Used car warranty problems

Miranda168

Hi, am after some advice really. I purchased a used car from a dealer at the end of april and have a 6mth warranty. Ten wks after I bought the car, it suffered a serious mechanical problem...the engine cut out at 70mph and I broke down.
I called the warranty company and it turned out that the garage I bought the car from had never registered the warranty. I then got in touch with said garage, who were extremely unhelpful and insisted the paperwork would be sorted in a few days. That went on for 5wks, with the guy saying he had sorted it when he hadn't etc etc! The whole time I was still stuck without a car.
I had a full diagnosis on the car and a quote ( not through the garage I bought it from because aside from being the most unhelpful dealer in the world, the car broke down 200miles away from them).......the camshaft had gone and has damaged the engine resulting in the need for a new head etc etc at a cost of £3,300. The warranty was finally registered and put into place last friday....and now they say they won't pay out anyway as it's classed as 'wear and tear' and that the car was obviously sold like that as the 4000 miles I have done in it are clearly not enough to inflict that kind of damage. Surely that is not the natural wear and tear expected of a diesel at 59,000 miles??
The supplying dealer of the car has been no help whatsoever....in fact, far from it...and now they have conveniently disappeared on holiday for 2 wks leaving me still getting nowhere 6 wks on and facing the bill when my car is ready to pick up at the end of the week.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Miranda168 wrote: »

Hi, am after some advice really. I purchased a used car from a dealer at the end of april and have a 6mth warranty. Ten wks after I bought the car, it suffered a serious mechanical problem...the engine cut out at 70mph and I broke down.
I called the warranty company and it turned out that the garage I bought the car from had never registered the warranty. I then got in touch with said garage, who were extremely unhelpful and insisted the paperwork would be sorted in a few days. That went on for 5wks, with the guy saying he had sorted it when he hadn't etc etc! The whole time I was still stuck without a car.
I had a full diagnosis on the car and a quote ( not through the garage I bought it from because aside from being the most unhelpful dealer in the world, the car broke down 200miles away from them).......the camshaft had gone and has damaged the engine resulting in the need for a new head etc etc at a cost of £3,300. The warranty was finally registered and put into place last friday....and now they say they won't pay out anyway as it's classed as 'wear and tear' and that the car was obviously sold like that as the 4000 miles I have done in it are clearly not enough to inflict that kind of damage.
The supplying dealer of the car has been no help whatsoever....in fact, far from it...rude, obnoxious...and now they have conveniently disappeared on holiday for 2 wks leaving me still getting nowhere 6 wks on and facing the bill when my car is ready to pick up at the end of the week.

Utter !!!! that 4000 miles couldnt do that sort of damage

What kind of car was it and what age

I dont think you have a chance of proving the car was inherently faulty or should have lasted under the SOGA without a fault at all when its clearly a fair few years old and you have done 4k in it.

What is it with idiots who think garages can work miracles and stop cars becoming faulty indefinitly

Miranda168

It's a 2002 VW Golf TDI...bought with full VW service history and 55,000 miles on it....not much for a diesel at all?

Smi1er

Miranda168 wrote: »

The supplying dealer of the car has been no help whatsoever....in fact, far from it...and now they have conveniently disappeared on holiday for 2 wks leaving me still getting nowhere 6 wks on and facing the bill when my car is ready to pick up at the end of the week.

So you gave the go ahead for the work to be done?

Can I assume you wrote to the dealer at least twice using recorded delivery giving them an ample chance to sort out the problem? And the same to the warrenty company? If not then this is only going one way.....

You sure the Golf has only done 59,000 miles.......:rolleyes:

Miranda168

Up until last week it was going to be covered by the warranty company and they had put a 'ghost claim' on their system in order for me to get moving on the repairs. They had verified that the damaged parts (camshaft, cam followers, cylinder head, head gasket) are all covered by my policy and it would be processed 'live' onto their system by this week. Plus I work 200 miles from home and really couldn't go on much longer without a car.
It's only now that they are claiming it's the supplying dealer's liability instead.
As for the mileage...yeah I started to doubt that too...but the mileage that is logged throughout the service history all adds up. ( I guess you can never be 100% sure that someone hasn't clocked it a little in between services though?)

LandyAndy

Miranda168 wrote: »

Up until last week it was going to be covered by the warranty company and they had put a 'ghost claim' on their system in order for me to get moving on the repairs. They had verified that the damaged parts (camshaft, cam followers, cylinder head, head gasket) are all covered by my policy and it would be processed 'live' onto their system by this week. Plus I work 200 miles from home and really couldn't go on much longer without a car.
It's only now that they are claiming it's the supplying dealer's liability instead.
As for the mileage...yeah I started to doubt that too...but the mileage that is logged throughout the service history all adds up. ( I guess you can never be 100% sure that someone hasn't clocked it a little in between services though?)

Or a huge amount, unfortunately.

MX5huggy

I think you need to work at the warranty company abit more, an engine failure is not "wear and tear" it's “sudden and unforeseen mechanical failure” which is exactly what the warranty is there to cover. Have you got the policy documentation? What warranty company is it? Move on to the FSA if you don’t get any joy. Don’t get side tracked by the mileage issue you want the car fixed.

Miranda168

MX5huggy wrote: »

I think you need to work at the warranty company abit more, an engine failure is not "wear and tear" it's “sudden and unforeseen mechanical failure” which is exactly what the warranty is there to cover. Have you got the policy documentation? What warranty company is it? Move on to the FSA if you don’t get any joy. Don’t get side tracked by the mileage issue you want the car fixed.

Yes, I am in the process of trying to get an independent assessor to assess the damaged parts to go back to the warranty company and prove that it is not 'wear and tear'. That is the only way I think. I have all the warranty documentation, signed by the supplying dealer.....it is with 'Motorplan'. To me, if the Camshaft, Camshaft followers etc failing is down to 'wear and tear', why do they list them in their covered parts???!!

Smi1er

When buying a second hand car and viewing the service hsitory you can do one of two things..

1/ Look at the service book and look at the dates of service, mileage and time and stamp of dealer, and say "Yep, it has a service history"

or

2/ The same as one, but knowing that books and stamps can easily be bought you make a mental note of the garages in the book, call them giving the reg no. and ask them to confirm the dates and mileages and a one sentance summary of the work carried out.

Please tell me you did the latter.

standupguy

How did you finance the deal?

If you took out hire purchase or paid with a credit card you would be covered under section 75 of the consumer credit act and could then involve the Finance/credit card company who would have joint liability with the dealer for the quality of the car?

Miranda168

standupguy wrote: »

How did you finance the deal?

If you took out hire purchase or paid with a credit card you would be covered under section 75 of the consumer credit act and could then involve the Finance/credit card company who would have joint liability with the dealer for the quality of the car?

Unfortunately I paid by Debit card rather than a Credit card which doesn't give that cover. As for the service history, the VW garage that has my car at the moment does not believe it has done more mileage than stated. They have given it a full inspection throughout.