Second hand car from dealer failed after 3 months...

Madfish

I bought my wife a car from a local dealer just over 3 months ago now, paid £1800. It started playing up a few weeks back stalling at lights etc. The dealer had packed up when I popped it back within the 3 month warranty and all that was left was an empty lot. I took it to a mechanic friend who thought it could be a fuel supply problem and changed the filters and cleaned the lines etc but it got worse and would not start after it stalled. Turns out its the ECU which could cost me almost half what I paid to get repaired Any ideas where I stand on this legally? I paid on credit card and am wondering if that is an avenue to explore?

vaio

yep, get the case documented with a report on the fault and stick a s75 claim into your cc company

kfw_2

Try this company ecutesting.com i had a broken throttle body on my old 9-5 and bought from them for a quarter of the dealer/spares co. My local inde garage was so impressed they also now use them. I have no affiliation with them.

jimjames

Very difficult to blame a garage for a fault on a car costing £1800 that appeared some months down the line.

If it does need a replacement have you looked online? Often you can find them on Ebay etc for a fraction of the new price.

EdGasket

jimjames wrote: »

Very difficult to blame a garage for a fault on a car costing £1800 that appeared some months down the line.

If it does need a replacement have you looked online? Often you can find them on Ebay etc for a fraction of the new price.

The trouble is that often you cannot just plug in another ecu because they are coded to the car or at least the immobiliser/keys. It is always better to try getting your own ecu repaired in the first instance as you know it works with your car. Usually its just the output transistors or capacitors that go; simple fix for an electronics company.

Madfish

I'm not one to complain if something goes wrong with a second hand car if its an everyday problem but it is annoying that its a major problem only a few weeks into owning it, one thing I did not mention was that I popped the car into the dealer a week before and explained the problem before it got serious, was told to bring it back the next week and they would look at it as they were to busy that week. Then they were gone!. As for ECUtesting, funny enough I found the website earlier so thanks for the tip. At the moment its with an electronics engineer the garage recommended so fingers crossed it wont be to bad. maybe worth a S75 claim for the repair bill, thanks for the help everyone.