Problems with Vauxhall garage repairs

Babiesmummy_2

I am posting on here on behalf of my mum, who has now been without her car since being booked into a Vauxhall franchise on 4th Sept.
Her problems started at the end of August when travelling on the motorway a warning light came on, to which she pulled over and got the car towed to her local garage (who she has used for many years) they diagnosed an issue with the engine and it needed replacing. She contacted Vauxhall who advised her that she must take her car to a Vauxhall garage for them to diagnose the problem and to see if they would be able to assist with any repair costs.
The car was booked in & towed to the garage (13miles away). It took a week for them to come back and advise the seal had gone on the oil pump and not an engine fault at a cost of £965. My mum asked them how certain they were and was specifically told 99.9% sure this was the fault. My mum advised them to go ahead with the work on the understanding that was the fault and a new engine was not required. After yet another week, she was then told they had found metal filings in the engine and it required a new engine.
My mum is now in a position where the dealer still has her car and are chasing her for £965 even though they have mis-diagnosed the issue and it is still not in a driveable state.
Vauxhall head office have washed their hands of it saying as it was second hand vehicle and not covered under their warranty. So there was no point in taking it to a Vauxhall dealership in the first place.
My question is who is liable to pay for the work carried out on the car, as they mis-lead my Mum. They have now lied to say the engineer advised it was 70/30 that this was the problem and they were going to listen to the call (over a week ago) and we are still waiting for their response.

My Mum is self employed and hasnt been able to travel into the office and has been relying on working from home since the end of August. She has no other car to use and has been relying on a neighbour to get her food shopping.

Any advice is welcome.

TIA

Kelly

caprikid1

Age and Mileage of car ?

Babiesmummy_2

caprikid1 wrote: »

Age and Mileage of car ?

Its a Vauxhall Insignia
Registered March 2011
Purchased from Motorpoint Feb 2012
Purchase Mileage 11k
Current Mileage 79k

BeenThroughItAll

Babiesmummy wrote: »

Its a Vauxhall Insignia
Registered March 2011
Purchased from Motorpoint Feb 2012
Purchase Mileage 11k
Current Mileage 79k

Regularly serviced over that ~70K miles in ownership?

Babiesmummy_2

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Regularly serviced over that ~70K miles in ownership?

Yep, fully serviced

tacpot12

Given that her local, trusted, garage had already determined that a new engine was required, your mum was presumably expecting to pay for a new engine. Or for Vauxhall to make a contribution towards a new engine, but that was never going to happen because the car has 80K miles on it and it is six years old, and your mum had owned it for five years.

I think you mum needs to negotiate with the garage for a price for a new engine. She should be able to get the garage to waive most of the £965 for the work already done because the garage said it was 99.9% certain (or 70% certain) it was the oil pump. This is a very high degree of certainty, and effectively they were saying that the car could be fully repaired for £965, but they didn't say 100% and so your mum knew there was a chance that £965 wouldn't fix it. (I think they should waive labour charges, and just charge you mum for parts and materials used).

I think she should get quotes for a new engine from other garages, otherwise the dealer will just add £965 to the 'cost' of the new engine.

Babiesmummy_2

tacpot12 wrote: »

Given that her local, trusted, garage had already determined that a new engine was required, your mum was presumably expecting to pay for a new engine. Or for Vauxhall to make a contribution towards a new engine, but that was never going to happen because the car has 80K miles on it and it is six years old, and your mum had owned it for five years.

I think you mum needs to negotiate with the garage for a price for a new engine. She should be able to get the garage to waive most of the £965 for the work already done because the garage said it was 99.9% certain it was the oil pump. This is a very high degree of certainty, and effectively they were saying that the car could be fully repaired for £965, but they didn't say 100% and your mum knew there was a chance that £965 wouldn't fix it. (I think they should waive labour charges, and just charge you mum for parts and materials used).

I think she should get quotes for a new engine from other garages, otherwise the dealer will just add £965 to the 'cost' of the new engine.

Thanks for your reply. My Mum was given the impression by Vauxhall, dependant on what the fault was, the car may be under some sort of warranty and would contribute to the cost. Yes, she was naive to think this and should have done her research into Vauxhalls warranty before taking the car to Vauxhall.

TBH she now just wants to get rid of the car, so I think its just damage limitation.

lopsyfa

tacpot12 wrote: »

Given that her local, trusted, garage had already determined that a new engine was required, your mum was presumably expecting to pay for a new engine. Or for Vauxhall to make a contribution towards a new engine, but that was never going to happen because the car has 80K miles on it and it is six years old, and your mum had owned it for five years.

I think you mum needs to negotiate with the garage for a price for a new engine. She should be able to get the garage to waive most of the £965 for the work already done because the garage said it was 99.9% certain (or 70% certain) it was the oil pump. This is a very high degree of certainty, and effectively they were saying that the car could be fully repaired for £965, but they didn't say 100% and so your mum knew there was a chance that £965 wouldn't fix it. (I think they should waive labour charges, and just charge you mum for parts and materials used).

I think she should get quotes for a new engine from other garages, otherwise the dealer will just add £965 to the 'cost' of the new engine.

Given that a garage has already correctly diagnosed the engine issue before the main dealer garage mis-diagnosed the issue despite knowing the initial diagnosis, I think the garage should not be entitled to collect the money for the unnecessary repair. This need to be pointed out to them. You mum will however need to most likely pay for new engine except she can convince the manufacturer to contribute.

System

Unfortunately this is one of those faults where you cannot know what secondary damage has been caused until the engine has been dismantled. No doubt your mother neglected to say how long she drove with that light on. It would only be during dismantling of the engine and subsequent inspection that any damage caused by the oil pump failure would come to light.

The trusted garage said it needed a new engine because usually when an oil pump fails it does tend to cause serious damage but they were not basing that comment on any actual diagnosis so the OP's post could quite have easily as been about a local garage changing an engine when all that needed to be done was an oil pump.

The working from home and having a neighbour having to do the shopping is neither here nor there. She is capable of mitigating the impact by hiring a car, using public transport or even buying a cheap car to run around in for the short term so not going into the office since August and relying on others to do her shopping is a choice she has chosen to make.

Babiesmummy_2

Tarambor wrote: »

Unfortunately this is one of those faults where you cannot know what secondary damage has been caused until the engine has been dismantled. No doubt your mother neglected to say how long she drove with that light on. It would only be during dismantling of the engine and subsequent inspection that any damage caused by the oil pump failure would come to light.

The trusted garage said it needed a new engine because usually when an oil pump fails it does tend to cause serious damage but they were not basing that comment on any actual diagnosis so the OP's post could quite have easily as been about a local garage changing an engine when all that needed to be done was an oil pump.

The working from home and having a neighbour having to do the shopping is neither here nor there. She is capable of mitigating the impact by hiring a car, using public transport or even buying a cheap car to run around in for the short term so not going into the office since August and relying on others to do her shopping is a choice she has chosen to make.

When the warning light came on she was in road works, so carried on for no more than a few minutes at 30mph until she was able to pull in safely & the car hasnt been driven since.
The point about working from home etc was just to point out that this has been ongoing now for over a month & needs sorting asap and tbh Vauxhall / Pentagon have no idea about my mothers personal circumstances.

LandyAndy

How does the price of a new engine compare with the price of another 6 year old Insignia? Maybe they would keep the car in return for waiving the £965 bill?