Help! Sold a dud car!

motorguy

mikey72 wrote: »

Who knows.

Well trading standards.
We don't.

Maybe they'll side with the op, maybe they'll consider three months a good enough time for a car bought from a trader to last, before needing welding, or scrapping.

You never seem to be at all objective do you? You're working on the tiniest amount of second hand information about what might need done the car that the O/P has passed on to us from their mechanic, but thats enough for you to immediately blame the trader and to talk about the car needing scrapping and being dangerous to drive.

ANY car is this price band could need work including welding, mechanical repairs, etc. That doesnt make it the traders fault.

You also need to remember that mechanics are very good at putting the fear of god into people in order to get the business.

I had one local mechanic who told a customer of mine that it had been stolen and to remove the car from his premises as he did not work on stolen cars. His reasoning for this? The chassis number was overstamped. Now my customer only used english as a second language and this was a major issue for him - quite rightly so had it been correct. It turns out that that particular type of car came like that from the factory - proven when we showed him two other cars of that brand the same.

The other example was a customer who was told by a mechanic that his car needed 'extensive repairs' to the rear, including new shocks and all new bushings to rid the car of a slight rattle. I left the car to my mechanic who checked it over and replaced two small bushes at £4 each and the rattle was gone.

One of my favourites was a customer who bought a £500 car off me that we'd taken as a trade in. The previous owner had just had it mot'd the previous day. The car drove perfectly for a car of its price, but the customer took it to his mechanic who announced that the car needed two new wheel bearings in the front (even though there was no noise or movement from them) and the car was a death trap because of this. Of course the customer is then on the phone to me accusing me of putting a fraudulent MOT on the car and for selling him a car that was putting his life in danger. I directed him to speak to the manager of the MOT centre and to accuse him of allowing his staff to put fraudulent MOT's on cars - something of course he declined to do but it was ok to accuse me of it!!!

mikey72 wrote: »

The only thing to do is let the op speak to them on Monday, then come back and tell us what they say.

At least we all agree there's no point in second guessing them then?
Unless some of you think the op shouldn't even dare to speak to trading standards for some reason?
If you think there's no case, wouldn't trading standards back that up, and the op can tell you you're right, and I'm wrong?

Here we go again with the EITHER / OR scenarios that you so love. To put it simply TS may well say the customer *might* have a case, but they cant force the dealer to do anything, if the dealer declines. The O/P will have to have the work done at their own cost, then take the trader to court and rely on a judge to feel that a 16 year old car and bought for £650 should actually be covered some 3 months after its sold for what may turn out to be some relatively routine welding.

I really think your antagonistic its-always-the-dealers-fault approach on threads like this are helping anyone, particularly as often you are setting an expectation that cannot be met AND when a trader has taken their own free time to give a response, you then start throwing accusations around about the quality of the cars they sell.

ALSO your whole oh-always-buy-private approach for what its worth is equally as dangerous. WHERE do you think traders usually get these cars? From customers who quietly trade them in without being in any way honest about faults. Equally these private individuals know that they can 'get away with' selling their own dross privately and hopefully someone wont spot the problems.

If you really wanted to be constructive, you would be advising people on HOW to buy a car, what warning signs to look out for and how to make sure they dont buy a pup - either from a trader or a private individual - instead of using all your energies trying to kick motor traders around.

s_b

mikey72 wrote: »

That's when happens when your car fails the mot.
When the current one runs out, it shouldn't be on the road.




No, any reputable garage will use a decent mobile welder that'll come in and do a proper job.

Not everyone sends their car to a dodgy backstreet garage to be patched up and given a fresh coat of underseal to hide all the spatter and blow through.

its a term of their insurance that no oxy acetaline is on their premises
i have oxy and mig but they have to be stored away from the main building
there is no such thing as a decent mobile welder that would go into a main dealer and weld a bulkhead on a ramp

the car would go to a backstreet garage for welding just like most accident repair jobs leave the main dealer and go to the back street bodyshop
heck my paint man who works from the scruffiest buildings you ever did see does most of the paint jobs for a prestige main dealer from the next town because he does such a good job

all you are doing is showing that you know nothing about the motor trade except what you might have read in honest johns pages from saturdays telegraph the dealer you can trust no less

motorguy

mikey72 wrote: »

That's when happens when your car fails the mot.

When the current one runs out, it shouldn't be on the road.

So, are you seriously saying that any car that is sold and subsequently fails its MOT its no longer road legal, and therefore the selling dealer should stump up for any repairs???

:eek:

mikey72 wrote: »

No, any reputable garage will use a decent mobile welder that'll come in and do a proper job.

Not everyone sends their car to a dodgy backstreet garage to be patched up and given a fresh coat of underseal to hide all the spatter and blow through.

There you go again - underhandedly using language to call S B's business into disrepute.

Did your wife run off with a car salesman or something, or what has caused this massive chip you have on your shoulder???

motorguy

s_b wrote: »

the car would go to a backstreet garage for welding just like most accident repair jobs leave the main dealer and go to the back street bodyshop
heck my paint man who works from the scruffiest buildings you ever did see does most of the paint jobs for a prestige main dealer from the next town because he does such a good job

No, no, no. You clearly should be shipping your cars back to the manufacturer and having them remanufactured to 'as new' standard. Its simply not good enough to use someone from a 'back street'. This clearly shows you are a rogue trader who must be stopped at any cost.

Also, please submit the details of the main dealer who uses this back street body repair shop to Trading Standards so that they car send round a crack SWAT team to close the main dealer down.

The Dealer Principal must then be hung by his genitals from the nearest lamp post as an example to the rest of the motor trade as to what will befall them, should they sell a car that fails its MOT a year later.

mikey72

Good tirade. I like your help on how to buy a good car next time, and to ignore the actual question posted, on how to address this one.

I'll do you a deal, I won't advise the posters to obtain impartial help from a goverment service, if you don't all jump in saying they can't help, and the trader is innocent in every thread.

In fact one of your colleagues brought scrapping into it, to illustrate how much of a bargain it was.

lee678 wrote: »

in fact it wasnt £650, the op still has the car, scrap cars round here do £200, collected, so its £450 shes got in the car, [not including the price of a mot ] thats £5.35 a day, yep, shes been ripped off, call the tsa, call the local papers, are they open sundays ?

mikey72

s_b wrote: »

its a term of their insurance that no oxy acetaline is on their premises............................................................all you are doing is showing that you know nothing about the motor trade except what you might have read in honest johns pages from saturdays telegraph the dealer you can trust no less

Makes heating any nut and bolt a bit difficult now then.
Do you just put on another sqirt of WD40 now?

Or maybe the last part applies to you?

Joe_Horner

s_b wrote: »

Joe Horner im afraid to say that if you do know anything about corrosion you will know that it can just come on which is why we have an mot]
One of my trucks does 3000 miles a year so is parked up more than used it gets inspected by me 4 times a year and even i was surprised last pre mot check i did the amount of welding it would need on the rear spring hanger and i can categorically say this vehicle is maintained to an inch of its life and its 15 years old
your first picture is of a suspension component by the way not bodywork
your second picture although i cant make out what or where it is taken looks like some dismantling has taken place to get to take the photograph
i really do not see what relevance they have to the OPs car as i have already said that corsas go on the bulkhead under the servo but you would only know if you had the car on a ramp and looked directly up at the back of the engine so even most mot testers would be unaware of a hole unless they had seen one previously because it is covered with a very large rubber grommet to help drain away water
ive also mentioned as has the OP has holes near the fuel pipes which are inaccesible unless up on a ramp and bradolled

if you were in the motor trade you would realise these things rather than typing from an armchair and taking pictures off the internet

trading standards can do nothing because there is nothing they can do
i am not trying to back the trader who sold the car by the way never have i am telling it as it is as a trader and how everything works in the real world

if some of you people worked in the real world rather than your cyberspace world maybe this country wouldnt be in the mess its in always wanting to blame someone else for your own failings even the OP moans after the event that her mechanic said it shouldnt be on the road apparently according to you (i missed it) but where was he when he was needed at purchase time
where is he now? waiting to relieve OP of her wonga of course and lets get this right main dealers dont do welding anymore so this car has been to a back street garage for the welding quote
the kind of place members on here are slating but when push comes to shove most of them go to, to get their clapped out ex middle class vw's through another mot

There's so much inaccurate assumption in there I really don't know where to start. So let's go for the basics:

In case you haven't worked it out, there's NOWHERE that I've said this dealer (or any other for that matter) is at fault. But the OP obviously feels he might be and TS are the right place to go to find out. As you say, the mechanic she took it to might have his own motives for talking the job up but TS are independent and (in my experience as both consumer and trader) genuinely impartial.

Unless you're a dodgy trader yourself (I'm not saying you are, btw) you should be 100% in favour of the dodgy ones being taken out of the game, for everyone's safety AND for you own bottom line - if they're gone, you'll sell more!


In terms of my knowledge of corrosion, would you like to discuss it in terms of professional aeronautical, motor trade, or personal experience running exclusively 1960s / 70s cars as all year, all weather transport? Incidentally, I'm fully aware that the first picture is a trailing arm, but the nowhere did the OP say that it was only body corrosion.

Also, both of those areas have been VERY well known in the MOT business for a good 5 or 6 years and that's the sort of knowledge that filters through to traders pretty quickly. You yourself were obviously aware of them, so would you get a hand in round the servo (doesn't need a ramp or any dismantling) to check before slapping one of these on your forecourt or just trust to luck that your buyer doesn't rip the master cylinder off it's mountings?

motorguy

mikey72 wrote: »

I'll do you a deal, I won't advise the posters to obtain impartial help from a goverment service, if you don't all jump in saying they can't help, and the trader is innocent in every thread.

Once again, resorting to either / or logic here - theres just no room for shades of grey with you like there is in the real world?

Fortunately, i live in the real world, not in some internet fantasy world. I can see a situation from the customers perspective and from the traders perspective, having been on both sides of the fence.

As i've said numerous times. Its simply not as cut and dried as you make out. You are setting an expectation each and every time in threads like this that its simply a matter of phoning trading standards and they will go round with big boots on and stomp all over the trader. It really doesnt work like that.

You really are coming across as a bitter and twisted little man.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

SB is right trading standards will not involve themselfs in this at all, simply listen to the caller roll their eyes behind the phone and say you may have a case here heres the number for consumer direct, consumer direct then after taking so many compaints will compile a case and contact trading standards.

i wish poeple would stop informing OP's to run to trading standards its not the course of action they should take its contact consumer direct who will advise much better than a local TS will.

lee678

Joe_Horner wrote: »

There's so much inaccurate assumption in there I really don't know where to start. So let's go for the basics:

.....

Also, both of those areas have been VERY well known in the MOT business for a good 5 or 6 years and that's the sort of knowledge that filters through to traders pretty quickly. You yourself were obviously aware of them, so would you get a hand in round the servo (doesn't need a ramp or any dismantling) to check before slapping one of these on your forecourt or just trust to luck that your buyer doesn't rip the master cylinder off it's mountings?

the corrosion on the bulkhead of a corsa b can only be viewed from beneath, you can get a hand in from above, but the only thing visible is the top of the master cylinder where you top it up, youll not see or feel corrosion, the pic you show is with the plastics and the master cylinder removed, same as the pic of corrosion of rear axle, the wheel has been removed, and that area is not visible unless the car has alloy wheels on it where you can see through the gap in the wheel, sorry to be picky but i let to get the story right.