Engine replacement - Vauxhall/Arnold Clark

CarQuay27

Hi there,

I'm having some issues with my car, specifically how much I'm paying towards a repair and that I'm apparently locked into it. Looking for advice on what my options are,

Here's the story so far.

I took my car in for it's MOT and service back in September, this was with Arnold Clark as I had a free service and MOT left as part of my PCP deal with them for this car. There was an engine fault light which had come up before and I was told by another garage that it was to do with the Turbo, so I was expecting this to need repaired or replaced. However, as well as the turbo, I was advised that the engine would need to be replaced due to “excess end float” and that this would cost £8,000. I was advised that this may fall under special coverage provided by Vauxhall but that Arnold Clark didn't have the full service history.

So they sent a copy of the service book to Vauxhall and after a few days, Vauxhall said they would pay 75% of the cost. I asked why they were only paying 75% as a bit of research suggested that a lot of Astras were having a similar issue but I was told that Vauxhall hadn't given a reason, just stated a percentage. While I wasn't happy about this, I decided to proceed with it, keen to get my car back on the road as there were no courtesy cars available from the dealership at this point. I decided to do this on the finance option as it was 0% interest.

The engine is on back order and I am still waiting for it, I have since got a “courtesy car” but Arnold Clark charge £12 a day for this (for the insurance), which is starting to mount up and becoming a real concern for me. Arnold Clark have sent a text every couple of weeks just to say they've had no word from Vauxhall on when to expect the new engine.

I had enquired about ending the PCP deal early after waiting a bit for the repair. I was advised that the cost to end the deal early would be £2,000 as I was in negative equity but they would take it in its current state, but because I'd already agreed to the repair cost, and the finance company had taken payments, that it couldn't be cancelled.

So my questions are, do I have any position to challenge the Vauxhall percentage or is that too late since I agreed to the payment? Second question is, am I within my right to cancel the repair given, there has been no update on when the new engine will arrive?

Apologies for the long post but felt it was best to try and give the full picture on it, feels like I'm being taken for a bit of a ride with it.

Arunmor

How old is the car?

CarQuay27

Arunmor said:

How old is the car?

It's 4 years old, I'm just over 2 years into my PCP deal and the car has done about 20,000 miles