Car was not as advertised - Only found out when next service due

mark090360

Hi
I am looking for some advice as to whether I have a case or not, and then can anyone point me in the direction of someone who could help me resolve this issue.

I bought a nearly new car from a main dealer in Jan 17, and when I took it into my local main dealership to be serviced in October 17, they told me that the car had been remapped and that the warranty was invalid and that unless I had informed my insurance that the car was modified then my insurance was invalid, and that I was driving illegally. I obviously did not know about the remap as I thought I had bought a standard car, as per my sales agreement. It took some time to investigate the issue, resulting in the dealer that I bought the car from collecting it from the dealer that serviced it, and they had the car for a month, finally changing the ECU, and a month after that they were able to confirm that the warranty on the car was re-instated. They have accepted that they sold me a modified car, which was not picked up on their pre-sales checks.

My issue now is that they will not extend the warranty for the car. They cannot, or will not, tell me what the actual remap did to the car, but I am now left worried that there will be longer term issues with the engine or gearbox. This has been further compounded by the fact they will not even extend the warranty by the month that the car was in the dealership. I now have no confidence in the car and, to be blunt, I want rid of it.

My 2 questions are:

1. Am I justified asking the dealer to take the car back as I have now had it a year?(I anticipate that there would have to be an allowance for my usage of the car)
2. If I can ask them to take the car back, can anyone recommend a solicitor who understands the car industry and could advise me what to do?

Regards

Mark

Ganga

You have owned/driven the car for allmost one year,you must know if the car is ok.What was the original warranty period?

ssparks2003

You found a fault, they have repaired the fault, there is no longer a fault. Why do you think you can reject a non faulty vehicle?

mark090360

Because they told me that the warranty was voided due to the long-term damage that the ECU remap would do to the engine or gearbox. When they worked out that I hadn't done the remap, and they had sold it to me like that, they fixed the ECU and do not want to extend the warranty in case there is a failure of the Engine or gearbox due to the remap they left on the car. Is that fair?

Warwick_Hunt

mark090360 wrote: »

Because they told me that the warranty was voided due to the long-term damage that the ECU remap would do to the engine or gearbox. When they worked out that I hadn't done the remap, and they had sold it to me like that, they fixed the ECU and do not want to extend the warranty in case there is a failure of the Engine or gearbox due to the remap they left on the car. Is that fair?

What’s the long term damage?

NotRichAtAll

if its a diesel engine a remap generally means the dpf could have been removed too.

takman

NotRichAtAll wrote: »

if its a diesel engine a remap generally means the dpf could have been removed too.

If that was the case then a light would have come up on the dashboard once the ECU's software was restored to factory standard.

mark090360 wrote: »

Because they told me that the warranty was voided due to the long-term damage that the ECU remap would do to the engine or gearbox. When they worked out that I hadn't done the remap, and they had sold it to me like that, they fixed the ECU and do not want to extend the warranty in case there is a failure of the Engine or gearbox due to the remap they left on the car. Is that fair?

If the car was running fine for a year without any noticeable problems when driving and returning the MPG you expected then the remap is unlikely to have caused any damage to the engine or gearbox.

If anything now you will notice the car will be more sluggish when accelerating as it will have less power as standard.

agrinnall

mark090360 wrote: »

Because they told me that the warranty was voided due to the long-term damage that the ECU remap would do to the engine or gearbox.

But you've already said that the warranty has been re-instated, so what's the issue? It's still covering the length of time that it was when you bought the car, and presumably you were happy with it then.

mark090360

The dealer said the warranty was void because of the possible long-term damage to the engine/gearbox. Where does that leave me if the engine blows up after 3 years and 3 months?

Thanks for all these comments, but the question I wanted answered is where am Iegally when I have been sold something that wasn't as advertised, and this was only discovered on a servicing. Yes, I was happy how the car drives, the issue is - how long will it drive?

bazzyb

mark090360 wrote: »

1. Am I justified asking the dealer to take the car back as I have now had it a year?(I anticipate that there would have to be an allowance for my usage of the car)

No.

mark090360 wrote: »

Because they told me that the warranty was voided

The warranty has now been reinstated. So you now have exactly what you thought you were getting in the first place.

I agree however that the whole experience was mildly inconvenient in having your car out of action unnecessarily for a period of time - hopefully they provided you with a suitable courtesy car whilst that was happening? If not I would be expecting them to cover any out of pocket expenses for that period.

lewishardwick

How old is the car?

A remap would suggest the car has had a 'harder' life than perhaps intended, BUT so can any car. You can treat a 1.0 Micra with no mechanical sympathy and it van last for years. Drive a Focus RS like a little old lady and it fail just outside of its warranty.

Without a full strip down of the engine and gearbox there's no possible way to tell what state the engine is in.

If you bought from a main dealer and you're looking to extend the manufacturers warranty I'd suggest contacting their head office to complain.

If you bought from a 2nd hand dealer, they have limited tools to determine ECU mods.

Besides the ECU may have been remapped for fuel economy rather than performance. Lets face it, manufacturers program the engine to meet emissions first...