Avoid Car World Peterborough

Waftiskoo

Roughly six months ago I purchased a car from Car world in Peterborough and took out the all singing, all dancing warranty offered with auto protect, covering all aspects of electrical problems and wear and tear. Needless to say, whenever I have had to deal with either company to get anything rectified it has been the most frustrating thing in the world.

Within 48hrs I had the first of 2 problems with the car. The deadlock would not disengage from the fuel filler flap which meant that I couldn't put any fuel in the car. I rang car world only to be told that it wasn't their issue as that was what the warranty was for. So, I proceeded to call auto protect who then told me that I would need to take it to an approved garage to get a diagnosis done (which isn't covered by the warranty) to find out what the problem was then I could see if it was in fact covered by the warranty. Feeling somewhat reluctant to incur a charge with a garage to get to the bottom of the problem which may not even be covered by the warranty I called car world back and explained my dissatisfaction in the way their customer service and the way that the warranty operates essentially having to pay to find out if some repair work that needed doing less than 2 days after purchasing the car was actually covered by the warranty. I asked if there was any way that they could fix it and their solution was to drive the car to them for them to have a look at it instead. A slight oversight on their part, and a concept to advanced for them to grasp (as it had to be repeatedly pointed out) was that I lived 16 miles away from the dealership, had no fuel in the car and no way of putting any fuel into the car. In the end I had to pay a mechanic to dismantle the filler flap and pry the deadbolt out of the way rendering it useless and buying a locking fuel cap instead.

Now however, I have another issue arise with the exhaust. It had started to blow and based upon the previous experience I decided to go to the garage to see where it is blowing from and to get a quote so that I could give the 'good' people at auto protect a good diagnosis of the work required as it would cost me £1100 to have it replaced due to the parts and the labour because massive length of time and work involved in doing the work. With details all to hand I called them up and asked how I proceed with having the work carried out only to be told that the exhaust isn't covered under the warranty, and to read the small print where I would find a small list of exemptions to the policy. It turns out almost nothing is actually covered under the policy I was sold as "covering everything" it even states in the small print that the list of items not covered is incomplete!

By this point I was highly irritated and decided to call car world to discuss the problem and matter of being sold a warranty to cover wear and tear only to find that almost nothing is covered. The signs of the problem would have been visible on the checks carried out before the purchase of the car as an 8" braided metal section of the exhaust isn't going to just rot completely into nothingness (there is none left at all) in the space of 6 months. Turns out they are completely washing their hands with the matter and won't honour any repair work if the warranty wouldn't cover it. Apparently the operate as a used car business, not as a main dealer so they only do essential checks to ensure the car is road legal when it leaves the dealership. All this and they claim to have excellent customer service! Since buying the car and having to deal with the people at the dealership and at auto protect I have heard nothing but bad reports about them from people having similar issues with getting problems with vehicles soon after purchase and car world seen to want nothing to do with it once the car is sold. Can anyone offer any advice on how to deal with this matter?

maninthestreet

£1100 for an exhaust? What car is it? In my experience, exhausts are never covered by any warranty, and most used car warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on.

Froglet

I would contact citizens advice so you know what you can and can't do legally.

I believe there are proceedures if the car fails in a short space of time after buying it but they would know what is best.Failing that i would post your query on a specialised motoring site that would give you more detailed and expert advice.You could also post on the consumer rights board(below this one) or in the motoring section.

Waftiskoo

It's a down pipe a renault clio 197. The majority of the cost is labour charges because to change it is a complete ballache as it is one complete piece from the manifold to the cat, so to be able to access everywhere they need to they'll have to remove the suspension, front sub frame etc and it'll be a 7 1/2hr job in total.

I'm sorta finding out that about warranties the hard way lol. It just pees me off that when it was sold they gave us the impression that pretty much everything on the car barring the minor renewable parts like brake pads, wiper blades bulbs and so on.

lincroft1710

The problem with hot hatches is that although they seem a reasonable priced buy secondhand, repairing them is costly because of the specialist parts they use.

You don't say how old the car is, how many miles you've covered since purchase, price paid or total mileage. Exhausts are consumables, don't last forever and doubtful if any used car warranty would cover them. As 6 months have elapsed since purchasing the car, the dealer won't want to know. I doubt you have any legal comeback against them

Waftiskoo

It's a 57 reg with about 73k on the clock. I've done a bit of looking around and heard about the 6 months thing with the sale of goods act regarding used cars stating that if something goes wrong within that period it should be treated as faulty at the time of purchase then instantly went rummaging for paperwork and I've got just over a week before my 6 months are up.

lincroft1710

Waftiskoo wrote: »

and heard about the 6 months thing with the sale of goods act regarding used cars stating that if something goes wrong within that period it should be treated as faulty at the time of purchase

Not wholly correct. A battery can be perfectly OK on date of purchase, but can fail 5 months and 3 weeks later. It wasn't "faulty" just reaching the end of its life, which depending on how the car was used might have lasted for another 5 months. As I said in a previous post, exhausts are consumables, they are expected to fail.

Now if the suspension collapsed, the engine threw a rod, the gearbox failed, on a car with 73K and you had driven the car within its limits, you could well have a claim. With an exhaust I'm not so sure, so would suggest you post about the exhaust on the Motoring section, giving make, model, age, price paid, mileage now, mileage at time of purchase and see what response you get.

As you're no doubt aware Car World won't roll over, so if the consensus is you should claim, you may have to go down the route of MoneyClaimOnLine.

transient

Waftiskoo wrote: »

Roughly six months ago I purchased a car from Car world in Peterborough and took out the all singing, all dancing warranty offered with auto protect, covering all aspects of electrical problems and wear and tear. Needless to say, whenever I have had to deal with either company to get anything rectified it has been the most frustrating thing in the world.

Within 48hrs I had the first of 2 problems with the car. The deadlock would not disengage from the fuel filler flap which meant that I couldn't put any fuel in the car. I rang car world only to be told that it wasn't their issue as that was what the warranty was for. So, I proceeded to call auto protect who then told me that I would need to take it to an approved garage to get a diagnosis done (which isn't covered by the warranty) to find out what the problem was then I could see if it was in fact covered by the warranty. Feeling somewhat reluctant to incur a charge with a garage to get to the bottom of the problem which may not even be covered by the warranty I called car world back and explained my dissatisfaction in the way their customer service and the way that the warranty operates essentially having to pay to find out if some repair work that needed doing less than 2 days after purchasing the car was actually covered by the warranty. I asked if there was any way that they could fix it and their solution was to drive the car to them for them to have a look at it instead. A slight oversight on their part, and a concept to advanced for them to grasp (as it had to be repeatedly pointed out) was that I lived 16 miles away from the dealership, had no fuel in the car and no way of putting any fuel into the car. In the end I had to pay a mechanic to dismantle the filler flap and pry the deadbolt out of the way rendering it useless and buying a locking fuel cap instead.

Now however, I have another issue arise with the exhaust. It had started to blow and based upon the previous experience I decided to go to the garage to see where it is blowing from and to get a quote so that I could give the 'good' people at auto protect a good diagnosis of the work required as it would cost me £1100 to have it replaced due to the parts and the labour because massive length of time and work involved in doing the work. With details all to hand I called them up and asked how I proceed with having the work carried out only to be told that the exhaust isn't covered under the warranty, and to read the small print where I would find a small list of exemptions to the policy. It turns out almost nothing is actually covered under the policy I was sold as "covering everything" it even states in the small print that the list of items not covered is incomplete!

By this point I was highly irritated and decided to call car world to discuss the problem and matter of being sold a warranty to cover wear and tear only to find that almost nothing is covered. The signs of the problem would have been visible on the checks carried out before the purchase of the car as an 8" braided metal section of the exhaust isn't going to just rot completely into nothingness (there is none left at all) in the space of 6 months. Turns out they are completely washing their hands with the matter and won't honour any repair work if the warranty wouldn't cover it. Apparently the operate as a used car business, not as a main dealer so they only do essential checks to ensure the car is road legal when it leaves the dealership. All this and they claim to have excellent customer service! Since buying the car and having to deal with the people at the dealership and at auto protect I have heard nothing but bad reports about them from people having similar issues with getting problems with vehicles soon after purchase and car world seen to want nothing to do with it once the car is sold. Can anyone offer any advice on how to deal with this matter?

Serves you right for going to Westwood to buy a car, you would have been better off getting one from the welland

deanos

I looked around there recently as was after a car and it never did seem right, they had hundreds of cars but they all looked a bit rough to me, good luck OP

transient

deanos wrote: »

I looked around there recently as was after a car and it never did seem right, they had hundreds of cars but they all looked a bit rough to me, good luck OP

You didnt think to look on BST?

Paul_Downward

I am a dealer, and have been selling Customer Protect policies for a short while. one of my customers bought a silver policy on a 06 plated Vectra. All the boxes were ticked, the car had FSH, the cam belt had been changed. about 3 weeks after the vehicle left my customer called me to say the heater was not working, so i asked him if there were any warning lights on or if the vehicle was overheating, the answer to the question was no, I asked him to bring he car in for investigation, on the way I got another call, and he had broken down, when questioned, he was driving on the motorway, and had no indication on any dials, but now the engine had ceased. On Oct 1st we instigated a claim under the warranty, and after being told to strip the engine down to pistons (About 5 hours labour) the independent (How can they be independent if they are tasked by them) engineer came to visit. and after about 3 hours of discussion it was decided that the oil cooler had malfunctioned, so further discussions took place, and as the coolant had emulsified, it was agreed that no reading would have been indicated within the drivers compartment, the customer is no way a vehicle expert so would not have known this anyway. Since then, I have had no joy in getting any written form of reply for this claim from Customer / Auto Protect, and since then, we have had to press ahead with the repair (Decision I took in early December) as was getting no communication of Auto Protect, during this time my customer also decided that he no longer wanted the vehicle as the warranty company were messing everyone around, So I reluctantly refunded the customer with the purchase price of the car (not needed, however it is best for my business) and the purchase price of the warranty. I have had a report done from a major auto club in the UK and agree that this could quite easily have happened without indication to an no expert driver, and is reasonable in the circumstances. I have tried without success to come to a settlement with this company who continue to ignore emails and calls, so have been left with little option but to start small claims proceedings against them.

I will no longer sell their product and urge everyone to avoid them like the plague. They have cost me far more than the returned car, as also my reputation is under scrutiny!!