Help Gear box gone on 2nd hand car after 6 weeks

Ozzy69

My son bought a 58 plate Astra from a used car dealer on 15th September. This weekend the gear box literally fell out of car! The dealer has told him to contact the company that the 3 month warranty is with. They have told him that he has to pay £68 for a diagnostic check and he is only covered for £1000 but a gearbox will be £2000+

I have look on the Office of Fair trading website and as I far I can see my son should be covered by Sales of Goods act as the fault was obviously there when car was sold and therefore not of a satisfactory quality.

Do you think this is right and does anyone know where I can get a template of a letter that I can send to car dealer?

Thanks.

ILW

Why do you say the fault was there at time of purchase?

spacey2012

First thing.
The most important thing is where you are starting from.
What trading entity is the Dealer LTD or Sole Trader and how "established is the business"
This decides if you have any chance of moving forward with SOGA

forgotmyname

If the gearbox literally fell out it will probably be a mount not the box itself?

You need to know exactly what is wrong.

6 weeks i would be contacting the seller and saying they can claim from the warranty company if they wish. But you wont be.

6 weeks is not on for a failure. It maybe a mount thats £30 or less though.

bigjl

Not unusual for abuse to cause a failure such as this.

£2k is a daft price to pay for a gearbox on an oldish car

Specialist breaker will have a nice low miles box for a few hundred quid.

Add a new clutch and flywheel if it has a dmf for good measure and the car is good to go for an awful lot less than £2k

I was a young overkeen driver once, as we all were, and i am afraid i think this was not a fault that was present on purchase, sorry.

Though i also agree it is likely to just be a mount.

The mount at the front of the previous generation Astra was prone to fracture if the car was hammered off a speed bump. Had one fail on me at work. The engine ended up sitting on the crossmember.

I also broke an engine mount on a Renault 5 many moons ago after wheelspinning from a set of lights in true boy racer fashion.

Young lads and cars can lead to breakages.

Tilt

bigjl wrote: »

Not unusual for abuse to cause a failure such as this.

£2k is a daft price to pay for a gearbox on an oldish car

Specialist breaker will have a nice low miles box for a few hundred quid.

Add a new clutch and flywheel if it has a dmf for good measure and the car is good to go for an awful lot less than £2k

I was a young overkeen driver once, as we all were, and i am afraid i think this was not a fault that was present on purchase, sorry.

Though i also agree it is likely to just be a mount.

The mount at the front of the previous generation Astra was prone to fracture if the car was hammered off a speed bump. Had one fail on me at work. The engine ended up sitting on the crossmember.

I also broke an engine mount on a Renault 5 many moons ago after wheelspinning from a set of lights in true boy racer fashion.

Young lads and cars can lead to breakages.

Cars at 5 years old are considered to be "oldish" now are they?

Ozzy69

My point exactly, I do not consider a 58 plate car to be oldish! I am not sure what the problem is, my son had to be towed home and he tells me there is a hole underneath the car and the breakdown man told him he needs a new gearbox. Aside from how much it will cost, surely a car that has just been purchased should not breakdown. He may be a young driver but surely he wouldn't cause that much damage in so little time. As he's a young driver, is it reasonable to assume he caused the car abuse?

fivetide

Tilt wrote: »

Cars at 5 years old are considered to be "oldish" now are they?

Agree.

The big question is what forgotmyname posted - i.e. what was the actual fault?

Aside from that, what history came with the car? What engine? What miles on it? etc etc. Remember SOGA looks at what is reasonable but I would say time from purchase and the age of the car is on your side at the moment OP.

ILW

Ozzy69 wrote: »

My point exactly, I do not consider a 58 plate car to be oldish! I am not sure what the problem is, my son had to be towed home and he tells me there is a hole underneath the car and the breakdown man told him he needs a new gearbox. Aside from how much it will cost, surely a car that has just been purchased should not breakdown. He may be a young driver but surely he wouldn't cause that much damage in so little time. As he's a young driver, is it reasonable to assume he caused the car abuse?

A hole does sound like impact damage. Best to find what the fault is before going any further.

AdrianC

Ozzy69 wrote: »

My point exactly, I do not consider a 58 plate car to be oldish!

Nor would I, and if this does turn out to be mechanical failure, then you definitely have SOGA comeback against the dealer.

Note that "if", in the light of this bit...

I am not sure what the problem is, my son had to be towed home and he tells me there is a hole underneath the car and the breakdown man told him he needs a new gearbox.

Uh-oh...

Aside from how much it will cost, surely a car that has just been purchased should not breakdown.

Cars are complicated mechanical and electronic objects, with a heck of a lot of components. It only takes one to fail to cause a "breakdown". And that, of course, is ignoring what one might charitably call user error.

He may be a young driver but surely he wouldn't cause that much damage in so little time. As he's a young driver, is it reasonable to assume he caused the car abuse?

A hole in the bottom of the gearbox casing isn't something that "just happens". Catastrophic internal failure could cause it, yes - perhaps due to, umm, user error (accidentally selecting Reverse at speed, p'raps) - perhaps due to mechanical failure. More likely, though, is impact against some object in the road. In which case, it's time to start wondering if it's worth claiming off his insurance.

Retrogamer

Check inside the wheel arches on the car for any signs of shredded rubber.

Seen a few young drivers pulling wheelspins all over the place and loving it until they break something. I'm not saying this is the case here, but we had a few cars in for warranty work for failed gearboxes / clutches when i worked in a dealership. Was a common theme with young drivers and to find lots of burn rubber stuck inside the wheel arches.

Is the hole on the bottom possible where the gearbox "fell out" the car and landed ont he road?