Car Finance and Dead Car

Marstobarn

Hello there

I wondered if anyone could steer me in the right direction as Im in a little bit of a dilenma with my car.

My used car which is 23 months into Finance has suddenly decided to die after the engine failed whilst driving down the motorway. I had the car taken to a local Garage, who has been brilliant and stated that basically the timing had gone over time and this had led to the engine failure. Pretty much they said, its unfortunately just one of those things


They really really have been great and whilst i nearly cried at the £1900 repair bill, suprisingly when i told them I had warranty with the dealership i purchased it from, they were cool about it and didnt even charge me for the diagnosis or inspection.

The car has gone back to the dealer and as expected they are trying to wiggle out of it.....(warranty is up next month weirdly)

From conversations tonight they are going to find any excuse to invalidate it, but have put me in a position where they have told me i need to pay £75 for an intial diagnosis( i was informed of this after the car had been sent to them) in addition tonight they want me to pay at least £250 pound for a "indepth diagnosis" to decide if it is in warranty or not ( they need the independant mechanic chosen by the warranty company and i get the feeling they will say it wont be covered). The other option if i want it repaired is I go elsewhere and pay less than potentiall the dealer repair price

. Im sure the warranty I have should cover it, but well.......

My fear is the dealership is going to milk me like a cow, and get out the warranty and then charge me through the roof for "inspections + labour". I didnt exactly think highly of them over the last 23 months and less tonight when they softenened their tone twards me about the warranty when I stated i wanted to speak to the finance people first as technically they own the car and should be the ones to authorise any work to be done if they didnt think the warranty would cover it..................which then led to..buttering me up, telling me how they were on my side and would overemphasie things to push it through on warranty if needed despite basically trying to blame me for oil in the engine by for overfilling the oil (it was done on service by them) leaving the oil cap off (yes because the other garage had checked the oil after it broke down) and then asking if it stated it need an oil change ........but they still wanted the 250 quid to more diagnosis:)

My plan tommorow was to speak to the finance company and discuss it with them and possibly see if I can come to some mutual settlement ( Voluntary termination) and return the car and clear some of the debt. Ill be asking the dealership for a summary of work and basic quote based on IF they decide its not warranty covered and ask the finance company about my concerns with the warranty

Basically otherwise I could be paying 1900 upwards plus the rest of finance for another 30 months or The initial debt was about 10 grand in total and ive paid around 4 already with no issues regarding non payment etc. Its the first car Ive ever (and last) had on finance...........The car is a 10 plate, so its not new at all and I would expect that if the dealership quotes parts etc, they may even right it off on warranty........who knows

I just wondered if anyone had ever had a similar situation -

TadleyBaggie

Assuming you mean the timing belt has broken, causing engine damage.

What was the age/mileage of the vehicle and what was the manufacturers recommended interval for the timing belt?

Marstobarn

Hi its a timing chain, mileage about 54000, and interval is something like 72000 miles

force_ten

what make car is it and what is actually wrong with it, has it snapped the chain or stretched the chain has the chain skipped a tooth ?

gardner1

so you bought it in feb 2015 when it was 5 yrs old....had it been serviced every year by either franchised or independent garage using genuine parts

jimjames

Marstobarn wrote: »

I had the car taken to a local Garage, who has been brilliant and stated that basically the timing had gone over time and this had led to the engine failure. Pretty much they said, its unfortunately just one of those things

Not sure if you really mean this - are you saying the timing belt/chain change service had gone over the required time and was overdue? Or something else?

EdGasket

Probably a Vauxhall; known for needing timing chain replacements regularly; might as well have stuck to timing belts!

daydotz

Vw also suffer timing chain isdues

force_ten

daydotz wrote: »

Vw also suffer timing chain isdues

as do some BMW,s

Marstobarn

Just a change to this.

The repair apparently dosnt come under the warranty as they have determined that now the timing was fine and the initial issue seems to be linked to the DPF, which has gone faulty and led to the engine failing. Apparently it was running on oil rather than fuel? The DPF surprise surprise is not covered under warranty and as that apparently led to the engine eventually failing its not covered.....

The repair for a new engine is about 9k and 4k for recondition.......which is probably more than the car value.

Ive pretty much handed it to the car finance place to sort out as frankly its just bullsh1t................

The car has been regulary serviced by the dealership (3 times since jan 2015) and the last oil filter was done by the dealer.

Im not 100% sure what m gonna do as I wont be paying 4k to have an engine........................urgh. As i said hopefully Ill get somewhere via the car finance company..........im just a bit stunned

System

DPFs can't cause an engine failure. They don't run on oil, they don't run on fuel. If it has got oil in it its because the oil came from the engine throwing it out the exhaust, there is no other possible way that it could get in there. The engine threw the oil out because it was knackered. The DPF has been killed by the engine dying, not the other way around.

Paying a motor engineer (not a mechanic) for a report, finding a good solicitor to send a "fix this under the warranty you paid for and stop trying to fob my client off with bull manure" letter would be a good course of action.