Second Hand Car Problem

Germeze

Hi, I wonder if anyone can please help me out with some advice. I bought a Peugeot last week with about 30k on the clock. When I test drove it I mentioned it sounded a bit rough and was told it needed a service. Having paid for the car a I got all the paperwork and now it is apparent that the car had a new cam belt back in December and these normally don't get changed until about 70k miles. According to the paperwork the car in general needed a lot of work. Having driven the car for just under a week I find it stalls easily and when idling the engines revs jump up and down. I took it to an independent garage for a professional opinion. The mechanic agreed the car's engine had a lot work done to it recently and it didn't sound right when idling. He was concerned about various engine noises and he would take it back. He said although he couldn't sure the car would probably cost a lot money in the not to distant future and I would have been better off keeping my old car.
Obviously I want to take the car back. It came with a three month warranty I just want to swap it like for like in terms of value. I am tempted to call ahead and talk to the salesman so a courtesy car can be sorted out. OH thinks we should just turn up and explain to them we don't want the car as we don't believe it to be mechanically sound. We are already suspicious that someone else bought and returned it back in between December and March.

Any ideas, neither of us are really brave we just want a car that runs and we don't want to be fobbed off and told to keep the car we bought.

Thanks

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Germeze wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if anyone can please help me out with some advice. I bought a Peugeot last week with about 30k on the clock. When I test drove it I mentioned it sounded a bit rough and was told it needed a service. Having paid for the car a I got all the paperwork and now it is apparent that the car had a new cam belt back in December and these normally don't get changed until about 70k miles. According to the paperwork the car in general needed a lot of work. Having driven the car for just under a week I find it stalls easily and when idling the engines revs jump up and down. I took it to an independent garage for a professional opinion. The mechanic agreed the car's engine had a lot work done to it recently and it didn't sound right when idling. He was concerned about various engine noises and he would take it back. He said although he couldn't sure the car would probably cost a lot money in the not to distant future and I would have been better off keeping my old car.
Obviously I want to take the car back. It came with a three month warranty I just want to swap it like for like in terms of value. I am tempted to call ahead and talk to the salesman so a courtesy car can be sorted out. OH thinks we should just turn up and explain to them we don't want the car as we don't believe it to be mechanically sound. We are already suspicious that someone else bought and returned it back in between December and March.

Any ideas, neither of us are really brave we just want a car that runs and we don't want to be fobbed off and told to keep the car we bought.

Thanks

You don't really have any grounds too.

Unless a mechanic is willing to give you a report stating it has serious engine/mechanical issues you are basically taking it back as a joe public because you think it sounds strange.

GiveItBack

Sorry, but I think you'll just need to be brave. Or perhaps find someone to take with you who is brave.

Check the details of the warranty in advance. Make sure you know your rights - sounds like the car is not fit for purpose to me, and as long as you act quick, you'll be fine.

They may offer to give the car a thorough service for free and return it to you - and given the warranty that should be covered.

isplumm

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Well I am not sure I agree with you .... Germeze may be able to return tha car, but I suspect that it would need to be proved that it has done more mileage than shown.

Germeze

Have you thought about getting someone like the AA / RAC to do a report for you ... might be expensive thou .... they should be able to tell you whether it has been clocked, etc ... to me it has a 3 month warranty, so use it ...

By the way, just because it has a new cam belt, doesn't mean that it has done 70,000 miles ... maybe the garage decided to put a new cam belt on while doing other work .... or maybe not!! What makes you believe that it has been returned to garage?

How old is the car? Is it a diesel? Cause diesel Peugots can sound rough ...

Mark

Germeze

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. I don't believe the car to be clocked but I do think the cam belt may have come off and done some damage to the engine. The car is six years old it's a petrol but it sounds like a diesel. OH has the same car with twice the miles and it sounds fine. Mine however sounds like a diesel. The mechanic said it may have been flood damaged, over heated or had a huge oil leak. He said whatever had happened it was going to cost me lots of money if anything went wrong out of warranty. I would have been better off keeping my nine year old car with 80K on the clock than this newer Pug.
If the garage refuse to take it back I will call in the AA or ask the mechanic to write a report to support my case.

Thanks

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Germeze wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. I don't believe the car to be clocked but I do think the cam belt may have come off and done some damage to the engine. The car is six years old it's a petrol but it sounds like a diesel. OH has the same car with twice the miles and it sounds fine. Mine however sounds like a diesel. The mechanic said it may have been flood damaged, over heated or had a huge oil leak. He said whatever had happened it was going to cost me lots of money if anything went wrong out of warranty. I would have been better off keeping my nine year old car with 80K on the clock than this newer Pug.
If the garage refuse to take it back I will call in the AA or ask the mechanic to write a report to support my case.

Thanks

The problem is even if the Cambelt has gone and made the engine vulnerable unless you specifically asked then nothing has been done wrong.

Its unlikely the warranty will cover things that might go wrong in the future

It sounds like you could be stuck with it, it should have been checked before you bought it.

sarahg1969

Why not ask the previous keeper?

You can also check all previous MOTs online, so you can check the mileage and if its failed any tests.

http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Another thing is cambelts deteriotate with time ( being rubber) so the replacement schedule is normally a period/mileage whatever comes first.

So a 5 year old 30k car may still need changed.

Pssst

Youve started two threads which is further confusing the issue

chodges84

Op,

I also own a Peugeot 206 and this is a VERY common problem. I have owned it for neasrly 2 years and the problems started after about 8 months. EXACTLY like yours, the car initially started to stall at junctions and after another couple of months it started to rev crazily when idle. This makes it hard to drive in the City and makes you look like a fool when your car is revving like crazy at traffic lights.

On top of this I believe the car now uses a lot more fuel as it is constantly revving or being restarted. Over the past copule of weeks theese problems appear to have subsided (knock on wood they won't come back), but it has done this before.

This problem has been on Watchdog TWICE and Peugeot have failed to even acknowledge the problem. I don't want to scare you, but one of the Ladies on the program had her car stall at speed on the motorway with next to no control.

Type 'Peugeot 206 stalling' into google and have a read through some of the links, you will find people have spend hundreds on new ECU's, coils and more and have never had the problem fixed. You will find more than enough evidence here to support your case and I believe that the person who sold you this car knew of the problem when they sold it (hence all the work having been done) and it should be accepted back under their 3 month warranty. You must be brave.

I am still driving my car for the simple reason that I bought it privately and do not believe it had the problem when I bought it. I have tried at the garage, but they cannot tell me for definate what is causing the problem.

Germeze

As Pssst has said I reposted this on the motoring forum. Thanks for your replies please see my other post on the motoring forum.