Duff used car bought on finance

CK1223

Hi guys, just wondering whether anyone had been through anything similar to this as I don't know what the next step is

Bought a used car May 2015 which turned out to be a lemon. So far cost me £2000 in repairs and I've only driven 1200 miles in the thing since I got it. Car has been a non-runner in the garage for the last 4 months and have been given the news it's going to need a recon engine to fix it (around £4k cost).

I put in a complaint to my finance company and they've got back to me agreeing that the car is clearly faulty due to the low miles I've done in it since purchase, and have agreed to reimburse me for some of the repairs. They said they'd have to look at "something other than reimbursement" if the car needed a new engine as it's not viable for them to spend that much fixing a used car.

Now it does look like the car needs a new engine and I can't get hold of the guy at the finance company. Does anyone know what is likely to be my next option after repair? Can they just refuse to do anything about it now that it looks like they can't just sling me a couple of hundred quid for repairs?

foxy-stoat

Keep on at the finance company, its their car afterall. Send them the invoice for the work spent on it and push them for full reimbursement, if the costs are justified.

At best they should pay for a good well serviced secondhand engine, doubt you will get a brand new one.

burlington6

You would be better posting on the motors board

poppasmurf_bewdley

£4k for a reconditioned engine :eek::eek::eek:

What car is it?

A secondhand engine for many run of the mill cars can be bought from scrapyards for much less than £1k fitted.

CK1223

It's a Fiat 500 1.3 diesel. They didn't make them for long, so the parts are incredibly hard to get hold of and really, really expensive :-(
(although, conveniently, parts for a Fiat Punto or Panda are half the price as the ones for my car)

I can get a used engine from a scrappy for £1000 not inc fitting, but my finance company won't allow me to put a used engine in the car and instead insist that it be a reconditioned engine, which they've said is not viable for them to pay out for because the interest they make on the whole finance agreement is only £900. The other option was to buy a new cylinder head, cams and rocker cover for the car (instead of engine) but the mechanic has said that the rocker cover and cylinder head have to be bought together as a set (he did explain why but it went completely over my head) and that the only place I can get this set is from Fiat themselves. Fiat charge £2782 for the cylinder head alone so don't think the finance company are gonna go for that either.

Unfortunately for me this is actually my first car. I do know a whole heap about injectors, engines, brakes, clutches and mcpherson struts now though so it's prepped me for later in life

poppasmurf_bewdley

CK1223 wrote: »

It's a Fiat 500 1.3 diesel. They didn't make them for long, so the parts are incredibly hard to get hold of and really, really expensive :-(
(although, conveniently, parts for a Fiat Punto or Panda are half the price as the ones for my car)

I can get a used engine from a scrappy for £1000 not inc fitting, but my finance company won't allow me to put a used engine in the car and instead insist that it be a reconditioned engine, which they've said is not viable for them to pay out for because the interest they make on the whole finance agreement is only £900. The other option was to buy a new cylinder head, cams and rocker cover for the car (instead of engine) but the mechanic has said that the rocker cover and cylinder head have to be bought together as a set (he did explain why but it went completely over my head) and that the only place I can get this set is from Fiat themselves. Fiat charge £2782 for the cylinder head alone so don't think the finance company are gonna go for that either.

Unfortunately for me this is actually my first car. I do know a whole heap about injectors, engines, brakes, clutches and mcpherson struts now though so it's prepped me for later in life

I hope anybody thinking of buying a Fiat reads this first.

£2782 for a cylinder head is gross overcharging.

Don't Fiat own Ferrari? Maybe the Fiat 500 has a Ferrari cylinder head.

Personally, I'd be handing the car back to the finance company (is it Fiat Finance by any chance?) and demanding back any money I had so far paid. And threatening them with the court if they don't agree.

Brooker_Dave

CK1223 wrote: »

It's a Fiat 500 1.3 diesel. They didn't make them for long, so the parts are incredibly hard to get hold of and really, really expensive :-(

1.3 diesel engine as fitted to Corsas, Combos, Suzukis and loads of Fiats.

Parts are really easy to get hold of, but it's an engine that needs regular oil changes otherwise the chains go.

CK1223

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

I hope anybody thinking of buying a Fiat reads this first.

£2782 for a cylinder head is gross overcharging.

Tell me about it, they wanted £700 for new brake discs, pads and drums!

Unfortunately it seems like the woman who had the car before me didn't take good care of it (I actually think she might have parked it in the sea) so I can't comment as to oil changes. I did take it in for a service 3 months (350 miles) after I bought it and was told that the car would in no way pass an MOT in its state, and that they couldn't complete the road test part of the service as the car wasn't legal to be on the road. Turns out I had a bad brake fluid leak in both drums, one of the drums was missing a shoe and had ground a big groove around the inside of the drum. Ended up taking a mechanic 7 hours to get the brake lines off.
Serves me right for buying from a backstreet garage. Alarm bells should have been ringing when the matey greeted me with "Hi, I'm Del" :rotfl:

CK1223

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

1.3 diesel engine as fitted to Corsas, Combos, Suzukis and loads of Fiats.

Parts are really easy to get hold of, but it's an engine that needs regular oil changes otherwise the chains go.

As far as I can tell the chains are fine (well I haven't been told otherwise... yet). It's a bit of a fiasco because it's actually just the injectors that's the issue. I've forked out £400 for recon injectors for it which now can't be fitted

Brooker_Dave

CK1223 wrote: »

As far as I can tell the chains are fine (well I haven't been told otherwise... yet). It's a bit of a fiasco because it's actually just the injectors that's the issue. I've forked out £400 for recon injectors for it which now can't be fitted

Because the injectors are stuck?

CK1223

Unfortunately yes, quick Google search shows it's a common problem on the 2008 Fiat 500 diesel. I've rung around a few other garages in my area but they've all said they won't even look at it if the guy who has it at the moment can't get them out because he's a Delphi trained technician so he's the best person for the job. He managed to get 3 out pretty quickly but there's one that's being pretty stubborn