Dealer refuses to refund repair for faulty car

issues

I purchased a second hand vehicle from a dealer and within 6 months the engine ceased in the midst of traffic at a traffic circle. I had the car towed to my garage who said it may be a faulty fuel injector but that the engine would need re-assembling or I would need to replace it. It was slightly cheaper to replace with a second and engine so I did so. I notified the garage I bought the vehicle from as they had sold me a warranty at the same time of purchase. The warranty inspector checked the vehicle over at my garage and his report said it appeared to be drive on damage (only drove 3,500miles in the 5 month period of ownership) as there would have been misfires and indication of issues prior to the engine ceasing and attending to the condition sooner would have resulted in the fault not happening. The report said the condition would not have been present at the point of policy inception, in light of the time elapsed since policy inception, which he believed to be over 6 months (which is incorrect). Dealer rejected my request for a refund for repair as they said I had owned the car for 6 months. I pointed out the purchase was 5 months before the issue and that the warranty report was not sufficient alone to say that the car was not fit for purpose, they have to prove that the fault wasn't present upon purchase. They have stated they are not responsible for refunding me because of the warranty report findings as set out above. I did not realise at the time I should have had the car towed to the dealership so I realise I may have shot myself in the foot slightly. My understanding of the CRA 2015 is that the fault is deemed present though because it occurred within 6 months of purchase. The dealer has said given the fault is not latent or inherent they will not pay £169 investigation fee for my specialist garage to investigate the engine failure nor the £2,000 plus VAT (excluding labour costs as I did not request this) for a replacement engine. Can the dealer rely on the warranty report as evidence that they did not sell me a car that was not safe or fit for purpose. I should say that at no time did I experience any issues with the engine nor did any warning lights appear until the engine gave in. Any guidance on what to do next would be much appreciated!!

MEM62

Did you refer to or contact the supplying garage before you had it repaired at a third party garage?  If you may have done more than 'slightly' shot yourself in the foot.  Your first port of call is to give the supplying dealer an opportunity to look at the issue.   

AdrianC

issues said:

I purchased a second hand vehicle from a dealer and within 6 months the engine ceased in the midst of traffic at a traffic circle. I had the car towed to my garage who said it may be a faulty fuel injector but that the engine would need re-assembling or I would need to replace it. It was slightly cheaper to replace with a second and engine so I did so. I notified the garage I bought the vehicle from as they had sold me a warranty at the same time of purchase. The warranty inspector checked the vehicle over at my garage and his report said it appeared to be drive on damage ... as there would have been misfires and indication of issues prior to the engine ceasing and attending to the condition sooner would have resulted in the fault not happening. 

The engine seized in the middle of a roundabout, because of a faulty injector? I find that hard to see how, with no previous clues of an impending problem.

The engine would need "re-assembling"...? So who dismantled it?

With the warranty inspector saying that the damage appeared to be due to ignoring issues and continuing to drive, I think you're going to find it very hard to argue that the seizure was directly due to a fault present at the time of purchase, and not damage arising from another issue. Especially given that you got the work done elsewhere before contacting the vendor.

macman

The engine 'ceased', or the engine seized? Very different things...

MinuteNoodles

issues said:

Can the dealer rely on the warranty report as evidence that they did not sell me a car that was not safe or fit for purpose.

Yes, that and the 5 months/3500 miles of problem free motoring you had.

Scrapit

Whats a traffic circle?

AdrianC

Scrapit said:

Whats a traffic circle?

It's the US term for a roundabout.

TuppenceWorth

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It's hard to take when a new (used) car with "warrantee" suddenly presents a massive bill.

However, slightly shooting yourself in the foot is a massive understatement.
You have dropped a huge anvil from height onto your bare feet. In hindsight, the trader should have been contacted before any work carried out. The expert report is not in your favour either. Sorry.

issues

Thank you to everyone for your help!

issues

Stupidly I notified the dealer of what happened and that it was at the garage for repair.  I didn't specifically say that they should repair it but that it needed repairing.  They said they could not do anything until the warranty company inspected it.  I appreciate that I drove 3,500 for 5 months and as you say that could imply that the fault wasn't present at the time of purchase but its not clear as to how the fault then occurred as there was genuinely no prior indication to the engine seizing (not ceasing apologies).  I was hopeful that with the onus on the dealer to prove that the fault was not present at the time of purchase as the engine failed within 6 months of purchase that the warranty inspector's report would not be sufficient evidence of this.  Does the report I have from my garage who did the repair stating that upon inspecting the engine he thought it was a different issue ie possible fuel injector issue and that he did not believe it was a more recent fault occurred by drive on damage make any difference to the matter at all?  I guess my final question (and thank you to everyone as I clearly do not know what I have been doing!) is whether it is worth making a small claim and seeing if mediation or similar might result in me recouping at least some of the repair costs? 

AdrianC

Did he give any indication at all of how an injector fault could cause an engine to seize...?

It definitely SEIZED, didn't hydraulic-lock? That would suggest a lubrication issue, if not a catastrophic internal mechanical failure.