PCP breakdown nightmare. Are we about to get shafted?

0800Dinosaur

Long story short, the missus is on her fourth year of a four year PCP deal on a fiat 500. The warranty was three years.

(Yeah, any PCP deal which leaves you sans warranty is a terrible idea, particularly on a fiat. Unfortunately we'd not met when she took the deal)

Last week she had a breakdown, blown head gasket as a result of a faulty coolant sensor and the car having been run without coolant with no check engine light.

£800 repair, which stings as the PCP finishes in 4 months and we intend to return the car.

Today we've been asked to come into the garage to "look at the pistons" which invariably means we're going to get some terribad news.

Any advice from anyone been through similar? If this turns out to be an engine rebuild, we're obviously not very keen to throw huge amounts of money at a car we want to return in a few months. On the other hand, if we have a non-running car towed to Fiat and try to return it, I can't imagine they'd be very impressed lol. Would they be in their rights to bill us for the repair?

To complicate matters the dealership went bust.

Will be making calls to the finance and insurance companies after we've seen the car, trying to fact find first.

Thanks all

Arklight

I would be focusing on your statutory rights rather than the warranty. With the dealer gone bust though, no idea where you'd stand.

facade

Your PCP lender won't have it back broken. You fix it properly first or they will either refuse to have it back and bill you the settlement figure/balloon or they will charge you for the fix.


You can ask for the settlement figure now, pay it and scrap the car off, pay it and fix it on the cheap etc.


Seems quite a common failure too


http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/fiat/500/hatchback/owner-reviews


If you had gone straight to Fiat and not had any work done, with a full fiat service history they might have made a "contribution", but this would be to a main dealer price fix anyway.


I'd be onto Fiat about the multiple sensor failures supposedly hiding the problem with the engine.


Despite what Fiat (and a few people on here) might say, modern cars that aren't broken do not use a drip of water between services, and no-one looks at the water level anymore- ask where the water went, unless it has a burst hose it was the blown headgasket that caused the water loss in the first place, not the other way round.

motorguy

0800Dinosaur wrote: »

Long story short, the missus is on her fourth year of a four year PCP deal on a fiat 500. The warranty was three years.

(Yeah, any PCP deal which leaves you sans warranty is a terrible idea, particularly on a fiat. Unfortunately we'd not met when she took the deal)

Last week she had a breakdown, blown head gasket as a result of a faulty coolant sensor and the car having been run without coolant with no check engine light.

£800 repair, which stings as the PCP finishes in 4 months and we intend to return the car.

Today we've been asked to come into the garage to "look at the pistons" which invariably means we're going to get some terribad news.

Any advice from anyone been through similar? If this turns out to be an engine rebuild, we're obviously not very keen to throw huge amounts of money at a car we want to return in a few months. On the other hand, if we have a non-running car towed to Fiat and try to return it, I can't imagine they'd be very impressed lol. Would they be in their rights to bill us for the repair?

To complicate matters the dealership went bust.

Will be making calls to the finance and insurance companies after we've seen the car, trying to fact find first.

Thanks all

Assuming its been serviced correctly and on time by FIAT i would be phoning FIAT UK and asking them to look at it.

No way you should be paying out for a potential engine rebuild on a car just over 3 years old

I would also phone the finance company - its THEIR car and they will have a vested interest in making sure its resolved satisfactorily by FIAT.

iolanthe07

and no-one looks at the water level anymore-



I check the water level as part of my weekly checks; doesn't everybody?

scd3scd4

iolanthe07 wrote: »

and no-one looks at the water level anymore-



I check the water level as part of my weekly checks; doesn't everybody?

I check mine monthly, however the point was new, well maintained cars lose very little water.

facade

iolanthe07 wrote: »

and no-one looks at the water level anymore-



I check the water level as part of my weekly checks; doesn't everybody?

No.


I've spent over 50 years mending my cars, and now my daily checks comprise a walk round looking for bottles or sharps placed under the tyres, together with a kick of any that look soft. If my foot doesn't bounce off with a nice "spongggg" then it is time for the tyre pump.


I might check the water and oil if I was driving to Scotland or somewhere


My point was, as scd3scd4 picked up, that modern cars with less than starship mileages do not use significant amounts of fluids (unless they say VW or Mini on the back I suppose....:D)

custardy

facade wrote: »

No.


I've spent over 50 years mending my cars, and now my daily checks comprise a walk round looking for bottles or sharps placed under the tyres, together with a kick of any that look soft. If my foot doesn't bounce off with a nice "spongggg" then it is time for the tyre pump.


I might check the water and oil if I was driving to Scotland or somewhere


My point was, as scd3scd4 picked up, that modern cars with less than starship mileages do not use significant amounts of fluids (unless they say VW or Mini on the back I suppose....:D)

I was discussing this the other day.
Not so long ago I was under the bonnet of most of my cars at least weekly. Remember fiddling with timing,adjusting points etc to get it just right?
Now its key in and it goes or its not worknig. Not much inbetween.

facade

custardy wrote: »

I was discussing this the other day.
Not so long ago I was under the bonnet of most of my cars at least weekly. Remember fiddling with timing,adjusting points etc to get it just right?
Now its key in and it goes or its not working. Not much inbetween.

That's right: idiot lights come on with the key, then go out again = all good- off we go!


Every Saturday morning would be a trip to the motorfactors, then new plugs or points, maybe head off and grind in the valves/decoke it, new brake pads (they used to wear like lightning, but never wore the discs) top the oil up adjust valve clearances, grease all the suspension and propshaft nipples and good to go.


Thing was, you could do all of that easily on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, now I can't even change the plugs without dismantling most of the engine, and there is no room to remove any parts even if I can actually get any tools to them to undo them.

System

0800Dinosaur wrote: »

Last week she had a breakdown, blown head gasket as a result of a faulty coolant sensor and the car having been run without coolant with no check engine light.

No, blown headgasket as a result of never lifting the bonnet to do regular checks of oil and coolant which would have spotted there was a problem long before it came to light there was a faulty sensor.

If this turns out to be an engine rebuild, we're obviously not very keen to throw huge amounts of money at a car we want to return in a few months.

In which case you'll be out of pocket even more as a car with a knackered engine is effectively worth scrap money. You can't return a car on PCP if its broken without some serious penalties so you're going to be paying the balloon payment or paying probably main dealer prices for an engine replacement if you hand it over as it is.

System

motorguy wrote: »

Assuming its been serviced correctly and on time by FIAT i would be phoning FIAT UK and asking them to look at it.

No way you should be paying out for a potential engine rebuild on a car just over 3 years old

You are if you never lift the bonnet TO DO THE CHECKS IT SAYS YOU MUST DO IN THE USER MANUAL so it runs out of coolant and it kills it.

Regardless of the low coolant sensor this is entirely down to user error. Its only recently that cars have started to come with low coolant sensors and for decades drivers managed to do just fine without them.