Rejecting a car purchased from dealer.

harveybobbles

I would have waited until the car was repaired and then gone ahead with the sale.

Your (MCOL/Court) claim might get laughed at as you knew it needed a repair, negotiated a discount and then went ahead with the deal.

First stop would be to go back to the dealer with the info you have and kindly ask if they would be willing to pay/contribute.

If you start to say "claims" and "courts" they will be less willing to help you

colino

I would hazard a guess that most M3s have cracks of some magnitude or other and most owners prefer to drive them and ignore the oily bits. Equally few MOT testers are aware of the widespread problem and simply don't know to specifically check for it (sometimes it just appears that the underseal has lifted a bit). I do disagree with your repairer though, the reason that the M3 has an issue is that the torque it delivers is massive and the diff is putting the standard, stamped, boot floor under a stress it cannot cope with, hence stress cracks and failed factory spot welds. The absolute best solution is repairing and reinforcing what you already have, it generally takes the same time as cutting out and replacing the boot panel with a new replacement, which unless reinforced, will spilt again.
Unfortunately stripping out the boot, dropping the rear subframe, disconnecting the propshaft, the fuel lines, brake lines and the petrol tank all have to be done for both repairs and that is all expensive labour. Sadly this is one of a few BMW fails and they really should have recalled all of them when they were nearly new, they certainly weren't cheap, and fixed them all properly.

verityboo

Did you rely on the description of the cracks as 'minor' or did they supply exact details before purchase (the exact number and length/position of each crack). The word minor is subjective and not exact, therefore it may be a problem as the op was aware that there was a problem

Foxy-Stoat_3

How old is the car?

BMW are repairing these if the BUILD date is within 10 years, as long as it has full history and has standard suspension they normally repair them FOC.

If the car was over 10 years old and if you had done your homework, you would of steered well clear or got a bigger discount.

If you haven't already taken it to Reddish Motorsport, then do so as they sell the reinforcement kits and have done a lot of these types of repair, if this is the garage you took it to then you won't get a better opinion.

Maybe head over to M3cutters for more specialist information on the repair, as for legal advise, speak to trading standards but it will be an uphill battle I suspect.

If you haven't picked the car up yet, as its not been repaired, then its just a matter of refunding the deposit. As they haven't had the car repaired, it shouldn't be that difficult.

May the Force be with you.

Dafne

They said a small crack at the front of the panel, not several large ones all over the panel and broken spot welds in multiple locations

Foxy - The specialist it's at is Redish. He is unable to fit the reinforcement kit due to the nature of the fault.

Dafne

It's just coming up to 11 years old, fyi

Foxy-Stoat_3

Dafne wrote: »

They said a small crack at the front of the panel, not several large ones all over the panel and broken spot welds in multiple locations

Foxy - The specialist it's at is Redish. He is unable to fit the reinforcement kit due to the nature of the fault.

Then you have the best advice....did you actually take possession of the car with the fault or was the bill of sale noted that the fault will be fixed?

Foxy-Stoat_3

Dafne wrote: »

It's just coming up to 11 years old, fyi

Then out of the BMW FOC repair, maybe they will entertain a proper repair with a goodwill gesture with you or the dealer making a contribution?

Ask on the cutters forum for the most sympathetic BMW dealer nearest to you.

Dafne

I've spoken to the dealer that it was originally inspected at. He stated that due to the age, they won't consider any goodwill gestures. The age is the reason that the repair was refused by BMW, as per original post

Dafne

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

Then you have the best advice....did you actually take possession of the car with the fault or was the bill of sale noted that the fault will be fixed?

Took possession of the car, after they said that the damage was minimal. The receipt makes no mention of any discount or repairs, although the receipt for the deposit stated that it would be repaired at BMW