Faulty used car

Mjb19729838

Hi,

I'm new here and really after some advice, please.

My daughter bought a used car at the end of April this year.  She paid £6500 for the car but £1000 of that we paid as a deposit on our credit card.  She had a personal loan for the rest (not a car loan). 

She bought it just before she had her driving test, so we brought it home and it sat on our driveway for a couple of weeks.  She passed her test and started to drive it to work daily.  After a couple of weeks the coil light came on the dash and it lost power going up a hill on her way home from work.  My husband put a fuel cleaner through but it didn't help.  We called the garage to be told they only covered for 30 days and we were just outside that.  They did say it would be cheaper for us if they looked at it at their garage (40 miles away) but the car wouldn't make it that far as it was in limp mode.  They told us we'd have to take to a local garage then.

It was in the local garage for around 2 weeks.  They replaced the fuel filter but the mechanics cannot fix the problem and said it needs to go back to VW for a proper look or to take it back to the garage for a refund as most probably the faults were there way before we had the car.

We have contacted the garage via email (so we have a paper trail) stating all of this and asking for them to either fix it or give us a refund.  They have not replied.  I am about to send a follow up email today.

My questions are:

1.  What should I state in the follow up email?
2.  Should we go ahead and take it to VW (will have trouble even getting it to the nearest one as its lost power) and all the expense that will incur on top of the bill we have already paid for a faulty car?

Thanks for any help/info anyone can give us.

Ayr_Rage

As you don't yet have a definitive diagnosis then there is no conclusive evidence that "most probably the faults were there way before we had the car".

You got it home without issue and your daughter drove it for weeks before the fault became apparent.

What exactly do you mean by "coil light" and why would that trigger you to put in a fuel cleaner and the garage to change the fuel filter.

What is the make, model, engine type/size and age/mileage?

Mjb19729838

Ayr_Rage said:

As you don't yet have a definitive diagnosis then there is no conclusive evidence that "most probably the faults were there way before we had the car".

You got it home without issue and your daughter drove it for weeks before the fault became apparent.

What exactly do you mean by "coil light" and why would that trigger you to put in a fuel cleaner and the garage to change the fuel filter.

What is the make, model, engine type/size and age/mileage?

Thanks for your reply.

My daughter drove it to and from work (about 3 miles) for a couple of weeks before the light came on.  By the coil light I mean the glow plug light.  A friend who is a mechanic said we may fix the problem by pushing a diesel cleaner through it which we did as we were hoping to solve the issue.  

The garage hooked it up to the diagnostic machine and said it was an issue with the fuel system and usually changing the fuel filter would solve it.  But it didn't.  The mechanic (who is VW trained) says that it needs to go back to VW as he can't fix the problem.  It is a VW Golf 1.6 with 85000 miles.

My daughter loves the car and would like to keep it but the garage are not returning calls/emails at all.

sheslookinhot

I think it is the wrong car for such short journeys. Will the dealer exchange it for a petrol model ?

Aylesbury_Duck

It may be that a diesel wasn't a good choice if your daughter's commute is relatively short in stop/start traffic.  Modern diesels are built for long runs where they get fully up to temperature.

As others have said, the first step is to get the problem diagnosed.  Without that, it's hard to pin the problem as being there when it was sold.

Careful with the credit card situation.  Others will have more knowledge, but I'm not sure you have S75 protection if you paid the deposit on your credit card for a car purchased and owned by your daughter.

fatbelly

Dealers will understand that faults identified between 1 and 6 months give you the right under CRA to request to repair or replace. They have one attempt to repair.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/content/advice/how-does-the-consumer-rights-act-protect-you-when-you-buy-a-car

Frankly replace would be the better option

Mjb19729838

fatbelly said:

Dealers will understand that faults identified between 1 and 6 months give you the right under CRA to request to repair or replace. They have one attempt to repair.


Frankly replace would be the better option

So we have some rights under the Consumer Rights Act to get it repaired or replaced but how do we make that happen?  The garage are so far ignoring us.  Is there somewhere else we can go with that, do you know?

Thank you 

DE_612183

why not phone them rather than email - it's harder to ignore.

If that fails - can you go to the garage ( even if it's not in the car they sold you ).

Face to Face usually gets better results than an email which is easy to pop in the trash.