2nd Hand Car - Dealer replacing cambelt but no invoice?

Alias_Omega

Hi all,

Quite a rare thing for Mr AO to be buying an old car. A 2011 DCI Clio which is overdue a a cambelt on age. Dealer will contribute towards the cost. Dealer will have car service book stamped but cannot give us the garage invoice.

Is this good enough
How would you handle this?

I have a slight fear they could just stamp it and save costs.

Would it be unreasonable to ask for the old parts to be put in the boot?

wgl2014

Ask for a duplicate invoice or written confirmation of the cambelt change from the garage as a condition of sale. If dealer refuses or you don't trust them find a different car.

shaun_from_Africa

Alias_Omega wrote: »

Dealer will contribute towards the cost. Dealer will have car service book stamped but cannot give us the garage invoice.

As you say that the dealer will be contributing towards the cost then I'm assuming that you are also paying something towards the cam belt change.
If the dealer was covering the whole cost then I could understand them not providing an invoice but if you are paying something towards it then your payment must be recorded somewhere so I would want some sort of receipt stating what the money was paid for.

Alias_Omega

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

As you say that the dealer will be contributing towards the cost then I'm assuming that you are also paying something towards the cam belt change.
If the dealer was covering the whole cost then I could understand them not providing an invoice but if you are paying something towards it then your payment must be recorded somewhere so I would want some sort of receipt stating what the money was paid for.

It's on the sales invoice. If you were buying the car from me in the future, would you accept this as proof and a stamp in service book?

In the past each service has an individual invoice from garage.

Robisere

I smell a deal between the Dealer (no pun intended) and the garage carrying out the work. I must have posted my history here a few times now, but just to repeat: I retired as a workshop foreman and manager for many years. This sounds like something I know was done, not ever by my garage:
The customer buying an older car, with not much 'leeway' on the sale price, asks certain work to be carried out. The dealer refers the job to a source he will call 'the garage', which may be some back street cowboy who often works with used parts and is unable to supply an invoice for obvious reasons. Not saying that is true in this case, just saying - it happens.
How will you know that a new cambelt has been fitted? How will you know that this work has been carried out correctly? Without a detailed invoice, you will not. There is no written record of the work having been done. Refuse to buy unless you have an invoice on headed paper. There should be 3 copies: one for you, one for the Dealer and the original for the workshop which carried out the work.
That is the way my former workshop carried out work for another business to sell on. We worked for several other outlets in that way and there were just two occasions when there were problems: both solved by producing our relevant invoices.

AdrianC

Robisere wrote: »

How will you know that a new cambelt has been fitted? How will you know that this work has been carried out correctly? Without a detailed invoice, you will not. There is no written record of the work having been done.

I'm not entirely convinced that a piece of paper is proof positive, either.

George_Michael

AdrianC wrote: »

I'm not entirely convinced that a piece of paper is proof positive, either.

True but at least a detailed invoice may be very useful should it turn out to be the case that the work wasn't actually done or done incorrectly and then fails not too far in the future.

EdGasket

Why not just ask for some reduction in price to part-cover the cambelt change, then you can get it done where you like and know it has been done? ..or just buy a car that doesn't need a belt change.

Biggles

Alias_Omega wrote: »

In the past each service has an individual invoice from garage.

In the past you already owned the car when you paid for the work to be done.

You won't expect to find receipts for all previous work every time you buy a secondhand car.

Alias_Omega

Thanks all, were due to collect the car soon.

The car failed its MOT on Tyres (less than 1.6mm), we will find out what type of garage they are if they fit new or part worn.

As were expecting a Service, Cambelt, we have made a list of few things we can look at. This is such as the Oil Filter, Aux Belt and Condition of the coolant. When we get it home, we can open the air filter. Unsure on the Pollen Filter, would need to find that ourselves.

I think with the MOT, Service, Cambelt it would be around £500 of repairs, and breaks down to the following -

Service - £120 (Oil, Oil Filter, Air Filter, Pollen Filter)
Cambelt - £250 (Cambelt, Tensioner, Water Pump & Aux Belt)
MOT - £100 (2x 185/50/16 Tyres and a Suspension Spring)

Sadly i know of people who "have access to a stamp" from a garage. This is where the past invoices comes in handy, even if it is for just parts with the car registration listed.

Alias_Omega

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

As you say that the dealer will be contributing towards the cost then I'm assuming that you are also paying something towards the cam belt change.
If the dealer was covering the whole cost then I could understand them not providing an invoice but if you are paying something towards it then your payment must be recorded somewhere so I would want some sort of receipt stating what the money was paid for.

It is written on the sales invoice for the car.. "with Service, Cambelt & Water Pump".

The mileage on the car is low, and our current run around if probably on 126k without a cambelt change. That is a 2003 1.2 16v Clio and deemed that the cambelt replacement cost is more than what the car is worth, and it will be scrapped/sold for £50 upon receipt of the new run-around car.

We were hoping to buy the car, then not have to service is for 18k (oil change) - £120, then 36k (oil, oil filter and aux belt) - £150. By then its knocking on 80k miles total, and its been another 3-4 years.