Broken down car soon after purchase

hazellc

Destination, I didn't even get off the drive! I turned the key and the engine cut out before I could get out of neutral, at which point I tried to start it again and got an awful noise. I tried to start it a couple of times after that, as my old car had a recurrent fault that was very similar, and got the same noise, but my understanding is that shouldn't make the damage worse as the belt had already gone. It's a petrol car, and I have no idea if it's an interference engine or not.

The SOGA is an interesting perspective I hadn't thought of. The garage I bought it from provided a warranty through the RAC. I phoned them when the fault occurred, as the owner told me to speak to them first if anything went wrong but unfortunately both times the phone was answered by a member of staff who didn't seem very interested. They've spoken to the garage looking at my car (the RAC recommended one) and no work's been done, it's just that you can't properly diagnose something like this without taking parts off. Sorry if it's confusing with the two seperate garages involved.

I think if I ring the dealer, I'll ask to speak to the owner and expect nothing. Thanks everyone, you've given me a good idea what to expect!

colino

Frankly you would have been in a stronger position having the car taken back to the selling dealer for them to have a look at. I'm not sure why you went down the warranty route straight away, did the helpful RAC man knowing of a RAC warranty take the car to the RAC garage?
With the engine now in bits somewhere else, I doubt, even in goodwill, the selling garage will contribute.

hazellc

My breakdown cover's through the AA. I went the warranty route straightaway because, on initially phoning the dealer who told me to ring him first if anything did go wrong, he told me to do so.

little_miss_muppet_face

Did the garage not offer you any kinda warranty, like a 90 day warranty period, i thought all garages offered at least something ?

Destination_..._?

Contact Trading standards or Consumer Direct and ask for there help and advice regarding this matter.

Let's say you Can prove it was faulty when you bought it you might have a case but here's the problem if the dealer turns round and says he sold the car in a good state and road worthy and could not have foreseen this problem.

Can someone use this and say the dealer did not alert me or bring it to my attention regarding the timing belt or they knew about it and did not do it themselves ? It's long shot .

Warranty does it include timing belts ?

Your belt has failed so soon after you purchased the car it would reasonable for the dealer to make some sort of a goodwill gesture.

motorguy

colino wrote: »

Frankly you would have been in a stronger position having the car taken back to the selling dealer for them to have a look at. I'm not sure why you went down the warranty route straight away, did the helpful RAC man knowing of a RAC warranty take the car to the RAC garage?
With the engine now in bits somewhere else, I doubt, even in goodwill, the selling garage will contribute.

+1

Under the SOGA the dealer MUST be given the opporunity to inspect the vehicle.

s_b

pgilc1 wrote: »

+1

Under the SOGA the dealer MUST be given the opporunity to inspect the vehicle.

seller is aware of the problem and OP did state they were to contact the warranty company so i would be back to seller looking for a part payment seeing as only been owned 3 weeks
as i said if it was one of my babies i would prefer the car to come to me so i could find cheapest labour fix by pulling in a flavour

lets see what OP says when they have spoken again to seller

Premier_2

hazellc wrote: »

They can fix it for £700+, as all the valves are bent. Premier, unfortunately there's no way on earth I can afford a new car - I just bought this one. Coming so soon after shelling out so much money, I can barely afford this repair. ...

If the valves are bent as you say, then they've hit the pistons so I would expect the cost to be more like £700+++++

You can buy a good car for less than £700.;

hazellc

The garage repairing my car quoted £730.00 to do so. I rang the dealer to let them know and before I'd had a chance to so much as hint they might think about contributing, he told me they would sort it out, which really surprised me. I had my car back the next day fully paid for.

Now, of course, the bloody check engine light's come on!

Thanks everyone - even though I didn't need to ask the garage for a goodwill contribution, it helped me stop worrying to have some idea what other people thought.

colino

Well done the trader, a case for naming and praising?