Lacquer pealing from used car 5 months after purchase

greatfloyd69

Hi any advice on this topic would be appreciated.

I bought a used Ford Kuga 58 from Archie Moss Vauxhall dealership in Loughborough at the beginning of March. It had a few dinks they were going to fix, the main one being on the front of the car above the license plate but under the grill/ford badge. On this metal section of the front bumper the lacquer had pealed away leaving a circle about the size of the top of a cup. The car was awaiting prep on the day we viewed it and we had verbal and written confirmation this section would be fixed/resprayed upon collection. We were given a 3 month warranty on the car after purchase, we did try to bargain for longer but could only get free GAP insurance.

The car looked great when picked up, we went over the paint work with a fine tooth comb. All looked good. After driving off the forecourt the car continued to drive well, but because the salesman was useless (to be polite) a number of things went wrong.

The day we collected the car, after being told to get there early because everything was ready with the car (AND as we had to drive for an hour and 15 we left home really early) we arrived to be told it wouldn't be ready as the locking nut to remove the tyres was broken so we would have to wait while it went to a local ford dealer to get all new locking nuts...therefore it was obvious the car was only being serviced that morning, so NOT ready as promised.

The car had front and rear sensors, the front didn't work, something we were only to realise arriving home and attempting to park our new 4x4 in front of our garage trying to make use of the sensors. The 12V sockets inside the cabin had gone and obviously hadn't been checked. They lost our service log book, and sent all our documents, including our GAP details and V5 to the wrong house number after writing it down incorrectly, and finally they took our deposit out of our bank twice after calculating their sums incorrectly.... needless to say I complained, and did get a written apology from the branch manager. I wasn't after anything else so was happy to leave it there as the apology letter had no defensive tone, just simply an apology.

We are now 5 months into driving the car, and I still love it. But I've now noticed in the exact same spot where the respray was done the lacquer/paint (I'm not really sure what the actual term should be) has started to come away and flake, the actual area is probably about an inch in size, if I were to touch the area itself I'm sure I could just peel sections of it off the car.

So thank you for sticking with me through that explanation! Does anyone know where I stand? I have the piece of paper the salesman wrote down 'Front Bumper Paint' on as an action point, but as I'm out of the warranty period they provided where do I stand with this exactly? To me a paint job/respray should last slightly longer than 5 months?! After everything they messed up do I have grounds to go back and hound them further?? Or, do I need to grit my teeth, curse Vauxhall/write and complain to some big wig and move on?

Do you think I have a case for further action on their part?

I can also confirm I'll only be dealing with Ford about this car from this point onwards!!

Thank you for your help.

OddballJamie

If they used a Smart repairs company to do the work, surely that should come with some sort of warranty.

greatfloyd69

I'm really not savvy with this kind of thing. I feel like they will just fob me off with some excuse about use of the vehicle and daily wear and tear... but if I knew I had more rights maybe I'd get further?!

motorguy

greatfloyd69 wrote: »

I'm really not savvy with this kind of thing. I feel like they will just fob me off with some excuse about use of the vehicle and daily wear and tear... but if I knew I had more rights maybe I'd get further?!

Its a 'fault', not wear and tear. They'll simply take it back to whoever did it and get them to sort it free of charge to them.

Cant see them having an issue doing that.

I've had a couple of cars had bodywork prior to sale that subsequently developed issues and the dealer just 'leant' on the bodyshop to sort it out.

Prothet_of_Doom

Soga is all about the expectations given the price you paid. So if you bought a 12 year old hack for £1000, you could expect a bit of laquer to peel, but if you paid alot more and part of the deal including rectification of paintwork, you could argue that you'd expect it to last a bit longer. the 3 month warranty is tosh.... SOGA all the way.

fivetide

basically it might well have been a rush job so it hasn't cured properly.

As above, get them to do it properly this time. Shouldn't be a big issue unless they have their own bodyshop it will have been subcontracted anyway.