help needed. bought second hand car and it has faults.

whatajoke1

gingerdad wrote: »

That's a really useful link thanks.

Thanks. I wonder if the OP has used it. Question has to be asked paying the price paid, WHY was the car picked up without a valid MOT

Bonbon wrote: »

this is the list given to us by by the VW garage doing the service and MOT.

Gearbox casing damage and welded.Leak from front of gearbox where gasket has been replaced with silicone.
Oil emulsified in the coolant
Coolant leak from engine (at gearbox)
Air filter box cracked
Intake pipe broken
Battery clamp missing
Brake pad warning loom broken
N/S steering rack boot worn
O/S/R tyre rotation wrong

bigjl

Car is not fit for purpose as far as I would be concerned, there are a lot of dodgy garages about, and they are very happy to sell a wrongun if they can get away with it, first stop would be to get an independant inspection from the AA or RAC, to stop the selling garage to say the VW are making up the faults to make money. And yes I have seen this done and used as a defense.

Is the car on finance, as the finance co will be very interested in one of their dealers using the finance co money to sell on wronguns, remember that the car technically belongs to the finance co till you pay it off.

Don't underestimate the amount of pressure a finance co can put on a dodgy dealer.

The only place I would buy a car (on finance) in London would be CarGiant, or if I was travelling a distance it would be any of the other large car supermarkets, I would buy a cheaper less specced car to make sure I would be able to afford a one company owner vehicle, I wouldn't buy a trade-in, especially a "posh" trade-in from these places as the chances of it being owned and abused by some rudeboy from a sink estate for a year then traded in are far too high.

One other thing, the incorrect tyre and missing battery ckamp would have been a fail at an MOT, please don't say you spent £13k on a car without an MOT, at that money i would have wanted a full VW service hx, four matching tyres, a fresh MOT, and I would also have checked coolant levels, oil levels and pretty much made sure the entire car was spot on.

For £13k you could have got http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Volkswagen/Golf/details-473423-Volkswagen-Golf.asp

or this http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Volkswagen/Golf/details-476129-Volkswagen-Golf.asp

or this http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Volkswagen/Golf/details-475455-Volkswagen-Golf.asp

or my preferred option http://www.cargiant.co.uk/Volkswagen/Golf/details-471793-Volkswagen-Golf.asp

bigjl

Also the OP seems worried about the warranty, they are not worth the paper they are printed on, but you do have good legal protection from the sale of goods act, such that the car must be fit for the purpose for which it is intended, this car wouldn't appear to be fit for anything other than being a financial liability, follow the links I have posted, you also gave far too much for the car, VW are very good at image over substance, and the DSG box is, as already posted, a bit of a liability.

I had a Passat with a DSG box as a company car a few years ago, when doing some sub contract work, the gearbox went pop at 42k, it was a great gearbox, but on a performance car the gearbox gets a hammering, and some people have very little mechanical sympathy, it is also a pity that these same people tend to be the kind that will try and fix a car on the cheap, when I ran a garage near Tottenham years ago you wouldn't believe the kind of cars coming in for cheap repairs as they could finance the car, but couldn't afford the upkeep.

You also wouldn't beleive the amount of young rudeboys paying my garage owner a few quid to use the trade insurance to get road tax, this was pre cctv and anpr obviously.

Not forgetting the people that would want our mechanic to reset the service lights on their E30 BMWs, not bother to service them then come in a week later wanting us to fit a £1000 worth of bodykit, but not wanting to spend anything on a decent service, or even an oil change.

A trick I have used for years when trying to find out how a car has been treated is to look at the wheels and tyres, all four a matched set of expensive Michelins and not a scuff on the alloys, is a good sign.

Four different cheap makes and some signs of rubbing a kerb now and again is a sign of a careless owner.

Inactive

bigjl wrote: »

A trick I have used for years when trying to find out how a car has been treated is to look at the wheels and tyres, all four a matched set of expensive Michelins and not a scuff on the alloys, is a good sign.

Four different cheap makes and some signs of rubbing a kerb now and again is a sign of a careless owner.

Same here, a good way of sorting out the rubbish.

benham3160

Inactive wrote: »

Same here, a good way of sorting out the rubbish.

My wheels are always "kerbed to !!!!!!y" by my own admission I can't parallel park for toffee.

I can assure you that the engine will be sweet though if you buy a car from me. All of this "mystic meg" stuff is crap ultimately, a cars as good as the oil changes it's had, and the roads it's been driven on.

Know plently of sweet running and well looked after milemunchers on crap tyres due to the rate they wear them, doesn't mean that lot ultimately. Also the lines are now very blured between "good" and "crap" tyres unlike a few years ago. Some of the budget brands are little more than a major tyre manufactuers "own brand" for fastfit centres.

Kl!ber, Falken, Maxis, Nangkang which were laughed at a few years ago are starting to beat the "big boys" in terms of performance in certain situations.

Regards,
Andy

Lum

OTOH, Linglongs are still a good sign that the owner is an idiot and/or a cheapskate.

alchemistkevin

I don't know why people are jumping to conclusions?

It's pretty simple - the owner needs to call TS & start following their advise on returning the car and either getting a refund or a car of similar spec.

Reasons why it would have happened don't concern the OP - They paid £13 for a car in "excellent condition" and they've been sold a duff one.

bigjl

benham3160 wrote: »

My wheels are always "kerbed to !!!!!!y" by my own admission I can't parallel park for toffee.

I can assure you that the engine will be sweet though if you buy a car from me. All of this "mystic meg" stuff is crap ultimately, a cars as good as the oil changes it's had, and the roads it's been driven on.

Know plently of sweet running and well looked after milemunchers on crap tyres due to the rate they wear them, doesn't mean that lot ultimately. Also the lines are now very blured between "good" and "crap" tyres unlike a few years ago. Some of the budget brands are little more than a major tyre manufactuers "own brand" for fastfit centres.

Kl!ber, Falken, Maxis, Nangkang which were laughed at a few years ago are starting to beat the "big boys" in terms of performance in certain situations.

Regards,
Andy

No worries, my Ambulance trust is selling a load of bright yellow 4 and 5 year old Zafiras, oil change every every 2-3000 miles, battered, abused, kerbed, hammered, jumped at 70 over speedbumps, some have been reshelled, always hammered from cold, and the engines switched off with the turbos a nice cherry red.

You might think it is "mystic meg" but when I was a minicab driver/courier in central london, doing 50-60k a year if I couldn't afford a new car I would buy my car 3 yrs old, using my usual checks, including checking wheels and tyres, a cheapskate will skimp on everything, and tend to sell a car when it is due a cambelt, brakes. As budget is king, if I seen a car with four cheapies or four mismiatched then I wouldn't take the risk on the car being a wrongun, far too many well looked after cars out there for me to borrow.

As another example, I would buy an ex traffic plod car from a force outside a large city, London or Manchester, but I wouldn't buy an ex Panda or Area car, unless for pennies and for immediate resell for a small profit.

Everybody has their own idea of what constitues a good buy, my little, and I will continue to use what works for me.

There are a lot more things to worry about on a car, the engine itself is, in my opinion, statistically the least likely thing to cost me money, but i have no intention of buying a car with knackered suspension, steering as they will cost a fortune to correct up to what I consider a good standard, but then I won't drive a car with even the slightest issue with how it drives, which might explain how I have got 200,000 out of many cars then sold them to friends and they have got another 3 or 4 trouble free years from them.

I suppose what I mean is such things are very individual, but I have only bought one truly bad car, when in a hurry at an auction, guess what if I had paid more attention I would have spotted the four odd tyres and the scuffed wheels, as the old saying goes, act in haste repent at leisure.

benham3160

bigjl wrote: »

No worries, my Ambulance trust is selling a load of bright yellow 4 and 5 year old Zafiras, oil change every every 2-3000 miles, battered, abused, kerbed, hammered, jumped at 70 over speedbumps, some have been reshelled, always hammered from cold, and the engines switched off with the turbos a nice cherry red.

You might think it is "mystic meg" but when I was a minicab driver/courier in central london, doing 50-60k a year if I couldn't afford a new car I would buy my car 3 yrs old, using my usual checks, including checking wheels and tyres, a cheapskate will skimp on everything, and tend to sell a car when it is due a cambelt, brakes. As budget is king, if I seen a car with four cheapies or four mismiatched then I wouldn't take the risk on the car being a wrongun, far too many well looked after cars out there for me to borrow.

As another example, I would buy an ex traffic plod car from a force outside a large city, London or Manchester, but I wouldn't buy an ex Panda or Area car, unless for pennies and for immediate resell for a small profit.

Everybody has their own idea of what constitues a good buy, my little, and I will continue to use what works for me.

There are a lot more things to worry about on a car, the engine itself is, in my opinion, statistically the least likely thing to cost me money, but i have no intention of buying a car with knackered suspension, steering as they will cost a fortune to correct up to what I consider a good standard, but then I won't drive a car with even the slightest issue with how it drives, which might explain how I have got 200,000 out of many cars then sold them to friends and they have got another 3 or 4 trouble free years from them.

I suppose what I mean is such things are very individual, but I have only bought one truly bad car, when in a hurry at an auction, guess what if I had paid more attention I would have spotted the four odd tyres and the scuffed wheels, as the old saying goes, act in haste repent at leisure.

Which trust are you in, not an Essex man are you? Got a very old Essex para living in this house! Most of my friends and family are in an ambulance service oddly enough.

Regards,
Andy

bigjl

No I work for London, we only buy crap cars they have a habit of buying better cars, Civic Type s, Accord estate, not to mention all the Astra Autos we gave to Essex a couple of years ago, they where a good car, and much better treated than the cars now.