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Dodgy car dealer sold me a broken car
This is a bit of a long story, but please bear with, I'm really at a loss for what to do. I bought a car at the beginning of June from a seemingly 'reputable' dealer.
Everything seemed okay with the car for the first week until a slight smell of fuel began to appear in the cab, I had an important meeting the following day which I had to travel fo and because it was intermittent I decided to take it on the fly, anyway, the smell got worse and worse until the check engine light came on, I was close to a garage so I took it just so I had some idea of the problem when I called the dealership.
The mechanic looked at the car and said the emissions were awful, he was unsure how it had passed it's MOT two weeks earlier. He put it over the pit and looked at the cat and said its a possibility it could be that - he took a good look at the sensors (important bit of info) and I know this because he said if it was the cat and the sensors it was a big big job.
Anyway I called the dealership explained the situation and they asked me to bring it in to be repaired, so I did. When they had 'repaired' the car, I picked it up and they told me a couple of things.
- They stated they had looked for a petrol leak and there wasn't one
- They said that they had cleaned out the exhaust/cat and that the smell was likely something had got caught up in there and it was clearing itself out - that was the smell and it won't happen anymore or at least won't for much longer.
Drove it home, smelt the smell again a little bit, but because he told me about this clog and it might not happen much longer, I continued on. So the fuel smell actually mostly went away for about three weeks. I had a six month warranty up to £500 with the car, so I thought if I have to have something replaced I will.
Anyway fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and the smell starts to come back and now I can hear something 'banging' on the outside of the car and all of a sudden there was the sound of air and squeaking when I pressed down the clutch. I booked it into the garage, again to have something to say to the dealer more than anything, and I took it in this Monday.
The garage were absolutely shocked at what they found. The driveshaft wasn't bolted on. In fact, there were a lot of nuts and bolts missing. They said that it looked as if somebody had attempted to replace the clutch, got 75% of the way there, broken it and just left it. The smell of fuel was bad because it was the grease leaking into the car and to top it all off it looked as if somebody had DISCONNECTED the cat sensors. Now, because I previously took it to a garage and he looked at the cat, I think he would have noticed if the cat sensors were disconnected. :T
*edit*
I got this list:
1: Offside Driveshaft Vibration and Both Gaitors split, grease gone.
2: Offside bottom ball joint cover
3: Exhaust heat shield near gearbox insecure
4: Crank Sensor not secured
5: Bolt Missing from exhaust / LAT Bracket
6: It is the opinion of staff at ****** that the clutch was damaged on replacement.
- Doesn't mention cat sensors at all, so maybe they changed their mind on that point?
Naturally, I'm furious. Called Citizens Advice straight away and they've given me the letter template to send to the dealership. But, I'm furious. I've actually been told even him telling me they had cleaned the cat out is wrong because that's illegal (is that right??). Spoken to the dealership and the guy is being proper shirty about the whole thing saying there is nothing wrong with it if we've been driving it and he knows his rights????
Anybody any clue on how to approach this and if we have a chance of getting even some of the money back for the death trap he's sold to me? I am so so upset about this, I spend 3.5k on this car, and I feel like it's just been thrown to the wind
- Husband text him asking for his address to send a letter recorded delivery and he text back asking him to refer to page 17 of his warranty handbook and claim the costs back that way, obviously repairs are more than the £500 warranty so we don't want to go down this route, we literally just want it repaired or partially refunded - is this warranty going to get in the way??
Everything seemed okay with the car for the first week until a slight smell of fuel began to appear in the cab, I had an important meeting the following day which I had to travel fo and because it was intermittent I decided to take it on the fly, anyway, the smell got worse and worse until the check engine light came on, I was close to a garage so I took it just so I had some idea of the problem when I called the dealership.
The mechanic looked at the car and said the emissions were awful, he was unsure how it had passed it's MOT two weeks earlier. He put it over the pit and looked at the cat and said its a possibility it could be that - he took a good look at the sensors (important bit of info) and I know this because he said if it was the cat and the sensors it was a big big job.
Anyway I called the dealership explained the situation and they asked me to bring it in to be repaired, so I did. When they had 'repaired' the car, I picked it up and they told me a couple of things.
- They stated they had looked for a petrol leak and there wasn't one
- They said that they had cleaned out the exhaust/cat and that the smell was likely something had got caught up in there and it was clearing itself out - that was the smell and it won't happen anymore or at least won't for much longer.
Drove it home, smelt the smell again a little bit, but because he told me about this clog and it might not happen much longer, I continued on. So the fuel smell actually mostly went away for about three weeks. I had a six month warranty up to £500 with the car, so I thought if I have to have something replaced I will.
Anyway fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and the smell starts to come back and now I can hear something 'banging' on the outside of the car and all of a sudden there was the sound of air and squeaking when I pressed down the clutch. I booked it into the garage, again to have something to say to the dealer more than anything, and I took it in this Monday.
The garage were absolutely shocked at what they found. The driveshaft wasn't bolted on. In fact, there were a lot of nuts and bolts missing. They said that it looked as if somebody had attempted to replace the clutch, got 75% of the way there, broken it and just left it. The smell of fuel was bad because it was the grease leaking into the car and to top it all off it looked as if somebody had DISCONNECTED the cat sensors. Now, because I previously took it to a garage and he looked at the cat, I think he would have noticed if the cat sensors were disconnected. :T
*edit*
I got this list:
1: Offside Driveshaft Vibration and Both Gaitors split, grease gone.
2: Offside bottom ball joint cover
3: Exhaust heat shield near gearbox insecure
4: Crank Sensor not secured
5: Bolt Missing from exhaust / LAT Bracket
6: It is the opinion of staff at ****** that the clutch was damaged on replacement.
- Doesn't mention cat sensors at all, so maybe they changed their mind on that point?
Naturally, I'm furious. Called Citizens Advice straight away and they've given me the letter template to send to the dealership. But, I'm furious. I've actually been told even him telling me they had cleaned the cat out is wrong because that's illegal (is that right??). Spoken to the dealership and the guy is being proper shirty about the whole thing saying there is nothing wrong with it if we've been driving it and he knows his rights????
Anybody any clue on how to approach this and if we have a chance of getting even some of the money back for the death trap he's sold to me? I am so so upset about this, I spend 3.5k on this car, and I feel like it's just been thrown to the wind
- Husband text him asking for his address to send a letter recorded delivery and he text back asking him to refer to page 17 of his warranty handbook and claim the costs back that way, obviously repairs are more than the £500 warranty so we don't want to go down this route, we literally just want it repaired or partially refunded - is this warranty going to get in the way??
0
Comments
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I can't really work it out.
How come nobody noticed a loose driveshaft and faulty clutch previously?
Driveshaft grease would not really cause the cabin to smell of fuel.
It's not illegal to clean a cat.
Disconnecting the sensors would have caused the engine management light to be illuminated which you've not mentioned and would have been obvious when you picked it up from the garage unless they'd removed or covered the bulb. Does it illuminate before starting the engine?
I think you need a proper diagnosis and list of faults so you can establish your next steps and build a case if necessary.0 -
Thanks for replying!!
Glad you cleared up the cleaning the cat thing, don't wanna make a tttt of myself mentioning that. Thought it sounded a bit far fetched.
I have no clue how the clutch and the driveshaft weren't seen the first time I took the car into the garage, before he even looked at the car he was pretty convinced that it was the cat before he even looked at the car so he didn't really mention anything else...this whole thing has put me way out of my depth.
The car is currently sat in a garage, so I'll ask them about the engine management light, although I think I would have noticed if it wasn't coming on before I started the engine...
I'll get a full list of faults to send off with the letter from the garage. Thanks for your input, all the mechanical lingo really overwhelms me!!0 -
Find a new garage that has a clue to look at it.
Sensors disconnected but engine warning light not on when it came on before, really !
Grease causing the fuel smell, Yeah, right.0 -
Thanks!! I will do - that makes me feel better, I was starting to feel like I was going to be dealing with Harry Wormwood from Matilda if they had actually done that!0
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Contexts please: make, model, mileage?
How was the condition of the vehicle described, and what questions did you ask about it's condition before buying?
Any service history, any advisories on the MOT?
Did you test drive it?No free lunch, and no free laptop
0 -
73000 miles, 2010 Kia Ce'ed
Condition was described as excellent drives perfect etc. pretty sure I could get a cached version of the webpage I first saw it advertised to be honest. Yep, test drove it and it smelt of fuel outside the car. They told me that the car was perfectly fine, then the valet had sprayed water up the exhaust by accident but it was going into the garage the day after, after that he sad explicitly that it was in perfect working order. I asked plenty of questions about the whole water up the exhaust issue when I picked it up and he assured me that it had been rectified. I asked about things like if it was HPI clear and if it had any mechanical issues what so ever to which he said no. I know it was probably stupid of me to take his word for the water exhaust thing, but I just thought these places were like official and trustworthy. Totally Naive of me.
It has some service history, last service was 2016 at KIA - only MOT advisory was for the wiper, and nearside something or other on one of the tyres. *edit* he didn't tell me about the advisories and said '"it went through fine." - again, naively discovered the advisories after downloading the MOT online after I couldn't find it in the pack.
Marlot - I probably am, it's just something somebody said to me though, I wasn't totally sure anyway.0 -
I can't really work it out.
How come nobody noticed a loose driveshaft and faulty clutch previously?
Driveshaft grease would not really cause the cabin to smell of fuel.
It's not illegal to clean a cat.
Disconnecting the sensors would have caused the engine management light to be illuminated which you've not mentioned and would have been obvious when you picked it up from the garage unless they'd removed or covered the bulb. Does it illuminate before starting the engine?
I think you need a proper diagnosis and list of faults so you can establish your next steps and build a case if necessary.
0 -
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Well, that made this whole polava a little lighter, thank you.0 -
Why do you need to find out his address to send an RD letter? You visited the premises, and presumably you have a bill of sale on the dealer's letterhead? Just send it first class and obtain a proof of posting, that's all you need. If you use RD he will probably refuse delivery...
How did you pay for the vehicle: cash, card, bank transfer?
Was this a 'proper' dealer or just a backstreet bodger?
You should definitely retrieve the advert, as everything else is verbal and will be your word against his.
Your statutory rights are not limited by the retailer warranty, but you will find that most of these warranties are completely worthless, as so many parts are excluded as 'wear and tear'.No free lunch, and no free laptop0
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