Bought secondhand car from independent AA dealership.Very unhappy-advice needed (UK)

Dreamatorium

Hey guys,
I was hoping for a bit of advice as to what my rights as someone who has purchased a second hand car from a dealership. I’ll detail the situation below, but its worth noting that I fully intend to reach out to the Garage, but I wanted to know my positions/rights/actions available to me before I did.
I purchased a 07 Mazda 6 on the 1st of March.
I paid £1600 for the car, with a part-exchange with my horrible old car. Part of verbally agreed deal was a fresh MOT and a spare wheel as I didn’t like the look of the tires on the car.
6 weeks later I had to perform an emergency break due to the actions of an idiot. This meant I needed to take my car to a garage (that I trust) and had the front breaks (disc and pad) replaced along with the callipers. This cost £661
Now this week while driving through London I clipped a very sharp curb and my tire burst. I didn’t have the tools to take my wheel of and switch with the spare wheel with me so I called the AA. Who after struggling for an hour informed me the spare wheel id been given wasn’t right for my car - and couldn’t be put on. I then had to wait 4-5 hours for an emergency tire call out to deliver and fit a new tire at the cost of £150.
Can I claim any of this money back? If so how? I honestly feel like I shouldn’t have had any of these problems if the garage had done its job right. I don’t have the time/money/know how to take legal action - So i thought id speak to you guys for advice.
Thanks a lot everyone!

forgotmyname

Unlikely. Get a proper spare and move on.

arcon5

No
Dealers are entitled to the opportunity to remedy issues.
Even so it wasn't their fault you crashed in to a curb bursting a tyre. Take the wheel back and have them sort the correct one out.

Why did you have to replace calipers.....

konark

Performing an emergency stop should not wreck your brake discs, pads and calipers.

System

Dreamatorium wrote: »

6 weeks later I had to perform an emergency break due to the actions of an idiot. This meant I needed to take my car to a garage (that I trust) and had the front breaks (disc and pad) replaced along with the callipers. This cost £661

The garage that you trust robbed you blind for a repair you didn't need doing. Doing emergency stops does not require any work to be done to the brakes. If it did then driving school cars would need their brakes doing several times a day as well as every annual MOT when the brakes are worked just as hard during the MOT brake test. Brakes are designed to be able to stop the car from extremely fast speeds at a rapid rate. You are literally the first person I have ever come across in four decades of being on this earth who has taken their car to a garage because they had to use their brakes for the purpose they're intended for.

tacpot12

Next time, if you don't like the look of the tyres on the car, factor that into the price you offer and buy four new tyres yourself when you take delivery. One good spare doesn't equal four good tyres on the road.

I appreciate why you are upset - having to wait five hours to get moving again is a great inconvenience - but the garage may just have made a mistake with identifying the wheel or been supplied with the wrong wheel by a scrapyard. If you go back to them aggressively, you are less likely to have them listen to your story with an open mind.

khcomp

You have a couple of issues here: Firstly, as has been said, there's no relationship between doing an emergency stop and having pads, discs & calipers replaced - I have a particular issue with the current habit of replacing discs as a matter of course; whereas the pads are a wearing item, the discs should only need replacement if they are badly worn due to running the car with knackered brake pads, or if they are cracked, warped or corroded. Likewise, any issue with the calipers (and both being replaced is somewhat suspicious) should have been evident when the car was MOT tested.
As this work was done just six weeks after you bought the car, you should have contacted the selling dealer PRIOR to having this work carried out - they would have most likely refused to pay for pads & discs, as they are a 'wearing' item, but may have sorted the calipers, if necessary. Either way, £660 is obscene for this amount of work. Trustworthy or not, your garage is too expensive. Find a decent, local, independent garage and use them.
I've recently had a brake overhaul on my Mitsubishi Shogun - pads all round, two new front discs, one rear caliper & new handbrake shoes. Total cost £300.
As for the spare, I'm afraid it's down to you: firstly, it's three months since you bought this ten year old car. Secondly, it's your fault that you kerbed the wheel. Thirdly, the garage may well have provided you with the spare wheel in good faith, and would be unlikely to actually physically fit it to the car to see if it was the correct one - they probably bought a used spare in and were supplied the wrong one; sloppy, but it does happen. And finally, I can't understand what you mean by wanting a spare as you 'didn't like the look of the tyres on the car' - if the garage was selling a car with defective tyres, I'd insist on decent tyres on the road, not in the boot!

AdrianC

khcomp wrote: »

I have a particular issue with the current habit of replacing discs as a matter of course; whereas the pads are a wearing item, the discs should only need replacement if they are badly worn due to running the car with knackered brake pads, or if they are cracked, warped or corroded.

Discs certainly DO wear out through normal use, much more rapidly than they used to back in the days of asbestos pads. If they last three sets of pads, that's a fair life. Manufacturers publish minimum permitted thicknesses.

khcomp

AdrianC wrote: »

Discs certainly DO wear out through normal use, much more rapidly than they used to back in the days of asbestos pads. If they last three sets of pads, that's a fair life. Manufacturers publish minimum permitted thicknesses.

Manufacturers have always quoted minimum thicknesses (they used to be stamped on the discs), but show me a garage that actually gets out a set of calipers and measures them rather than just looks at them and decides that their days are numbered - my mechanic has just skimmed the discs on my dad's 16 year old Honda when fitting new pads.
Pad material does have a bearing, but the frequency of disc replacement is more likely down to the car previously having poor quality discs and / or pads fitted, or due to poor maintenance or bad driving habits: Unless the pads are harder than the discs, and the brakes haven't been subject to extreme heat or used with worn out pads, the discs shouldn't wear out.
My 2005 Shogun has just had it's first front discs after 12 years and 150,000 miles, with a lot of towing. The webbing of the vented discs had corroded, the disc surfaces were still good...

AdrianC

Looking and deciding is a perfectly appropriate way to decide, given that you're deciding if the discs have more life remaining in them than the set of pads you're putting in. Are they badly lipped? Yes? Replace. Given the cost in parts and labour, it's a false economy not to. Front discs for your Shogun are less than £20 each from a reputable specialist, or just over £60 for a complete pad, discs and sliding pin set. Skimming is a false economy, apart from reducing the remaining life of the disc even further.

parking_question_chap

Firstly they are brakes, not breaks.

The BRAKES, could have been checked by you before buying the car, they need to get pretty bad before they fail an MOT.

Not their fault you clipped a kerb, you could probably get a correct spare wheel out of them, but I dont think you are owned any more than that.