Shameless misery post, plus advice needed

rayday2

Happy Wedding Anniversary!

That is really kind of your mum. Its hard having money problems with children. I can do without anything but the hardest bit I find to save money on is my children, I want them to have good birthdays, day trips and happy lives without them hearing about sodding money!

So enjoy your anniversary - think you can work out cheap ways of celebrating that and have a cracking holiday and mine is a stick of aniseed thanks

rayday2

teabelly wrote: »

Head gaskets shouldn't be any more likely to go a second time if the cause of the initial failure is dealt with and the head skimmed flat again.

I remember that happening to ours it had to be sent away for two days for grinding. Our garage were quite positive about the repair said they did the timing belt etc as its part of the kit so as far as the engine was concerned no big costs for a while!

jo1972

Thanks for that info and link teabelly, if I can do something about it I will, I love a good complain! Just didn't want to say something and they say it was my fault all along. I shall have a word with the garage that is fixing it and see what they say. I will also mention the skimming flat of the head too so they think I know what I'm talking about, less chance of being striped up then lol :rotfl: :rotfl:

Ray, not sure I can afford a stick of rock, this is going to be a DFW holiday again I can see it!!

angelavdavis

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the car. I have a couple of ideas:

1) Check out the Old Style moneysaving forum as there was a post not so long ago about caravan holiday meals, that should help you plan your meals during the holiday to keep the costs down.
2) Anything to eBay? You should be able to get some money for your troubles.
3) Have you asked the garage if its possible to pay in installments as you are so broke? In my book, if you don't ask - you don't get!

pcwilkins

Just to confirm what teabelly said, any car you buy from anyone has a "kind of" six month warranty. I say "kind of" because it is up to the seller to prove that any failures or problems were not present or developing at the time of sale.

Before the law was changed, it would have been up to you to prove that the head gasket was failing when you bought the car. Now it is up to the garage to prove that it was not failing when you bought the car --- this is virtually impossible so you have a strong case. I suggest contacting the seller and informing them of the problem and see what they say. £500 seems a lot to us normal folk but to a large garage it is probably almost negligible and they might prefer to pay for the repair rather than risk court action.

Peter

jo1972

Thanks Angela & Peter,

The garage that's fixing it has just rung me and said as I'm 3000 miles away from 80k they would suggest that I also have the cam belt changed as it's not been changed before, another £95 but as I had a Micra a few years ago and the cam belt snapped and I had to scrap the car I figured it's a good idea, so holiday money gone down from £100 down to £5, gotta laugh huh!

I mentioned to the lady at the garage that I think I might've bought a car which had faults at time of purchase and she said there is no way of proving it and they couldn't put anything down in writing but strongly suggested that once the car is repaired and I have a receipt of what I have paid that I go to trading standards and see if I can get anywhere with them. Is this the right route do you think?

jo1972

I applied for a job at AQA a few months back but didn't make the grade unfortunately, does anyone know if it's worth applying again? Plus I saw another similar company being advertised on here recently but I can't remember what it was called so don't know what to search?

hypno06

Don't know about reapplying for AQA, but the other one people talk about on here is 82ask I think?

jo1972

Thanks Hypno, that rings a bell - didn't know what to put in the search box!

blackangeluk

No more advice but huge hugs - I would personally ask the garage if they will take installments as well - no harm in asking

Hope you manage to enjoy your holiday still