Welcome Finance query

Twiggy2186

Hi All,

I purchased a vehicle through Welcome Car Finance in Oct '08. I initially took the car for a very very brief test drive with the salesman. On this test drive I noticed that there was a rough sounding noise from the front of the car, when I enquired what the noise was the salesman told me it was because it was a diesel. I have never had a diesel car before this so I took his word as red but made him book the vehicle in for a check to which he sent me to WCF's "recommended" garage. I took the vehicle there as instructed and was told that my vehicle was sound and fine for use. I have been driving the vehicle for around 13 months now and when I put it in for it's MOT I was shocked when the mechanic called me to the car too show me what the noise actually was! it was a top bearing on the macpherson strut that was rough in operation and had to pay out over £100 to have it repaired. The problems first started a couple of months before the MOT when a cell in the battery collapsed and I had to pay out over £150 for a new battery to be fitted by a dealer as WCF's "recommended" garage couldn't diagnose the problem and recently I had to replace the back box mount as it had snapped. Now bearing in mind that I currently pay over £300 per month for the vehicle and have experienced these problems I phoned Welcome Finance and found out that the car finance operation had ceased and that Welcome Financial services were now in control of my agreement but refused to lower my repayments when I asked and when I explained all the problems I was put through to the complaints dept and I stated my case and the person on the phone was very abrupt and asked me "what do you want me to do about it" so I asked to have my repayments lowered which he refused so then I asked for my vehicle to be fully repaired or for a different roadworthy vehicle to which he hung up the phone on me.:mad:

Is there anything I can do as I currently have a vehicle that has caused nothing but problems?

Apologies for length of rant...

thanks Twiggy

chalkie99

Can't really see how you can say it has been nothing but trouble to be honest.

You have had the vehicle for over a year, it was second hand when you bought it and batteries and exhausts are consumable items. Did you ever check the levels in the battery? An exhaust mount can go at any time, especially if you drive over pot holes and road humps.

As to the first point, well, you took it for a test drive and chose to go ahead. I can understand you might not have been familiar with a diesel engine but I am not sure why, if you took the salesmans word for the explanation you still insisted on having it checked. If you were in doubt about it you should have walked away.

I think after 13 months it is too late to do anything about it - you have to accept that cars do require maintenance and repairs and budget accordingly.

Sorry!

Twiggy2186

Thank you for your reply

I fully understand about the battery and mount however I still feel I was mis-sold the car based on the salesmans misleading advice. Also the warranty doesn't seem to cover much at all.

CHR15

Stop it for goodness sake, you still have to pay for the car, forget your notion of walking away keeping the car and not making any further payments.

Nothing you have described would be out of character for a second hand car. They are all wear and tear items (although you were ripped off for the battery but that's nobody elses fault but your own)

Everyone else in the World knows second hand car warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on, no different from all the others (again, nobody elses fault but your own)



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PNPSUKNET

They most prob pay the garage a fortune repairing their other cars, so in their intrest to keep quiet yescar credit staff were told todo the same.