2nd hand car issue

Gareth90

I bought a car from arnold clark on the 23rd march, this purchase came with a 2month warranty, i made them aware of a section of rust on the rear drivers side wheel arch, this is at a saveable state. I also complained about the bumper and starter motor, this was on the 26th march, they accepted this and booked it in for april the 5th. i was called on the 5th at 5pm telling me they had fixed the ignition issues and the bumper was still to be looked at aswell as the rust. I was then called on the 6th advising me the bumped had been done and they had begun the rust by sanding it, and they couldnt paint it without a duty managers permission which couldnt be done till the 7th as he wasnt in. I received a call on the 7th to advise me my car was ready however the duty manager has refused my request to get the rust fixed. I then called back to find out why, i was told i would receive a call back by the manager however havent received one. It also turns out the rust wasnt sanded down. The manager has just refused the whole repair in regards to the rust. This car was £6000 and the repair will cost me £300-£500 to do. What makes this worse is the fact the arnold clark i am dealing with is a 2hour drive away, or 3 trains and a 3 mile walk. Can anyone suggest anything?

rev_henry

Well for a start make sure they bloody well give you a courtesy car. Secondly, by 'they accepted this' what do you mean? Do you mean they agreed to sort all these things out?

Flyboy152

What agreements do you have in writing?

Gareth90

When i called on the 26th i was told by the salesman i had delt with, they will get in to get it sorted, he passed me through to the service department where i booked it in , i was never told at any point that any of this would have to go through a sales manager.
I have my car receipt which states 2 months parts and labour warranty on it.
No courtesy car was provided as they had none.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Possibly a lesson learned, we all seem to end up learning the hard way at some point.

Never accept a vehicle or any other product till it meets your standards, once they have your money you are of no consequence, especially at a car supermarket, a small local family owned dealer would be interested in keeping you as a customer, a salesman 60 miles away knows full well the chances of you buying from him again are remote, so he'll tell you what you want to hear to get your dosh.

Salesmen, journalists, celebrities and politicians, never believe a word they say and you won't go far wrong.

bigjl

If you spotted the rust before picking up the car then you need to read trough everything very carefully, the car needs to be in a reasonable condition, but the price paid needs to be kept in mind, if the car was £1000 under book than you may find a little surface rust is considered the reason for the reduced price, if you paid full retail minus a small negotition then I would think that the rust shouldn't be there.

How old is the car and what kind of car is it.

I the car has a reputation for rusting then the dealer would know this and should have fixed it before putting it up for sale.

personally I think you have done what many of us have done before, got a bit of shiny car syndrome and took the salesman a face value, you won't make the same mistake twice.

You could always get it repiared then sue the garage for the repair costs in the small claims court.

From your sign in name you are but a youngster.

You have just learned your first life lesson, there a few more to come.

Sadly they are rarely cheap and we have all been there at some point in our motoring past.

Basically the salesman lied, wether intentionally or not, he should have known the manager would react this way to such an issue.

If you had refused to collect the car unless it was fixed then you would have got the rust fixed.

rev_henry

Gareth90 wrote: »

No courtesy car was provided as they had none.

Sorry, the famous Arnold Clark car supermarket chain CANNOT provide a courtesy car? What's wrong with any one of the hundreds on their forecourt?

Flyboy152

rev_henry wrote: »

Sorry, the famous Arnold Clark car supermarket chain CANNOT provide a courtesy car? What's wrong with any one of the hundreds on their forecourt?

Dealers do not have an inexhaustive supply of courtesy cars. The "hundreds" on the forecourt cannot be used as courtesy cars, for obvious reasons.

Kilty_2

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The "hundreds" on the forecourt cannot be used as courtesy cars, for obvious reasons.

They can, but the last time this happened to me I probably cost the dealer £2000 in a fortnight

Flyboy152

Kilty wrote: »

They can, but the last time this happened to me I probably cost the dealer £2000 in a fortnight

The "hundreds" on the forecourts are used cars for sale, they will all have been SORNed. I am sure they have a fleet of courtesy cars and demonstrators, but if they are all being used, the are all being used, there is no way around that.

Kilty_2

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The "hundreds" on the forecourts are used cars for sale, they will all have been SORNed. I am sure they have a fleet of courtesy cars and demonstrators, but if they are all being used, the are all being used, there is no way around that.

From another large Scottish motor dealer (not AC) I was given a pre-registered car as a courtesy - I assume some pre-reg cars have tax on them for a little while after they're registered

Either that or they sent someone to tax it whilst I contemplated setting fire to the place :rotfl: - most big dealers can tax cars themselves in-house anyway.