Bought a Used Car - it's had a replacement engine

stvn1

I recently traded my car into a used car dealer and bought a used Grand Vitara from him.

The car had some problems, dpf light, glow plug light, injector light, losing power, etc. I took it back to him and we had a chat. I could have had a refund but did a deal for another car, an i20 with 34k on it.

This was last week. So roll forward to tonight and there was a whine, so my friend (a mechanic) was over and I changed the oil and filters while he was here. The whine turns out to be the gearbox. The car has also had a replacement engine, the number doesn't match the log book and there's marks from a scrapyard on the engine to identify it.

How should I play this? I'm about £3000 into this and would appreciate some advice.

AdrianC

Whether or not the engine has been replaced in the past is irrelevant.

Most £3k i20s on Autotrader are around 8-9yo. Is a gearbox whine at that age something that could/should not be reasonably expected? Frankly, 34k at that age is something I'd avoid - it certainly isn't a positive.

Was the whine not apparent on test-driving the car before purchase?

stvn1

The car was sold as a low mileage car with FSH. The replacement engine is certainly not irrelevant as it puts the car outside that description. There's no record of the engine swap and I have no idea how many miles are on it or how it's been maintained. I've put 300 miles on the car and noticed the whine shortly after buying it. A mechanic friend has determined that it's the gearbox.

Mutton_Geoff

stvn1 wrote: »

The car was sold as a low mileage car with FSH. The replacement engine is certainly not irrelevant as it puts the car outside that description. There's no record of the engine swap and I have no idea how many miles are on it or how it's been maintained. I've put 300 miles on the car and noticed the whine shortly after buying it. A mechanic friend has determined that it's the gearbox.

It's a shame you didn't take your mechanic friend with you when you were car shopping.


Since you've had someone else work on the car now, you may have seriously weakened your position with the dealer but since you've only had the car a short while, your first call should have been to the dealer again.

AdrianC

stvn1 wrote: »

The car was sold as a low mileage car with FSH. The replacement engine is certainly not irrelevant as it puts the car outside that description. There's no record of the engine swap

So the relevant part there is that the full service history isn't a full record of all work done.

foxy-stoat

I have never looked to see if the engine numbers matches up, vin/frame numbers yes.

Most trustworthy garages would have a replacement engine well documented but seems like this isn't the case here.

You could try to reject it on the grounds Adrian has said, but I would reject it on the grounds of the gearbox whining and buy somewhere else.

stvn1

Just to update this. I received a full refund yesterday. I didn't need to reject it, the dealer was very civil about it all.

marlot

stvn1 wrote: »

Just to update this. I received a full refund yesterday. I didn't need to reject it, the dealer was very civil about it all.

Good result. Well done.