58 plate citroen c4 grand picasso needs a new head to the engine

iwish84

I bought my car from a citroen dealer just over 2 yrs ago. It was £8000, i took out finance with citroen over 5yrs which i am almost half way through. I pay £ 177 a month. I booked my car into citroen service as the engine management light had come on, they found a few problems with the car totalling to £568. I agreed and went to collect car, when i turned the engine on the lengkne management light was still on as of nothjng had been done. They sent the mechanic out to me and he sais he will have to get bacl jnto citroen technical. So i left my car again. They have now found out my car needs a new head on the engine, this is going to cost me £ £3142. I phoned main citroen to complajn about what had happend, they offered me £ 500 towards a new or used citroen car, when i refused this goodwill gesture they offered to refund me the £ 568. I had previoulsy paid. I have been told by the dealership this is just bad luck as this doesnt usually happen. I do not know what to do next, i still owe £ 5400 on the finance, the car was only worth £ 2700 before this fault was found. Can anyone please advise me, i have contacted my local cab who where no help at all. Thanks

marliepanda

I am not sure what you are expecting. Things go wrong with cars, its 6 years old.

OlliesDad

marliepanda wrote: »

I am not sure what you are expecting. Things go wrong with cars, its 6 years old.

The Sales of Goods Act applies to second hand cars as well as new cars. The question is whether or not it is reasonable for a 6 year old car to require a new head?

If it is unreasonable, then the OP will be required to prove that the fault has occurred due to an inherent fault (rather than poor driving or any other user induced issue).

iwish84

Its only just over 5 yrs old.

iwish84

Thankyou for ur reply olliedad, do u know how i can get an answer to that?

shaun_from_Africa

It might be an idea to ask on a forum such as this:
http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citroen/forum/103-citroen-c4-forum/
and see if other people have experienced similar failures.

If not, you will probably need a written report by an independent mechanic stating what they think caused the failure. If they state that it was caused by a manufacturing defect (faulty or poor quality materials or a build problem), then you need to approach the garage again and tell them what you have found.

I don't think that a manufacturing defect will be easy to prove on a vehicle that is close to 6 years old though.

Has the car been serviced according to the recommended schedule? and do you have records of this work?

Hintza

The design life of a new car is 7 years.

If I was the OP I would be taking the car to a decent independent citroen mechanic to see what they say

iwish84

Yes the car has full service history, not all by citroen. I also bought the car used not new?

bod1467

Hintza wrote: »

If I was the OP I would be taking the car to a decent independent citroen mechanic to see what they say

I agree. It's not often that the head goes on a vehicle. An independent may give you a more-detailed analysis of the issue, without any bias towards Citroen or the dealership. (It'll cost though, to get the assessment done).

burlington6

The fact that you owe more on the car than it's worth is your own fault.

SuperHan

I think the refund on the works you've paid for is fair - you shouldn't be charged for irrelevant works carried out because their mechanics couldn't identify the fault... However, I wouldn't expect much more!