Garage has aquired car in a misleading way!

marky489

Hi all. I’ve got a bit of a problem concerning a garage my girl friend took her car to about 6 months ago. The 2014 Kia Rio had a broken timing chain & although it was within warranty, she had missed one service so kia told her it would not be covered. She took it to a local garage & was told it would cost about £4,000 to get it fixed & it wasn’t worth it. She wasn’t in a good place with her mental health & needed a car to get to work so they managed to talk her into buying one of there cars on finance. (I had not met her at this stage & if I had I would have advised against this, at least before getting a second opinion). She still owed £3000 on the broken Kia so they upped the price of the finance to include this (which I also think is a bit dodgy). So basically she’s left with £9000 finance debt to pay off the two cars. The garage told her they would scrap the Kia Rio as it was worthless if she signed it over to them, which she did as she didn’t want the stress of having to dispose of the car. The problem we have now is yesterday the Kia Rio came up on there Facebook page for sale for £5,500! They have basically aquired the car by lieing & telling her it was worthless & would be scrapped, then fixed it & put it up for sale! Surely this is unlawful! I am going to go round there at the weekend to talk to them about it but was hoping to have some backup re: what it should have been worth as it was or a better idea of what a timing chain would have really cost. Also where would I stand legally as isn’t this basically theft? Any help would be much appreciated.👍

Sandtree

Once you sell the car its up to the buyer what they do with it... most cat N/S (D/C) write offs are sold to scrap merchants but the cars get sold on and put back on the road.

It is very easy for a car to be beyond economical repair for a customer but perfectly feasible for a hobbiest or garage to repair it themselves at below vehicle value... the average mechanic is circa £60 an hour to the customer but the average mechs salary is £15 so 20 hours work you have a £900 spread in cost. As a consumer you have to pay 20% VAT, contribute to the building, support staff, tools etc but those are all sunk costs when it comes to the garage doing their own projects. Similarly there is a reasonable markup on parts.

Your only real line of enquiry is if they gave a fair assessment of the likely repair costs but without the vehicle to see if there was any additional damage other than the chain it'll be hard to say.

SaverRate

I understand she wasn't in a good place but always get 3 quotes/opinions from different garages before making a decision! Unfortunately as the deal has happened you probably dont have much to go back to them unless you have it in writing they were going to scrap the car. You are well within your rights to make a complaint to the garage though! 

In terms of moving the debt to the new finance of the car this happens all the time with PCP (before the cost of cars shot up!) when you trade in a new car early they can move the remaining finance to the new finance product. 

Car_54

marky489 said:

Also where would I stand legally as isn’t this basically theft? Any help would be much appreciated.👍

You have no standing at all legally - it's your girlfriend's case. Don't be surprised if the garage refuse o discuss it with you.

pinkshoes

It would have cost HER £4000 to fix, then as a private seller in its fixed state perhaps would have been only worth about £4000.

To the garage, their fixing cost is then parts only as they will do the labour bit for free.

But... £4000?? A basic google tells me a Kia Rio should be between £370 to £970 to get this done. 

https://car-doc.co.uk/timing-chain-replacement/

I think the garage really saw her coming, but it was up to her to go and get a quote elsewhere. She chose not to. That's life.

If she wanted, she could go back to the garage with some evidence and complain that they ripped her off. Perhaps even put it in writing and see if they would refund say £2000 as a good will gesture? They of course can say no...

And if they do say no? Then that's the advantage of social media. I'm sure a sob story in the local paper, or a factual review on their FB page or elsewhere saying how they told a vulnerable girl that the timing chain replacement would cost £4000, advised her to scrap the car by giving it to them, then later finding out what it should have cost... Lots of people (mainly women) that know nothing about car maintenance and repairs rely heaving on online reviews when making garage choices!

Jenni_D

It might be a lower cost to get the timing chain done ... but what else got damaged when the timing chain broke?

I'm not saying the garage haven't "pulled a fast one", just that there's likely more to it than simply a broken timing chain.

facade

It has taken them 6 months to fix it. Most likely they waited for an engine from a scrapyard- they are not very common second hand. They probably paid £500 for the engine, and then a days work for a mechanic- who they are paying anyway with no jobs on.

You could have done the same: stored it for 6 months while sourcing an engine, then paid someone to fit it.

Fixing it properly straight away, with all new parts- possibly a brand new engine from Kia probably would have cost £4000 at garage prices.

Just forget it- they did the work and earned their money (they will pay VAT on the selling price if they gave nothing for the car, so they aren't exactly making a fortune)

Be different if they told her the car was scrap and they just washed it then sold it for £5000...

maxmycardagain

Had a car 3 years 2 weeks old/40,000 miles full dealer serviced drop its lunch money, engine wrecked, luckily (and i hadnt bought it new) despite the warranty being 3 years Skoda fitted a brand new engine free and paid 90% of the labour costs

Arent Kia's 100,000 mile warranty? 

Car_54

maxmycardagain said:

Had a car 3 years 2 weeks old/40,000 miles full dealer serviced drop its lunch money, engine wrecked, luckily (and i hadnt bought it new) despite the warranty being 3 years Skoda fitted a brand new engine free and paid 90% of the labour costs

Arent Kia's 100,000 mile warranty? 

Maybe, but the OP said "although it was within warranty, she had missed one service so kia told her it would not be covered".

born_again

maxmycardagain said:

Arent Kia's 100,000 mile warranty? 

Or 7 years. Which it was just in according to OP.
But from OP she had missed one service so kia told her it would not be covered. 
Kia like other manufactures do state that car has to be serviced as per their schedule. So missed service on a engine part is No warranty claim.

Until engine was stripped down, who knows what damage was done to the engine. Could be nothing but a broken chain. Or could have totally wrecked valves, piston crowns & other parts at the bottom of the engine.

Ibrahim5

It's funny that someone expected a garage to tell the truth. It doesn't work like that. Never has.