Seek a rejection or accept fix - opinions please?

LadyL2013

2 weeks ago I bought a year old Seat Leon from dealership A on PCP. Within 5 days the car was having significant power issues and warnings that the battery was not charging. Had roadside assistance out twice, on the second time the technician said the battery was not charging and it was going back to the dealership that day and he found that the car had not been serviced (it had done over 12k miles so should have been) and that it had also not been brought in for a recall for issues with start/stop system. So essentially the sold the car to me without having had it's service done or the recall fixed which is completely unacceptable seeing as it an approved used dealer. Technician said he would reject the car as it has been less than 30 days and I'm inclined to agree.

Took it back to the garage and explained the issue and said I really wasn't very happy that they had sold me a car that hadn't been serviced and without a recall issue fixed and that I would like to replace the car. Dealership were, to be fair, very apologetic and agreed they would look to source a replacement.

Got a call from the service department today to say that the faulty car 'was ready to pick up' and the problem was it needed a system update and the problem should now be fixed. I'm not sure how a system update would fix a battery charging issue and they couldn't tell me either. I can see how it would deal with the recall issue but not the battery. My concern is the car will have the same issue in a few days if I were to accept it and then if that were to happen after the 30 days so will be harder to reject.

I'm inclined to still reject and ask for a replacement. There is a potential car nearby in brand B dealership. There are no available replacements at dealership A. Can they source a replacement from a different brand, so to speak?

So my 2 questions:

Would you still be pursuing a replacement or see if it has been fixed?
Can they source a replacement from a different company?

stuey_aka_poppa

Hi, quite a few Volkswagen Audi group cars have an option for 20k service intervals, i'd not work too much on the servicing issue, i too have a Seat Leon (2015 1.2), many modern cars (this is going to sound silly) have a battery for start/stop function that needs to be coded to the car. This tells the car ECU that the car is equipped with a battery suitable for Start/stop function. If the car has a battery that is correct for the car then they WOULD have to have coded the battery to the car, but saying it is an update is a bit of a fib. These batteries have to constantly tell the ECU what level it is at so it can predict if when you stop and take it out of gear, that it has enough battery power to safely restart the car. if not, then the car will not stop the engine when you stop and take it out of gear.

So in short, if garage have chucked any old battery on the car to get it running and off the forecourt, then you'd probably see the fault present and it cant cope with the battery fitted without the start/stop function being disabled totally. If the car is now running properly then i'd have it, not take any servicing packages with the garage and get the car serviced elsewhere.

LadyL2013

stuey_aka_poppa said:

Hi, quite a few Volkswagen Audi group cars have an option for 20k service intervals, i'd not work too much on the servicing issue, i too have a Seat Leon (2015 1.2), many modern cars (this is going to sound silly) have a battery for start/stop function that needs to be coded to the car. This tells the car ECU that the car is equipped with a battery suitable for Start/stop function. If the car has a battery that is correct for the car then they WOULD have to have coded the battery to the car, but saying it is an update is a bit of a fib. These batteries have to constantly tell the ECU what level it is at so it can predict if when you stop and take it out of gear, that it has enough battery power to safely restart the car. if not, then the car will not stop the engine when you stop and take it out of gear.

So in short, if garage have chucked any old battery on the car to get it running and off the forecourt, then you'd probably see the fault present and it cant cope with the battery fitted without the start/stop function being disabled totally. If the car is now running properly then i'd have it, not take any servicing packages with the garage and get the car serviced elsewhere.

So the car has had a new battery since it was new the technician said. So it sounds like it's case of it might have fixed it, it might not. I spoke to the dealership again and they said they had it in to fix the recall issue but couldn't say whether the issue with the battery losing power completely and not charging was anything to do with it so couldn't say it was fixed. So that hasn't filled me with much hope...

LadyL2013

Just to update. A replacement car has now been sought and agreed. Like for like replacement. No qualms from the dealer they agreed it was unacceptable and should have had a service due to the miles it had done and agreed as they didn't know if the issue would recurr that a replacement was appropriate.