SOGA - wear & tear?

ryan112

Hi, I purchased a vehicle from a well respected garage on the 12th of December. I had 3 months warranty with the vehicle from the day I bought the car. After maybe a week of buying the car I noticed there was a strange sound coming from the car somewhere, so I researched into it and had somebody diagnose that the gearbox bearings are on their way out and that the issue would have been present for a good while. The garage didn't warn me of the issue, and the driver of the garage drove it 200 miles from the old customer to the current garage, so he would have probably noticed the whining sound. I phoned up the garage suggesting the problem and they said "It seems you're looking for a problem that's not there, it's a very good car. Plus gearbox bearings are classed as wear and tear" and followed on to say similar things regarding I shouldn't be looking on the internet as people are 'rogues'? Can't remember exact details.

It's now just over 3 months and my warranty has expired but the bearings issue is definitely going to get worse, I was going to pay for the repairs myself but it's going to be costing £800 (to say the car cost £6000) which is a lot of money I think. If the bearings are wear and tear, does this rule the repairs out completely? As they're part of a major component. Or is it possible to get even a partial sum to help with the charges. A friend recommended I look into the Sales of Goods Act under Reasonable Time - which he stated was under 6 months of purchasing something unfit for purpose. I'm not too sure how to confront the garage as they seem to have the 'gift of the gab' and I'm not fluent with any legal legislation to be able to argue back, not to mention I'm only 21 and what the garage are saying to me could be lies. Wondering if you guys/girls can help at all? Thanks!

Tilt

Wear and tear usually apply to components which are not expected to last the lifetime of the car. Obvious ones are tyres, brake linings, clutch ect.

A 3 month warranty is pretty irrelevant anyway as in the first 6 months of purchase, the onus is on the seller to prove that the fault was not present at the time of sale. At the very least you should ask the seller to inspect and rectify at no expense under the SOGA 1979 (as amended).

Should things get 'messy', a lot will depend on how many miles the car has done to whether is would be reasonable to expect a failure of this kind and whether to pursue it further.

arcon5

What's the vehicles age and mileage?
What is the life expectancy of such components?
Then consider the vehicles service history and condition.
Then you're on your way to determining whether it's faulty or just worn.

The 6 months from purchase rules is merely down to burden of proof. If they claim it's like that because of reasonable wear they would have to prove such, based on the balance of probabilities.

forgotmyname

Gearbox bearings are on the way out. Same could be said of any car.

Brand new car comes off the production line everything is starting to wear out from then on.

Checked the gearbox oil level? Got the right oil in there?

Are the bearings bad enough to require fixing? I have known people who are fussy and get tiny noises fixed regret getting something fixed when the new or reconditioned part is in a worse state than the old one.

bigjl

Most gearboxes have a little bit of noise and this is normal.

Is this your first car?

A lot garages will sniff out the inexperienced car owner and say your car needs all kinds of work that it doesn't.

Gearbox bearings are rather obvious when they need replacing and you would have noticed them straight away.

Keep driving the car as I strongly suspect there is nothing wrong with it.

If you gave us more info on the car and the mileage we may be of more assistance.

And the garage is right, randomly Googling things never ends well.

But certainly consider changing the gearbox oil, isn't a difficult or complicated job and the examing the oil coming out can be a good way to spot issues.

Ever heard a race car when they show footage inside the car?

That is exaggerated due to the straight cut gears, but all manual gearboxes whine to some extent. Some cars are better at covering up any noises, and with low oil or old oil can also make things a little louder.