ding dong, and it'll be fixed in no time!