Bought a car from a dealer that is just stalling HELP with legal rights.

jk2k2

Hi,
New to this forum.

I bought a car from a dealership on 13 June 2017 on my own arranged finance, for some reason the car recently was just stalling and in 5th gear there was a whining . i rang the dealership who took the car in for repair on the 12th July and had the car ever since. i had a phone call yesterday from the dealership who advised me that the car is ready to be picked up as i was not able to get up there in working hours i arranged for him to leave the window open a little bit and drop the key in as i have a spare one. When me and my dad got up there i started the car and again just stalled after 2 minutes so i left the car there until the next day (today) and spoke to the dealership this morning and i explained that the problem is still there and i was not happy so they took another look at it. an hour later i had a call to say that the car is fine ready to be picked up and it was down to low fuel in the car and they put £10 in the car to raise the level (which i had to pay for over the phone) and everything was fine and running, I expressed on the phone that i was pretty sure that it is not down to the low fuel as i put £30 diesel in the morning it went to the dealership ( i have bank statement to confirm this and also i took pictures of the dash to prove this). i went to pick the car back up today and would you believe it stalls straight away, i phoned the dealership to let them no and they said it only happens to me and it never happened to any of the other staff members. he said that its down to me for letting the fuel level go to low and i need to keep at least half a tank of diesel in the car for it to run properly :eek::eek: i don't think so as the car never runs low on diesel!

They said that they will change all the filters and hopefully that will sort the problem out but it was my fault for the low fuel (but it is not) and let me know tomorrow when its ready.

so, just need a little advice where i stand and what rights i have. the car is unreliable it's on finance but the finance was arranged by myself.
any advice would be so appreciated, i have been up there 3 times now but the dealership is 20 miles away so i had to get 3 trains there and 3 trains back!

Thank You Guys :T:T

Fosterdog

The bit about keeping half a tank of fuel is frankly ridiculous. However if it really is only happening to you then it could be something you are doing, especially if it is a new car and you are still getting used to it.

It would be worth speaking to the dealership and trying to get someone from there to come on a test drive with you, you drive first to see if it still happens and then get them to drive to see if it happens when they drive.

Your next course of action if they are saying there is no fault will be to take it to a reputable independent garage and see if they can find anything wrong.

jk2k2

sorry what i didn't say was that when i picked it up today from where they parked it up i started the car and it happened again rang them i said i will bring it down to show you. took it down the road back to them and it did happen there and then with the salesman\manager to witness it, that's when he said they would change the filters. The problem happens when stationary not while driving.

Fosterdog

Ok same thing, get them to show it starting up smoothly.

OH is a driver for a living, driving multiple vehicles mostly HGVs but a full range of a fleet of cars and vans too, he is a good driver and can get in almost any car and drive it smoothly. He drives his brothers new car once a week when they go to a visit family together and almost every time he drives it he stalls when first driving off, he has said the clutch is just so different to the cars he's used to driving with a very high bite. He's now not so bad in first but when he reverses out of the space he parks in he stalls most times. His brother has had the car since April so at once a week OH has driven it maybe ten times. His brother stalled a lot the first couple of weeks he had it and had it checked over by both the dealership and our local garage and they found no fault. He can drive it fine now he is used to it. OH has been driving for 27 years and his brother for 31 and both have driven professionally so getting used to a new car can be difficult for anyone.

jk2k2

Fosterdog wrote: »

Ok same thing, get them to show it starting up smoothly.

OH is a driver for a living, driving multiple vehicles mostly HGVs but a full range of a fleet of cars and vans too, he is a good driver and can get in almost any car and drive it smoothly. He drives his brothers new car once a week when they go to a visit family together and almost every time he drives it he stalls when first driving off, he has said the clutch is just so different to the cars he's used to driving with a very high bite. He's now not so bad in first but when he reverses out of the space he parks in he stalls most times. His brother has had the car since April so at once a week OH has driven it maybe ten times. His brother stalled a lot the first couple of weeks he had it and had it checked over by both the dealership and our local garage and they found no fault. He can drive it fine now he is used to it. OH has been driving for 27 years and his brother for 31 and both have driven professionally so getting used to a new car can be difficult for anyone.

Thanks for the advice and giving me an example of what it could be. i totally understand that every car is different but its only when i just start the engine up with the engine running idle it just stalls without even taking the handbrake off and car is in neutral. do that make a difference i say stalled meaning it just's cuts out when not driving.

Haylescom

Hope I'm not stating the obvious but it's not start/stop is it?

Haylescom

Sorry just saw you said it happebed in neutral.

agrinnall

Haylescom wrote: »

Hope I'm not stating the obvious but it's not start/stop is it?

Haylescom wrote: »

Sorry just saw you said it happebed in neutral.

Neutral is when stop/start works, and to be honest it does sound a bit like it could be that. It might help to know what car it is, to see if stop/start is an option on it.

DoaM

But start/stop doesn't activate straight after you've started the car ... it's only after driving, coming to a stop, engaging neutral and taking your foot off the clutch that it activates.

I'm assuming from post #5 that the OP hadn't even started driving off ... the engine simply stalled. In such a situation it's usually fuel starvation - which could be filters, or could be an ECU problem not giving enough "choke" (i.e. the fuel injection equivalent) when the engine is cold. (Sometimes also this effect can happen when trying to restart a hot engine).

firefox1956

Go to a different garage,
To suggest a low level of fuel in the tank is the cause of a problem shows that they are not really fit for diagnosing the fault.
If you post up some better details of the car, make / model / year / mileage / etc you may get some more appropriate help on here............

jk2k2

firefox1956 wrote: »

Go to a different garage,
To suggest a low level of fuel in the tank is the cause of a problem shows that they are not really fit for diagnosing the fault.
If you post up some better details of the car, make / model / year / mileage / etc you may get some more appropriate help on here............

Hi Everyone,
Thank you so much for all your reply's, the car is a Vauxhall Zafira 1.5 CE11 plate on 93k miles and is a diesel.

DoaM -

Funny that you mention the clutch, when the sales man seen it dye for him self in idle he jumped in and restarted the car pressing down and keep his foot on the clutch and brakes. he stayed like that for a minute and said " it;s fine", i then said to get out of the car and release the pedals. he did the car stalled. i find it suspicious