Car worth less than repair and on finance. Common fault

anothercatlady

This is quite a long post but looking for advice - I will try and keep it as brief.

I bought a 2016 Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost on finance through Arnold Clarke, March 22.  The car was around £9k and I added a 2 year warranty and service plan to ensure the vehicle was looked after. It has been serviced twice in the 2 years and 5 months I've had the car.

What I didn't realise is that there is a very common fault with this engine and the timing belt (wet belt degrades and breaks down in the engine). I had no warning apart from the vehicle suddenly displaying an oil pressure light and a rattling from the engine. I was advised by my breakdown company this was a common fault and the damage was already done and would require a new engine.

The garage confirmed this was a very notorious problem. The repair itself would be around £3000 at a maximum, however this problem would likely occur again and it could be at any point.
My options are very limited as I can't afford to pay £3000 to repair the car and not prepared to pay this if this could happen again.

I spoke to Arnold Clarke who advised that repaired the vehicle was worth £2450 (making it even more pointless to pay for a repair). I was advised again that this was a very common fault had known the engine to go anywhere from 20k - 80k miles - and a repair would likely fail at some point in time.

The sales manager did advise he could take the car at it's repaired value of £2452 and repair it himself and recoup the money from auctioning off the car. I have £5.7k outstanding on my current finance agreement - Meaning I would still be around £3000 out of pocket but at least then I would be rid of the car, although to do this I would need to purchase a car over £10000 to spread the remaining cost over the new finance agreement. He did advise though that I could get a cheaper deal if I paid at least a 2k deposit. (which of course would wipe out more of the finance agreement)

Less than 24 hours later, I felt as though my only option is to go back to Arnold Clarke and get some quotes on a new car. However, my car was now only worth £50 as broken, (they advised there is a £500 offer on so would get a total of £550), if I repaired the vehicle I would still only get £2450.. Now there is no mention of taking the car at the repaired amount as previously discussed even though I have mentioned this  (they record the calls so I'm sure this could be confirmed)

If this is a common fault with this vehicle which Arnold Clarke are clearly aware of, why are the able to sell the car for £9000 in the first place, even in a fixed state less that 2.5 years later it is worth £2450? A depreciation of £6550 seems a little excessive.

Is there anywhere I can go with this without having spend a ridiculous amount?  I am considering taking this further with Arnold Clarke but could do with some advice on where to go / what my best options are.

Many thanks

MSE_ForumTeam5

We've moved this to the Motoring section of the forum

born_again

anothercatlady said:

This is quite a long post but looking for advice - I will try and keep it as brief.

I bought a 2016 Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost on finance through Arnold Clarke, March 22.  The car was around £9k and I added a 2 year warranty and service plan to ensure the vehicle was looked after. It has been serviced twice in the 2 years and 5 months I've had the car.

What I didn't realise is that there is a very common fault with this engine and the timing belt (wet belt degrades and breaks down in the engine). I had no warning apart from the vehicle suddenly displaying an oil pressure light and a rattling from the engine. I was advised by my breakdown company this was a common fault and the damage was already done and would require a new engine.

The garage confirmed this was a very notorious problem. The repair itself would be around £3000 at a maximum, however this problem would likely occur again and it could be at any point.
My options are very limited as I can't afford to pay £3000 to repair the car and not prepared to pay this if this could happen again.

I spoke to Arnold Clarke who advised that repaired the vehicle was worth £2450 (making it even more pointless to pay for a repair). I was advised again that this was a very common fault had known the engine to go anywhere from 20k - 80k miles - and a repair would likely fail at some point in time.

The sales manager did advise he could take the car at it's repaired value of £2452 and repair it himself and recoup the money from auctioning off the car. I have £5.7k outstanding on my current finance agreement - Meaning I would still be around £3000 out of pocket but at least then I would be rid of the car, although to do this I would need to purchase a car over £10000 to spread the remaining cost over the new finance agreement. He did advise though that I could get a cheaper deal if I paid at least a 2k deposit. (which of course would wipe out more of the finance agreement)

Less than 24 hours later, I felt as though my only option is to go back to Arnold Clarke and get some quotes on a new car. However, my car was now only worth £50 as broken, (they advised there is a £500 offer on so would get a total of £550), if I repaired the vehicle I would still only get £2450.. Now there is no mention of taking the car at the repaired amount as previously discussed even though I have mentioned this  (they record the calls so I'm sure this could be confirmed)

If this is a common fault with this vehicle which Arnold Clarke are clearly aware of, why are the able to sell the car for £9000 in the first place, even in a fixed state less that 2.5 years later it is worth £2450? A depreciation of £6550 seems a little excessive.

Is there anywhere I can go with this without having spend a ridiculous amount?  I am considering taking this further with Arnold Clarke but could do with some advice on where to go / what my best options are.

Many thanks

You bought the car when 2nd hand prices were peaking as new cars were so hard to get hold of.
At that point I could have sold mine for more than I paid for it a year earlier.

Depreciation has just put it back where it should have been, now new car supplies are a lot better. So over it's life. The car has lost no more than it would have done if Covid had not have happened.

Sadly you did not check about this model engine at that time, as it was well known at that point & walked away for a £9K timebomb 🤷‍♀️

In reality not a lot you can do. Best take it to a independent & get a reconditioned engine fitted. Which will be cheaper than AC are asking.
Then avoid them in the future.

FlorayG

If you look on the internet as I have just done I think they are quoting you about £1,000 less than actual market value (repaired), I can see loads similar for around £3,500, however that doesn't solve your problem. I think if you can find evidence of their offer of £2,450 you can try to insist they honour that, it will be your best option if they will.
Getting any car on finance exposes you to the risk of having no car and still paying for it, unfortunately

HHarry

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet but I have seen a couple of refences to a ‘recall’  whereby Ford are pick up the repair costs on cars up to 10 years old with a FSH. 

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/153580-ford-ecoboost-wet-belt-goodwill-support/

It might be worth talking to your local Ford dealer as well.

Mildly_Miffed

Personally, I'd have replaced the cambelt on it before 8yo. Maintenance is cheaper than engine replacement.

Do you have any comeback against the company you bought the car from 2.5yrs ago for the failure? No.
Do you have any comeback against them for steeper than expected depreciation, largely brought about by the reputation of this engine? No.
Do you have any comeback against the manufacturer? No.

You MIGHT get a goodwill gesture from the manufacturer, but your chances of that will be massively increased if the service history is absolutely scrupulous, ideally main dealer. If the history was scrupulous, the belt would probably not have failed - sufficient clean oil of the right grade appears to be the key to wet belt life.

Ectophile

Have you looked on Autotrader https://www.autotrader.co.uk/ for prices of similar cars?  The cheapest one near me is £4995. (2016 Ford Fiesta 1.0)

If you got a sympathetic judge, you might win a case against the dealer.  The Limitation Act applies after 6 years (5 in Scotland), so it's still in time.  But you would have to persuade the judge that the car had an inherent fault on the day it was sold to you.

But in the opinion of many people, all ecoboost engines had an inherent fault when they were made.  They keep failing catastrophically.

jimjames

You can easily get more than £50 for selling it broken, have a look at eBay sale prices and try a few car breaker quote sites.

If you repair it will cost you £500 or so (£3000 repair cost minus the £2500 sale price). Selling as scrap could get you £300-400 so you'd be £800 better off.

laidbackgjr

Ectophile said:

But in the opinion of many people, all ecoboost engines had an inherent fault when they were made.  They keep failing catastrophically.

And in the opinion of many other people - a well maintained ecoboost engine will run and run - the 'inherent' fault is probably more a case of a less reliable engine than other designs rather than a fault.

avantra

Dont despair, Ford UK is now offering a goodwill gesture (they can't bring themself to call it a recall and it took a massive effort to drag them to admit the issue) targeting your car. It is only few month old scheame so contact them directly as they relaxed the criteria for fully repairing your car for free. See info here https://youtu.be/tDPHjJsVnu8?si=Oru6sL2TSHFcxRs2

anothercatlady

avantra 

Thanks for this, have emailed Ford and filled in a form - fingers crossed