Have I brought a lemon and been ripped off

patman99

Mini's use the same power steering assembly as Fiat. There is a temperature sensor built-in that cuts power to the motor if it gets to hot. This can occur if your journey has lots of twists and turns such as town driving. This thermal cut-out can fail if activated to many times (it resets each time you switch-off the ignition and switch it back on).
Your car is still safe to rive, but will be a bit heavier on the steering when not moving.

brettcta

where did you bring the car from? where were you taking it?

you might have been better off if you'd have bought the car instead of bringing it with you

zenmaster

Assuming that the MOT is genuine then the steering would have been checked then and found to be in working order.

In that case would the fault be deemed to be inherent at time of purchase?

madmummyx5

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay in answering any questions but work and buses are not are great mix :mad:
I will try and answer all the questions and comments, I have absolutely no idea how to quote so here goes,

Zenmaster, I have a full 12 month Mot and the trader said that the car was independently checked by another garage but unfortunately can't find the paperwork to prove this, I do however have the Mot. What does it mean by inherent fault is it something I have to live with?
Brettcta I'm a little confused as to what you mean, I was only on a little road taking my my 2 youngest to nursery (in the car was my 4 year old, my 2 year old and baby) and me obviously
Patman99 You can't move the steering wheel, originally the garage thought it was just loss of power steering but now it doesn't move at all
Arcon5 The woman from trading standards said that they think it's reasonable for 3 - 4 weeks as a rejectable time as not fit for purpose, I only want the sodding thing fixed I actually like the car, cheap tax, cheap to fill up.
Sb To be honest I have to say that T/s didn't seem overly bothered when I spoke to them, I must admit I wanted to do more than kick his blinking tyres but hey ho

I hope I haven't missed anyone, but the little update was after I sent the letter off I received a reply today, still no apology but has said they will look at it as a goodwill gesture and if they find a fault they will only charge me the labour and the remainder of the part, they will cover the first £250, I must admit I did curse when I read that bit. Do I have to pay more money? I have rang around a few more garages and I have had quotes of 550 inc vat and 675 so the first garage's quote of 450 seems reasonable.
Well the saga continues so I am going to reply tomorrow before work telling them that I'm not prepare to pay any money and that I want them to cover the cost or just refund me, it's been a week now and it's getting a bit beyond a joke now.
Thanks again everyone
Madmummy

arcon5

It really depends on the age and mileage how fair it is - however, it is not unreasonable that you pay some towards it as although it has failed early, it has had use through wear and tear.

Hope that makes sense. As an example, if a part has a life expectancy of 75k miles and fails at 50k miles, it's reasonable you pay 2/3 of the cost of repair. Although how long a part should last really depends on many other factors such as age and whether it was looked after by previous owners.

giraffe69

Brettcta I'm a little confused as to what you mean, I was only on a little road taking my my 2 youngest to nursery (in the car was my 4 year old, my 2 year old and baby) and me obviously

No need to be confused. It is just a snide comment that relates to the fact that your original post said "brought" not "bought"

brettcta

giraffe69 wrote: »

No need to be confused. It is just a snide comment that relates to the fact that your original post said "brought" not "bought"

less 'snide comment' more 'pointer that brought is different to bought'.

it changes the entire context of a sentence.

bod1467

brettcta wrote: »

less 'snide comment' more 'pointer that brought is different to bought'.

it changes the entire context of a sentence.

Yet entirely unnecessary to point this out - everyone knew what the OP meant. And this is a Consumer Rights forum, not the Grammar Society.

brettcta

ban this sick filth

zenmaster

madmummyx5 wrote: »

Zenmaster, I have a full 12 month Mot and the trader said that the car was independently checked by another garage but unfortunately can't find the paperwork to prove this, I do however have the Mot. What does it mean by inherent fault is it something I have to live with?

Inherent just means "present at the time of purchase". If there was anything wrong with the steering rack at the time of the MOT then I would expect it to be picked up there - they are normally very hot on such things. In that case I would expect the dealer to put it right or, at the very least, tell you about it before you bought the car.

If nothing was found on the MOT and failure was due to something like a pin shearing when you went over a bump then that would most likely fall under the category of "bad luck".

You can check your MOT online here.

I hope you get it sorted out soon and it doesn't cost you much. I'm in a similar situation but, thankfully, my dealer has been very good about it so far.