Dealer Warranty Help Needed!

stumpjumper

I purchased my car two months ago from an independant and it came with the compulsory dealers three month warranty. I had some warranty work carried out when I first got the car with no problems. Two weeks ago it developed a small oil leak and some things that needed resetting on the car's computer. We took the car for them to look at and were told to book it in for the work to be done under warranty which we did. At that point the garage was still trading and we were given no reason to believe that it was in trouble. We took the car in this morning (had to book a day off work and the garage isn't local) to find that the car sales side of the business had been wound up (not gone into recievership) but the workshop was still trading for the next month. The remaining staff said they now have nothing to do with the company that sold us the car and that they wouldn't be able to carry out the work under warranty and that it would be £100 to get the work done. We declined and took the car away as we can't afford that right now.

Is there any way we can make the company or it's directors to honour the warranty which was a condition of sale?

moonrakerz

You will probably find that the car sales business was a separate company to the garage, even though they are owned by the same owner. You may also find that the car sales business will start up again, having got rid of all its debts, under a new name.

This trick is as old as Esther Rantzen !

stumpjumper

Apparently the owner has sold the land to a housing developer and the workshop is only going to trade for another month before they're booted out. The staff are looking for new jobs. They told us that the buisness was doing well and they owner just decided it was too much hassle and decided to make some money selling the land for housing. It's a crappy state of affairs

vaio

I could well be wrong but I would have thought that if it was wound up rather than gone bust provision would have to be made for warranty claims.

Along the same lines, as it’s only two months since you were sold the warranty the company must have known they wouldn’t be around to honour it which sounds like fraud to me.

Obviously the above assumes the warranty was private by the dealer rather than an insurance backed one.

stumpjumper

yes it was a private warranty from the dealer. I'm going to try and get the contact details for the company's director and find out exactly what he intends to do to honour our warranty. We think it may be fraudulent too as we bought from a dealer in order to have the 3 month warranty and paid a premium for that.

stumpjumper

Just to complicate matters I've just run some checks via Companies House and the company is still listed as trading!

derrick

Did you pay for the car on finance, or any of the amount by credit card, if so they will be jointly liable and you should contact them.