Car inspection with finance company

Jslewin93

Really need some helpful advice please,
Got a Citroen C1 59 plate with 97k mileage,
After having it for 2 months I was driving home on the motorway and smoke starting coming out the engine, I had to pull over on the hard shoulder and then the engine wouldn’t start. RAC man came out and said looks like I had a oil leak in car which has made the oil spray out underneath onto engine causing a hole in engine.
The finance company are having the car inspected and said that I won’t be able to reject the car if the problems are my fault. But I’ve only had the car 2 months, I’m new to driving and don’t want to be taken for a fool. The car was serviced 3 weeks before I bought it wouldn’t they have seen a issue then?
Please help and please be nice haha

Car_54

How often did you check the oil over the two months?

AdrianC

So you ran out of oil in a 10yo/100k mile car, and you want to reject the car based on that?

You're going to have to prove that there was no minor leak, that you checked the level regularly, and the leak was sudden and not down to damage from any road debris.

debtdebt

Please be nice? The finance company won't be nice. They'll make their decision based on fact.

Old car with an engine failure? I predict you'll be left with a broken car with a load of debt on it.

Jslewin93

I said PLEASE BE NICE cause I see comments on other people’s forums and your cocky replies are exactly what I mean.
No I do not want to reject the car on the fact there was no oil in the car I want to reject the car because the engine has failed after I only purchased the car 2 months ago, I only passed my test a week before I got the car and I’m no mechanic and i didn’t have anyone to come with me to make sure it was all legit with the dealerships as we all know sometimes they can sell cars not fit for purpose. I had been checking the oil levels regularly but like I told them I didn’t know until now how often you should top up just where it should be on the dipstick it wasn’t until the mechanic told me it hat I shouldn’t have to touch the oil yet as it’s been all looked at and sorted in the service it has not long ago with the dealership garage, they gave me the car with mot defects that was meant to be repaired as soon as poss which was done in 2018 I didn’t realise that he didn’t carry out that work when he told me he did when he sold me the car

AdrianC

Jslewin93 wrote: »

No I do not want to reject the car on the fact there was no oil in the car I want to reject the car because the engine has failed after I only purchased the car 2 months ago

But the engine failed because it had no oil in.

The six month window in consumer legislation is just for whether they have to prove the fault wasn't present, or you have to prove it was. The car drove fine for two months after sale - it wouldn't have, if it had no oil in at the time of sale.

You admit you didn't know how to check the oil - was the owner's handbook missing? Isn't that part of the "show and tell" part of the driving test? One thing's for sure, it's not a second-hand car salesman's responsibility to explain how to check it...

cooltt

Jslewin93 wrote: »

I said PLEASE BE NICE cause I see comments on other people’s forums and your cocky replies are exactly what I mean.
No I do not want to reject the car on the fact there was no oil in the car I want to reject the car because the engine has failed after I only purchased the car 2 months ago, I only passed my test a week before I got the car and I’m no mechanic and i didn’t have anyone to come with me to make sure it was all legit with the dealerships as we all know sometimes they can sell cars not fit for purpose. I had been checking the oil levels regularly but like I told them I didn’t know until now how often you should top up just where it should be on the dipstick it wasn’t until the mechanic told me it hat I shouldn’t have to touch the oil yet as it’s been all looked at and sorted in the service it has not long ago with the dealership garage, they gave me the car with mot defects that was meant to be repaired as soon as poss which was done in 2018 I didn’t realise that he didn’t carry out that work when he told me he did when he sold me the car

OK so basically the Consumer Rights Act 2015 clearly states if you bought the vehicle from the dealer and it fails within the first 6 months then the ownus is on them to prove the fault was not present at the point of sale. Over 6 months and YOU have to prove the fault was present at sale, very, very difficult.



Now the problem you have is you've told the finance compay you did not know you had to check this and that, hence their reply about you not being able to reject if it's your fault. You have shot yourself in the foot. It's now going to be very difficult for you to apply the legislation which protects you.



Also the dealer and finance company are jointly liable for inspection and rectification in this instance.


What you should have said was, "my car blew up and i don't know why".

EssexExile

Sorry about the others, they don't read the bit about being nice to newbies, from their replies it seems they probably didn't read your post either.

You said you checked the oil regularly so I assume when you checked it the level was good. So you didn't run a car out of oil, it leaked out on the journey, I doubt even AdrianC expects you to check the level while you are going along.

If Cooltt has the law right then you are in a better situation than you could be in. Sorry I don't know the technicalities of dealing with this though, perhaps wait to see what the finance company say & if it's not good have a word with Citizens Advice.

Scrapit

Jslewin93 wrote: »

I said PLEASE BE NICE cause I see comments on other people’s forums and your cocky replies are exactly what I mean.
No I do not want to reject the car on the fact there was no oil in the car I want to reject the car because the engine has failed after I only purchased the car 2 months ago, I only passed my test a week before I got the car and I’m no mechanic and i didn’t have anyone to come with me to make sure it was all legit with the dealerships as we all know sometimes they can sell cars not fit for purpose. I had been checking the oil levels regularly but like I told them I didn’t know until now how often you should top up just where it should be on the dipstick it wasn’t until the mechanic told me it hat I shouldn’t have to touch the oil yet as it’s been all looked at and sorted in the service it has not long ago with the dealership garage, they gave me the car with mot defects that was meant to be repaired as soon as poss which was done in 2018 I didn’t realise that he didn’t carry out that work when he told me he did when he sold me the car

Help your self to some of these..............................

fred246

I really feel sorry for people that post on here asking for advice and get the usual rubbish. You have either been sold a car with no oil in it or a car with a massive oil leak. Either way it's totally unacceptable. You're lucky it didn't last a couple more months then it would have been getting harder. Have you checked the MOT history? Oil leaks are often advisories. How do you know it was serviced before you bought it? Used car salesmen will say anything to clinch a deal. How much did you pay for it? If you take them to a small claims court it's a bit like judge Rinder. The judges aren't totally daft. They know what used car salesmen are like. The next step is to give them a chance to repair it and then swiftly move on to reject it.

AdrianC

EssexExile wrote: »

You said you checked the oil regularly so I assume when you checked it the level was good. So you didn't run a car out of oil, it leaked out on the journey, I doubt even AdrianC expects you to check the level while you are going along.

I think you might have missed this bit...

AdrianC wrote: »

You're going to have to prove that there was no minor leak, that you checked the level regularly, and the leak was sudden and not down to damage from any road debris.