Worried I've bought dodgy car :-(

mrsvanderkamp_2

So it appears I was right to be worried. Car has gone into garage this morning for once over.....it's misfiring and requires new coil pack and plugs but the bigger issue is what has caused that which is apparently low compression in cylinder 2...I might have the cause and effect the wrong way round there as I'm no mechanic and I'm trying to remember what he told me. However, he's very well trusted and doesn't make a song and dance but recommends rejecting the car.

Iceweasel

I have no problem in believing your 'well trusted mechanic' - bit good luck with rejecting the car.

If it were me that had sold it to you I would be having nothing to do with it now and recommend you get your mechanic to carry on - at your expense of course.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong - but I predict that this will not end well, and you will be blaming the seller - rather then you not following the correct order of doing things.

mrsvanderkamp_2

Iceweasel wrote: »

I have no problem in believing your 'well trusted mechanic' - bit good luck with rejecting the car.

If it were me that had sold it to you I would be having nothing to do with it now and recommend you get your mechanic to carry on - at your expense of course.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong - but I predict that this will not end well, and you will be blaming the seller - rather then you not following the correct order of doing things.

My mechanic has done no work on the car other than to diagnose it. The seller was well aware that I would be taking it to a garage ASAP to get the cambelt done, so he would have been well aware that the cars other faults would come to light..how on earth can a mechanic looking at a car CREATE faults with it? And why on earth would I want someone who is clearly a complete cowboy to go anywhere near it again? As has been pointed out to me already, you don't get a perfect car for under £1000 and I was more than happy to pay for a new coil pack without recourse to the seller, giving him the benefit of the doubt that it may have been bad luck on our part and to chalk it up, but it appears that the car's problems go way past that.

The money is not the point, its the principle, and people like this seller should not be allowed to get away with this sort of behaviour. Anyone who thinks otherwise should perhaps go and join him in cowboyland. I do not want to hear "it's a sub-grand car".. so what?? I have two outside my house now and they both run absolutely perfectly. They didn't always and I had to spend a little bit of money of them.....I expected to and was happy to but it was nowhere near the level of work that this car requires.....This seller quite clearly knew the car had major issues and chose to sell it to a perfectly unsuspecting customer anyway.

Simply dishonest and deceitful.

BeenThroughItAll

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

My mechanic has done no work on the car other than to diagnose it. The seller was well aware that I would be taking it to a garage ASAP to get the cambelt done, so he would have been well aware that the cars other faults would come to light..how on earth can a mechanic looking at a car CREATE faults with it? And why on earth would I want someone who is clearly a complete cowboy to go anywhere near it again? As has been pointed out to me already, you don't get a perfect car for under £1000 and I was more than happy to pay for a new coil pack without recourse to the seller, giving him the benefit of the doubt that it may have been bad luck on our part and to chalk it up, but it appears that the car's problems go way past that.

The money is not the point, its the principle, and people like this seller should not be allowed to get away with this sort of behaviour. Anyone who thinks otherwise should perhaps go and join him in cowboyland. I do not want to hear "it's a sub-grand car".. so what?? I have two outside my house now and they both run absolutely perfectly. They didn't always and I had to spend a little bit of money of them.....I expected to and was happy to but it was nowhere near the level of work that this car requires.....This seller quite clearly knew the car had major issues and chose to sell it to a perfectly unsuspecting customer anyway.

Simply dishonest and deceitful.

How on earth do you come to that conclusion? What proof do you have the seller knew anything about a problem?

mrsvanderkamp_2

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

How on earth do you come to that conclusion? What proof do you have the seller knew anything about a problem?

The car runs like cr*p... how would a seasoned car dealer not know that? Of course I don't have proof but a car doesn't develop that many issues overnight, it's going to cost more to repair than it cost to buy....to be honest I'm getting rather cheesed off with all the insinuations that this is actually somehow MY fault....all I did was buy a car in good faith and in return all I asked was that it was as described and fit for purpose....it appears to be neither. I will of course give the seller the opportunity to defend himself (if and when I can get through to him, he doesn't appear to be picking up....), but I restate my point that I have little confidence in someone who could sell a car in such a state, to have either the knowledge or the integrity to repair it to a satisfactory standard...

BeenThroughItAll

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

The car runs like cr*p... how would a seasoned car dealer not know that? Of course I don't have proof but a car doesn't develop that many issues overnight, it's going to cost more to repair than it cost to buy....to be honest I'm getting rather cheesed off with all the insinuations that this is actually somehow MY fault....all I did was buy a car in good faith and in return all I asked was that it was as described and fit for purpose....it appears to be neither. I will of course give the seller the opportunity to defend himself (if and when I can get through to him, he doesn't appear to be picking up....), but I restate my point that I have little confidence in someone who could sell a car in such a state, to have either the knowledge or the integrity to repair it to a satisfactory standard...

Now.


Did it when you BOUGHT it? No? So you cannot prove the selling dealer knew anything about the fault.


Used car dealer != experienced mechanic.


Since you've consistently refused to take the advice offered here, which has been, consistently, to contact the supplying dealer FIRST, I have no empathy with your condemnation of said dealer.


How do you know they wouldn't have said "Oh, sorry, I'll fix that immediately"?


If I were that dealer, I'd now use the fact that you've gone off and got someone else to tout for the work against you as far as possible, just out of spite.

mrsvanderkamp_2

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

If I were that dealer, I'd now use the fact that you've gone off and got someone else to tout for the work against you as far as possible, just out of spite.

Well I guess that is why second hand car salesmen have the reputation that they do. I have not "consistently failed to take the advice offered here"... The seller is not responding to my attempts to contact him.

I am not getting someone else to "tout" for the work, I simply want to know what is wrong with the car that I bought. What am I supposed to do? Allow my son to drive around in a potentially dangerous car whilst I wait (quite possibly in vain) for the seller to get back to me? NO-ONE is doing any work to the car at the current time. At the risk of repeating myself, when and if the seller returns my calls, I intend to ask him very nicely why he thinks the car I bought from him developed a fault less than 24 hours after buying it and what (if anything) he feels he can do to remedy the situation. I don't think that this is any way unreasonable... if he looks at the car and disagrees with the diagnosis offered thus far, that is clearly his right, but if he offers no other remedy then I would look at rejecting the car. I'm not sure that in view of the fact that the seller is not responding to me, what other course of action I actually have here at the moment.

BeenThroughItAll

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

Well I guess that is why second hand car salesmen have the reputation that they do. I have not "consistently failed to take the advice offered here"... The seller is not responding to my attempts to contact him.

As of two days ago, you had said:

may mean that I need to contact the seller

indicating that you had not tried to.


You've only decided he's not responding to attempts to contact him in the last hour and a half.


You could have started trying to get in touch the day the fault appeared and then asked 'very nicely' if the seller would help out. That was the advice. You DID fail to take it.

s_b

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

So it appears I was right to be worried. Car has gone into garage this morning for once over.....it's misfiring and requires new coil pack and plugs but the bigger issue is what has caused that which is apparently low compression in cylinder 2...I might have the cause and effect the wrong way round there as I'm no mechanic and I'm trying to remember what he told me. However, he's very well trusted and doesn't make a song and dance but recommends rejecting the car.

the only sure way to confirm low compression is a removal of a plug and if this has been done then you clearly ignored my advice

car would not pass an mot if low compression on a cylinder

Iceweasel

mrsvanderkamp wrote: »

The car runs like cr*p..

to be honest I'm getting rather cheesed off with all the insinuations that this is actually somehow MY fault....

For goodness sake - no-one here is insinuating that what is wrong with the car is your fault.

What is not correct is the manner in which you are going about getting it fixed.

You came here for advice and several of us have said exactly the same thing .... but NO ... you gaily carry on your merry way ignoring that advice.

Why are we bothering you may ask ... the answer of course is that we actually want to help you.

However you are refusing to take advice ... you will be blaming us next - because we are not telling you want you want to hear.