Bought a used car on Ricardo. I believe seller concealed some defects. Anything I can do?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for advice on a situation with a used car I bought in Switzerland.

About a year ago I bought a used camper van through Ricardo. The seller explicitly told me the vehicle had no problems. I’ve been driving it for a year without issues, but now I took it to the MFK in Ticino and it failed with a significant list of required repairs.

One of the main blocking issues is the targhetta del costruttore (manufacturer’s identification plate). It’s scratched and partially unreadable. The MFK told me the vehicle will not pass without replacing it, and replacing only that plate costs around 400 CHF.

What surprised me is that I requested the previous MFK report from Zurich (where the seller registered the vehicle). In the Zurich MFK report, all the issues that Ticino is now requiring to be fixed were already listed — but only as “recommendations”, so the vehicle still passed. Even the scratched manufacturer’s plate was explicitly mentioned, yet it still passed in Zurich.

I can also see that the seller took the vehicle to the MFK three times before it finally passed in Zurich. Given that, I find it very hard to believe that the seller was unaware of these issues when selling the vehicle and stating it had “no problems”.

Now Ticino refuses to pass it unless everything is fixed. For context: getting everything fixed is double the value of the vehicle.

My questions:

• Is this kind of difference between cantonal MFKs normal?
• Does the fact that these issues were already documented before the sale give me any legal leverage? Is there any realistic legal claim against the seller (e.g. hidden defects / misrepresentation)?
• In the unfortunate case that the vehicle won't pass the MFK, what's next? Do I have to get rid of it? How?

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.