Used car bought one day,£200 repairs the next,would you bother complaining more?

justmel

Ok i must start by saying that the car in question came used from a dealer and has no warranty,i do understand we have no actual 'rights' but are feeling put out.

We needed a new car,i don't drive due to disabilty but my husband does,i do not qualify for a car on the motibilty scheme but struggle terribly without one so a low budget secondhand was our only option after the old one had finally given up on us.

Husband viewed the car on Tuesday,gave it a good look over and had a test drive,during the test drive he noticed that the engine check light was on which he queried.

They put a diagnostic tool on the car and said it was a 'historical' problem,they said they needed to 'clear the memory' and that the problem was not a new or existing one.

He picked the car up yesterday,the light was not on at that point,he drove around 35 miles to get home,picked me up and drove about 15-20 more and the light came back on.

We decided to take it to our local garage for a diagnostic test today,it turns out that both lambda sensors have failed and we were told by this garage and by another mechanic that the work should be done 'as soon as possible' and if left could wreck the catylic converter.

We have ordered the parts and booked it in,total cost is just under £200,mostly parts,our garage are only charging £20 for the fitting.

Now my husband did ring the dealer and was told by the manager 'It can't do any harm to your catylic converter,run some redex through it over the weekend and if the light doesn't go out ring me on Monday'.

Obviously we actually feel that if two other mechanics say it could harm the catalytic converter we don't trust this manager's advice and we should get the work done which is why we booked it into our garage,even if he offered to do the work which he hasn't i'm not sure i would trust him,it did pass the MOT they did but only just passed on emmisions so i feel they must have known there was an issue.

I only know it 'just' passed because i asked our garage to print out a sheet for what was acceptable pass rates and when we compared it you can see it was close.

I also do understand that my husband accepted the initial explanation about the engine light,paid for and drove away the car but i must admit i feel pretty peeved at buying a car one day and having to fork out a repair on it the next.

I suppose i already know that we just have to swallow it,pay up and hope that's it for a while but i was just wondering how others feel and if you would be complaining more even if i really don't know what for.

At my own admission i definitely don't want them doing the work in case they try to cover something up and we end up with more problems.

I don't know,just wanted some opinions i guess and please be kind,i already feel very silly about this.:o

mancitychick

justmel wrote: »

Ok i must start by saying that the car in question came used from a dealer and has no warranty,i do understand we have no actual 'rights' but are feeling put out.

I am sure someone will be along that can tell you for sure, but as far as I am aware it is only when buying from a private seller that you have no rights. If, as you have, you buy from a dealer you do have some rights.

mancitychick

Have a read of this, it shows what rights you have when buying from a car dealer;

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Consumerrights/Buyingacar-yourconsumerrights/DG_183047

justmel

Thankyou for the link mancitychick,i would definitely agree that the car was not as described in conversation because they said it was a historical fault,i know they could argue and say the sensors failed after he left but since he had only driven about 60 miles max i feel that is extremely unlikely.

I have a strong feeling they are not going to co operate easily if we do push it and even if we did manage to get a repair or replacement i really don't think i would trust them not to pull another trick on us.

If we pushed and did manage to get a refund it would be better but i think we would have a huge fight on our hands and i suppose i also feel a bit dented in confidence if i then go in search of another car,my husband had viewed a few cars within our budget prior to this one and all had obvious problems so he had said no to those.

It had left me housebound during the time we were searching which was incredibly difficult and i am also scared of returning to that whilst my husband goes in search of another,the more i type the more i think we are just going to have to suck it up and get on with it,very frustrating though.

s_b

your husband should of taken the car back and made them fix it
redex would not fix this problem
maybe seeing as on the test drive the light of doom was on you should have run away
you obviously had concerns about this car so why did you buy it
i often find that people on a tight budget buy above their station to impress the neighbours something that would never bother me i prefer straight talking honest cars over a number plate
now that youve let other fingers spoil the broth the selling dealer is in a strong position to deny compensation im afraid

guess this is a Volkswagen too?

bod1467

Not necessarily a VW. I once had a very similar issue with a Citroen C3 after replacing the full exhaust system. The exhaust gas sensor would show a fault about 50 miles after being reset.

bungle4by4

the fault will fire the MIL light after 2 drive cycles. Redex will not cure anything, the seller will have reset the light before the car was picked up and knowing full well it would take 2 cycles to trigger it. The dealer is a shark im afraid. sometimes driving the car hard, or with it in a lower gear than neccesary will help if the sensor is fogged. but ulitmately you need new sensors.

justmel

s_b wrote: »

your husband should of taken the car back and made them fix it
redex would not fix this problem
maybe seeing as on the test drive the light of doom was on you should have run away
you obviously had concerns about this car so why did you buy it
i often find that people on a tight budget buy above their station to impress the neighbours something that would never bother me i prefer straight talking honest cars over a number plate
now that youve let other fingers spoil the broth the selling dealer is in a strong position to deny compensation im afraid

guess this is a Volkswagen too?

Not a volswagen no,it is a mitsubishi spacewagon on X reg and it wasn't bought to impress the neighbours or anything like that,old car was a virtual tin can N reg which we were sad to let go but had to when it gave up after 225000 miles.

We needed a people carrier and had a tight budget,we looked into lots of vauxhall zafiras and ford galaxy cars but the ones we could afford were all very high on the mileage or stood to increase our insurance premium too much.

We pay our premium monthly which i do know is not the MSE way but it is the only way we can manage it at the moment,we had 10 months left of our existing premium and were told that if we cancelled and went to someone else we would need to pay £175 fee,fair enough but money was tight so we looked for a car that suited our needs and kept the monthly premium as low as possible.

I understand what you say about doubts but his reasons seemed so convincing and it is a large company,i can see it was silly but misplaced trust and desperation for me to no longer be housebound took over i suppose.

I know the redex is a waste of time and yes i also understand what you say about making them fix it but i am so convinced they lied in the first place that i am scared they will botch it and lie again.

I think this has to be chalked up as a bad experience with lessons learned and we must accept that we will pay up for this although frustrated but know that we are familiar with our local mechanic and trust him to do the job properly.

bungle4by4

before you get him to change the lambdas out, i'd get him to cast an experienced eye over the car, just to see if he can spot something out of place.

I'd be sending the dealer the bill for the repair, at least then your not at risk of them screwing your car up. i'd be surprised if they pay up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

bod1467

Large company ... not Arnold Shark by any chance?

justmel

No not Arnold shark,yes i will be sending them the bill but like you say unlikely they will pay,worth a shot though i suppose but i should probably not name them for now in case it causes any problems.

We popped in to the mechanic again this morning because i was feeling a bit paranoid that the catalytic converter may have already gone and he said it hasn't yet and that he can't find anything else wrong.

I know you will always get problems at some point when you buy used cars especially when they are older too but it was just a kick in the teeth to have it happen so soon.