Used car - engine failure after 2 months

Dd88

Hi, I recently bought a used Mercedes Benz C Class through a small dealer I found on autotrader. I got a personal loan through my bank to buy the car as it worked out cheaper than buying the car through finance in the long run. To cut a long story short, I’ve had it less than 2 months, and the engine had a major failure today and I had to get the car toed to a garage. I haven’t spoke to the dealer I bought it from yet, but I’m a bit stumped as to where it leaves me - is there a legal duty for dealers to provide warranty on used cars, or is purely dependent on the dealer? I have a sickening feeling that the repair costs are going to be more than I can afford, and that I will be paying off a loan for the next X amount of years on a car that I’ve had to scrap after two months. Hopefully somebody has some helpful advice, as I just feel sick at the moment to be quite honest!

Sandtree

Consumer Rights Act applies to purchases from businesses irrespective of if they are new or secondhand. That is they must be of satisfactory quality that a reasonable person would assume based on the age/mileage of the vehicle, any details disclosed by the dealer and price paid.

In the first instance, speak to the dealer. 

AdrianC

No, there is no legal requirement for a warranty - but that doesn't mean there's automatically no comeback against the vendor.

Nor does it mean there automatically is.

What age, price of car...? What's the failure?

HansOndabush

I bet it's timing chain issue; the Mercs from W203 onwards need the chains and sprockets monitored/replaced after 70K miles.

macman

Less than 2 months, but more than one month? If so, no statutory right to return it without proving a fault at the time of purchase.
As AdrianC points out, context with a used car is everything. The expectations under CRA 2015 from a 3 year old used car are very much higher than those of a 13 year old used car, so a lot more detail is needed. Crucially, how was the car described and what questions did you ask about it's condition?Service history? MOT?

BOWFER

If you have to stump of for the repair and it really is a big one, consider engine replacement rather than repairing the one that's there already.

Dd88

AdrianC said:

No, there is no legal requirement for a warranty - but that doesn't mean there's automatically no comeback against the vendor.

Nor does it mean there automatically is.

What age, price of car...? What's the failure?

Hi AdrianC,

The car is 9 years old, I payed 8k, and the garage have said it currently looks like a ‘timing belt’ problem (as correctly guessed by HansOndabush), and also mentioned a problem with the turbo. 

I purchased the car on 2nd March, and the engine issue occurred 6th May. I called the dealer and he said there is no used car warranty or anything on it. 

I’m currently waiting on the diagnosis from the garage, and then I need to assess my options.

Thank you all for your replies 

Ectophile

Used car warranties are usually worthless anyway.  Their purpose is to distract you from your consumer rights.

bartelbe

I am no friend of dealers getting out of their responsibilities but unless they informed you it had a recent belt or timing chain change (thread not clear about which you have), I don't see how you have any claim.

It use to be a matter of routine to change the timing belt on any used car purchase because of the damage failure could cause. Chains use to be pretty bullet proof but some models do suffer from chain failures and they need to be changed at regular intervals like belts.

I'm sorry but this is a case of a lesson learnt for the future. If you buy an old car you need to learn about possible failures and do the require maintenance before those problems occur.

AdrianC

Dd88 said:

AdrianC said:

No, there is no legal requirement for a warranty - but that doesn't mean there's automatically no comeback against the vendor.

Nor does it mean there automatically is.

What age, price of car...? What's the failure?

Hi AdrianC,

The car is 9 years old, I payed 8k, and the garage have said it currently looks like a ‘timing belt’ problem (as correctly guessed by HansOndabush), and also mentioned a problem with the turbo. 

I purchased the car on 2nd March, and the engine issue occurred 6th May. I called the dealer and he said there is no used car warranty or anything on it. 

I’m currently waiting on the diagnosis from the garage, and then I need to assess my options.

Timing belt or chain?
If belt, when is it last documented as having been changed?

Is it unreasonable for a turbo to fail after nine years? Absolutely not.

fred246

The last owner probably knew there was a timing chain problem and traded it in instead of repairing it. The dealer is supposedly the expert and would have known there was an issue. The consumer rights act is there to protect you in such a situation. The act assumes there was a problem when it was sold which there undoubtedly was. You can request a repair. They have one attempt to fix. You can then demand your money back. If the dealer tries to say it was OK at sale it might be worth getting an independent report. You have to be careful about misinformation on this forum. For some reason AdrianC always tells everyone that any fault on any car is normal and should be expected. Total rubbish. If you go to court the judge isn't a used car dealer. Judges know what used car dealers are like. If you pay good money for a car you should get a car that works and does the job that it should do. You need to read as much as you can about cars and the consumer rights act 2015.