Can anyone give me some advice please re 2nd hand car?

kittiej

Hello All

I've got a bit of a problem with a 2nd hand car I bought 3 months ago. It's a Focus 1.8 TDCi on an 04 plate and 80k on the clock.

The car has been back to the dealer twice already, first time for loss of power and 2nd time all the gears went so you couldn't select any.

A pipe was put on the first time and they did something to make sure the gears would be OK in the future (linkage?) anyway the car is still underpowered for a 1.8. You have to go down to 2nd to get up a hill which I don't think is acceptable.

I took it somewhere today and the guy who gave it a once over said it looked as though it had been involved in a crash as it's got a new cross-member on one side and the headlights are from a 2002 not 2004 like my car, there's also a small smudge of paint on the rubber seal inside the driver's door.

Now not being a mechanic myself I would not have been looking for such faults. Is it reasonable to expect a garage who has traded for 30 years advertising quality cars to have known what they were selling ie they are the professionals and I was putting my trust in them. Or should I be expected to take a set of tools to take engine covers off etc to really inspect the car?

I went to them because are presenting themselves as being reputable.

Is there anything I can do or should I just put up with it? I don't want to sell it on as I don't want anything coming back to haunt me, I would have nightmares about what ifs...

mountainofdebt

kittiej wrote: »

You have to go down to 2nd to get up a hill which I don't think is acceptable.

I guess it depends how steep the hill is.

kittiej wrote: »

Or should I be expected to take a set of tools to take engine covers off etc to really inspect the car?

No need to take your own...the AA / RAC would have taken theirs.

kittiej wrote: »

I went to them because are presenting themselves as being reputable.

At the end of the day they are car dealers...in the business of selling cars. They aren't going to say come to us and buy a dud are they?

Why not see if the car has been in an accident before going back to the dealers....I believe there are on-line sites that can provide you with this info for a small fee.

At least then you'll know if you have any case for the dealers to answer.

kittiej

Thanks MOD

The hills aren't that steep, I can normally get up them in fifth in the other car - traffic permitting.

We checked Hpi and stuff and nothing came back as far as any accident damage. I assume it's been done without any insurance company knowing. Why would anyone have insurance and not use it to do the repairs? Or did the garage buy an accident damaged car and get it repaired?

I bought a couple of cars from them before and they've been fine so I thought, quite stupidly, that they could be trusted. Hmm

I have no idea.

kazzah60

Kittie
I am certianly not disputing your difficulties with the gears etc
but I will say we too had a 1.8 tdci focus and it was VERY underpowered - to the extent that we only kept it for a year or so becuase Hubby couldn't stand the fact it slowed down so much when doing hills or when it was fully loaded with holiday gear etc
we've got a 2ltr mondeo now and you can really tell the difference when going up hills etc

as I say - I;m not mechanically minded - but it was something we noticed with ours too - maybe it is oneof the peculiarities of the Focus?

kittiej

Thanks kazzah, this could turn out to be a quirk of the 1.8 TDCi, which is not anything like the blurb from the dealer.

We used to have a Mondeo 2l TDCi and I wish we had kept it!

fthl

Why would anyone have insurance and not use it to do the repairs?

Because they would lose no-claims discount and put the premium up.

kittiej

Is that legal? Wouldn't the insurance co want to know?

I can't see the benefit of having to stump up quite a few quid versus claiming on insurance.

I shall ask this on the insurance board, thanks for your reply.

rev_henry

kittiej wrote: »

Why would anyone have insurance and not use it to do the repairs?

It only gets recorded on HPI if it's written off. Could have just been in a minor accident and repaired.

fthl

Is that legal? Wouldn't the insurance co want to know?

Breach of contract, but not illegal. Yes, the insurance co will want to know.

I can't see the benefit of having to stump up quite a few quid versus claiming on insurance.

It will be more than a few quid. If the repair costs less than maybe 6 or 700 quid then I bet it would be worth it in the long term. Many body repairs, if done on the cheap will only be a couple of hundred quid. Lose your no claims and your insurance could double or more.

forgotmyname

Headlights could have been from a stonechip no an accident. I have seen some quite nasty frontal
accident damaged cars and the headlights have been intact.

Lack of power i can only assume you have the 98bhp model, Which for a car weighing over 1 1/4 tons is
a bit low these days. Maybe your not used to the power delivery & gearing?

Quite common for the turbo pipes to split of even just to come off is quite common. Investigate ASAP though
as it will cause the EGR valve to clog quite quickly which causes its own issues & uses more fuel.

DVardysShadow

kazzah60 wrote: »

Kittie
I am certianly not disputing your difficulties with the gears etc
but I will say we too had a 1.8 tdci focus and it was VERY underpowered - to the extent that we only kept it for a year or so becuase Hubby couldn't stand the fact it slowed down so much when doing hills or when it was fully loaded with holiday gear etc
we've got a 2ltr mondeo now and you can really tell the difference when going up hills etc

as I say - I;m not mechanically minded - but it was something we noticed with ours too - maybe it is oneof the peculiarities of the Focus?

A 1.8 TDCi Focus is quite powerful enough normally, in my experience and will pull away easily when loaded. I would think that the peculiarity is possibly some common failure