Just bought a 'dodgy' car...

londonTiger

seems like seller balantently cleared all error codes before sale. with a scumbag move like that I very much doubt you'd get the aftercare service you need to. Because if the dealer had any morals he/she would have fixed the problems before selling instead of clearing the codes to get it through the test drive/inspection.

nids

might be cheaper to hire a car for a few days rather than re-tax, re-insure and re-mot your 'old' car

jimjames

terric wrote: »

Going to have to call the dealer this afternoon, managed to get to work OK this morning, just had to float along at 60 - 70 because I just can't seem to get up from there, pedal to the floor, not much happens.

It sounds like limp mode is kicking in, if it happens then on some cars just turning the ignition off and back on will clear it so normal power resumes.

My car has this from time to time since I bought it 5 years ago. It seems to happen more when it is warm or the car has been used for a long journey but having been a bit more heavy with my right foot over the last 6 months it's not happened recently. So maybe an Italian tune up might help...

terric

Thanks for the replies everyone - a lot has been happening (none of it good really) since my last post.

Basically, the car went into the garage Monday morning, couldn't make it into work as my old car barely managed the trip down the road - so that's now a wreck sat behind the house. Bad timing eh?! Spoke to the mechanic in the afternoon - he's too busy at the moment to look at the car, so he'll contact me on Wednesday with a guess of how long it's going to be. I'm pretty sure the turbo has gone / is going so that'll take a while.

So, being stuck without a car and a 70 mile per day commute I've had to rent one from Enterprise. It's cost me £69 + £50 (insurance) until Friday evening... so if the mechanic says it's going to be another week or two on Wednesday this car rental is going to get pricey.

At this point, having had the car for less than a month and it having to go back twice now, I'm thinking of rejecting the car. I'm not sure how that goes with the dealer willing to look into it (not sure how he'll handle it if it needs £1000+ worth of repairs though).

I've also got a sneaky suspicion (as the mechanic asked if the RAC warranty details were in the car) they will use OUR warranty to pay for the some / all of the repairs - this isn't confirmed of course, but I'll be keeping an eye on that.

So right now, I'm 1.5 days down this week with work because of travel issues and it's been pretty stressful having to drag this car around to dealer -> garage -> home -> garage without alternative (other than a taxi or bus) transport. Not happy at all.

scaredofdebt

Keep a track of all expenses, dates and times of all issues, claim this back from the dealer. You are out of pocket because they have sold you defective goods.

Have they checked the injectors?

I'd be looking to reject the vehicle if it goes wrong again, get in writing what the faults are and what remedial action has been taken.

We had a petrol Grand Scenic, what a money pit that was!

terric

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Keep a track of all expenses, dates and times of all issues, claim this back from the dealer. You are out of pocket because they have sold you defective goods.

Have they checked the injectors?

I'd be looking to reject the vehicle if it goes wrong again, get in writing what the faults are and what remedial action has been taken.

We had a petrol Grand Scenic, what a money pit that was!

No idea what they've checked or done really - the last time it went in they apparently took stuff apart and put it back together and they couldn't find a problem. Initial diag said it was a historic turbo overboost, either way problem was gone and car seemed to be running fine.

I guess I'll find out for certain tomorrow with regards to what's actually wrong and how long it'll take.

I'm hearing a lot of conflicting opinions about expenses, on one side [the side I'm on] the dealer should reimburse me, as I would if my customer had bought a defective product off me that failed so soon after purchase. On the other, the dealer shouldn't be responsible for anything more than giving me a car back with no error code on it - any costs incurred during the down-time are all due to things that concern me and not the dealer i.e. travel, work, time-off.

Funny though how these problems are all caused by not having the product I paid for that was supposed to prevent these problems in the first place... the logic!

terric

Didn't make a week, engine warning light came on halfway home on the motorway knocking cruise control off in a bit of a sudden way... rejecting the car tomorrow. The car is barely out of the dealer's one month warranty and this is the third time it's happened.

The sorting this out, and the travel to and from the dealer, diagnostics place and mechanic is a massive pain in the a** and I'm not doing it again. We've footed a £100+ bill for a rental car, so their mechanic has had 5 solid days to sort this out.

Am I being unreasonable in rejecting at this stage? I'm willing to be reasonable, but MY options to them are:

1. Full refund or replacement of a same-as / better vehicle
2. I take it to a garage of my choosing and they foot the bill for everything
3. We drop the car off to them tomorrow, they arrange a courtesy car there and then (either one of theirs or a rental) and pay all associated costs including fuel for the duration.

Fair?

arcon5

Why should they have to pay your fuel? That's not even close to being a consequential loss!!

terric

arcon5 wrote: »

Why should they have to pay your fuel? That's not even close to being a consequential loss!!

Yeah, fine. I'm just majorly pi**ed. While charging them for fuel is a bit much, fair enough, having to drag their faulty product around at my expense and on my time is getting old.

angrycrow

Personally I would reject it now. Its a Renault DCI engine so not a question of if it eats its turbo its a question of when it does it. Pop one of the inlet manifold pipes off and i bet you will find it full of oil.

you have been more than reasonable up to this point allowing the dealer to attempt a repair but a line needs to be drawn. Stop using the vehicle and issue a written rejection notice.