Year after a car sale, found out they lied...

CrippsCorner

Hi all. Back here again after a recent thread where you guys helped me a lot - Thanks. Not needed advice here for a long time and suddenly I've made 2 threads within as many weeks!

So... I bought a car from a garage 12 months ago (one week before lockdown #1) and part of the sale was that they would put it through a fresh MOT and service, great! It failed on one item (well two, both sides) which was rear suspension arm bushes. Salesman tells me no problem it'll all be sorted before I come to pick it up the following week, at no expense to me. Week later I return, fresh MOT (double checked via GOV website) all passed, service stamp in the book and I'm happy to take it.

Fast forward to today, car is in for MOT and... car has failed on rear suspension arm bushes my garage have told me they're so worn that when my car was on the ramp in the air, my wheels were wobbling backwards and forwards. She also told me there was no oil in the car at all, and literally a few more miles I could have wrecked the engine. Now I only did around 2,500 miles in the last year, and there is no sign of any oil leak etc.

To me, that tells me the garage I bought the car from lied about repairing the suspension bushes, and also about servicing the car. I am going to ask my garage to keep the parts for me, which should show they're nearer 11 years old than 11 months... now in hindsight, I realise I should have asked for a receipt of the parts being replaced, but I was obviously too excited at getting my car

I know it's been a year now, but do you think there's any point in chasing this issue and trying to obtain a refund? My garage thinks I should... by the way it's costing me around £500 which is mainly labour costs. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Olly 

Aylesbury_Duck

£500 to replace suspension bushes and add oil?  Sounds like you're about to be done over a second time.

Forget the oil issue, you've done 2,500 miles and it's possible you've burned oil in that time.  Why hadn't you detected the oil level dropping in the last year?  If there's supposedly "no oil in the car at all" you wouldn't see anything on the dipstick.  Have you not checked it at all?  For a year?

To be honest, with what they're suggesting as a labour charge to put replace suspension bushes and add oil, I think you should get a second opinion.  There's a chance this garage is actually the one doing you over, rather than the place you bought the car from.

davidmcn

So what did they do to get it passed last year if they hadn't replaced the suspension bushes? Is there maybe some other problem causing them to wear out?

mattyprice4004

Cheap bushes can fail in 6 months - I owned an online motor factor for 7 years. 
Easily possible, even though you only did 2,500 miles (especially if they fitted the cheapest of the cheap) 

CrippsCorner

Aylesbury_Duck said:

£500 to replace suspension bushes and add oil?  Sounds like you're about to be done over a second time.

Forget the oil issue, you've done 2,500 miles and it's possible you've burned oil in that time.  Why hadn't you detected the oil level dropping in the last year?  If there's supposedly "no oil in the car at all" you wouldn't see anything on the dipstick.  Have you not checked it at all?  For a year?

To be honest, with what they're suggesting as a labour charge to put replace suspension bushes and add oil, I think you should get a second opinion.  There's a chance this garage is actually the one doing you over, rather than the place you bought the car from.

Rough phone conversation seems parts are just over £100, interim service is what another £100? Rest is labour... said they tried to get non OEM parts for a price reduction but because my car is 'top of the range' (VXR) it uses bespoke parts which you cannot get from anywhere but Vauxhall directly.

How would I detect oil level dropping? I have not checked the dipstick. I drive a few miles to work each day and that's about, it's just something that never crosses my mind. I presume (maybe naively) that an oil service every 12 months should keep it going fine (as recommend by Vauxhall) also... due to lockdown although I've owned it 12 months, it didn't get driven at all for 3 months.

CrippsCorner

davidmcn said:

So what did they do to get it passed last year if they hadn't replaced the suspension bushes? Is there maybe some other problem causing them to wear out?

My believing is that they did nothing at all - They gave me a 'dodgy' MOT so it looked good on paper, but no work was actually undertaken.

CrippsCorner

mattyprice4004 said:

Cheap bushes can fail in 6 months - I owned an online motor factor for 7 years. 
Easily possible, even though you only did 2,500 miles (especially if they fitted the cheapest of the cheap) 

Okay thanks for the input, it'll still be interesting to see the state of them. Maybe I'll post on here! Would just surprise me as don't think I've ever had these parts fail on me in 17 years of driving, and then for the only ones to ever fail, being brand new ones lol. Also that they probably lied about service too. Note they didn't give me any paperwork relating to replacement parts or to the service, other than the stamp in the book.

Spank

Not checking the oil in a year us on you. Do you check your tyre pressure? washer fluid levels?

CrippsCorner

I do check tyre pressures, but me checking things is not the issue here, thanks for your concern. The issue is whether I've been lied to by a company, which at this point I still believe I have.

A_Lert

What makes you so sure your MOT garage aren't the ones lying? "no oil in the car at all, and literally a few more miles I could have wrecked the engine" but the engine failure hasn't happened already? That's one heck of a coincidence. And no sign of an oil leak either? This stinks like a week-old haddock.

williamgriffin

CrippsCorner said:

I do check tyre pressures, but me checking things is not the issue here, thanks for your concern. The issue is whether I've been lied to by a company, which at this point I still believe I have.

Not checking things is a issue. If you haven't checked the oil in 11 months then how do you know they lied about the service?