Bought car that nearly killed me

dazron

Hi there - sorry about the slightly melodramatic thread title but i've had an experience with a bought car that has really shaken me up - hence why I am posting this at 4 in the morning... I can't sleep! I am hoping you clever people can advise me on what course of action to take. Thanks in advance if you can!

Here's my story in a nutshell...

In March I bought a car, an L reg Chrysler PT Cruiser, registered December year 2004 with 38000 on the clock, from Ian Farrell Motor Company in Birmingham, for £5482. I had the car Vehicle checked with Auto Trader and the car came back with no issues. The car was supposedly fully serviced and MOT'd after i'd purchased it, and I had to wait approximately 4 days for it. I live in Northampton and found the vehicle on Auto Trader and travelled the 60 miles back and forth sorting the car out for purchase. The car was covered by a full parts etc warranty, for 6 months, the warranty being one offered through their own garage service. There were a number of issues with the vehicle after purchase, namely tyres that were going flat, a core air temperature sensor that failed and two chips on the windscreen that I didn't notice on road testing the vehicle, that I believe may have been in an area of the windscreen that would have caused the car to fail it's MOT. I mention these issues because I believe they are relevant in that I believe the MOT the car received was un-satisfactory. THe problem I had was that the garage was 60 miles away and I had no way to get the car back and forth to the garage to get 'minor' issues with it sorted so was resolved to having to sort them out at my own cost.

After approximately 10 weeks after purchase, and after the date of the MOT, I had done just 800 mlles, some 80 miles a week. Not a lot of mileage i'm sure you will agree. I have had a rear tyre replaced as it was faulty, and a rear tyre re-attached as it was fitted with a dirty rim and therefore going flat in that time, as well as having the windscreen chips repaired on my insurance.

Yesterday at 17:15, as I was entering a roundabout to enter onto the A45 dual carriageway, there was a loud crack and the car skidded out of control with me having no control over the car, along with much smoke and smell of burning rubber. I instantly thought a tyre had blown. After the car came to a halt I tried to slowly drive the car over to a safer spot but it would not move. I was in a very dangerous area blocking a major road but couldn't move. When I got out of the vehicle I could see my drivers side front wheel had come off of it's mounting and was a completely different angle to the other correctly mounted wheel. The Drive shaft was pulled out of skew and obviously something had happened to the gear box as there was gear box fluid all over the car. The tyres were obviously damaged and there was damage the the inner wing of the car.

When the breakdown vehicle eventually attended the car, he informed me that the car had no pin attaching the wheel to the ball joint and was essentially a death trap, and that had I been going 70mph on the dual carriageway I was about to enter I probably would have lost control of the car to such an extent that I would almost certainly have died.

I rang the garage and they were fairly blase about it saying 'bring it in we'll fix the vehicle' and weren't even perturbed enough to get anyone to the garage to receive the vehicle from the breakdown service after hours telling me to tow it in the morning, despite my telling them that this was impossible.

Now, for me, for this to have happened to a car I bought from a supposedly legitimate garage, when this is a specific MOT test point, 800 miles after buying a car is completely unacceptable. I have an 8 year old daughter and a 6 month year old daughter, as well as a wife, that I regularly drive on the A45 etc, if this had happened at that speed, with them in the car, we would all conceiveably have died.

The garage, on the phone, offered no apology.

What I would like someone to tell me, if they possibly could, what I should do now? I feel like I do not want the car back as it is un-safe. I do not trust the garage to carry out work and tests to a safe standard. I believe that the MOT they did to the car was un-satisfactory. What can I do? The car is at the garage in Birmingham (it was eventually lifted and towed there by the RAC) and the garage have said they will start work on it in the morning but I believe I may have a case to take this further.

I am so angry, and upset... I do not think I will ever feel safe in the car, and my wife has said that she will not enter it or put our kids in it. I am not a well off person this is the first 'decent' car I have been able to afford, and was able to purchase it because of an inheritance of a relative passing away.

What now?

What recourse do I have?

Can I ask for my money back? Should i stop them working on it and have it inspected? Can I have their MOT license 'inspected'? I need to stop them working on it if so I imagine, god knows how I am going to arrange anything happening to the car when it is in Birmingham and I am in Northampton. I had to agree to that because I only had the opportunity to get it to one destination with the RAC, and I was pretty shaken up at the time and could only think about getting it to the garage which covered it's warranty.

Please help me...

vikingaero

dazron wrote: »

In March I bought a car, an L reg Chrysler PT Cruiser, registered December year 2004 with 38000 on the clock

Is it a 2004 car with "private" L reg plates?

When the breakdown vehicle eventually attended the car, he informed me that the car had no pin attaching the wheel to the ball joint

The pin could have failed, fallen out and caused what you had described.

What I would like someone to tell me, if they possibly could, what I should do now? I feel like I do not want the car back as it is un-safe. I do not trust the garage to carry out work and tests to a safe standard. I believe that the MOT they did to the car was un-satisfactory. What can I do? The car is at the garage in Birmingham (it was eventually lifted and towed there by the RAC) and the garage have said they will start work on it in the morning but I believe I may have a case to take this further.

I am so angry, and upset... I do not think I will ever feel safe in the car, and my wife has said that she will not enter it or put our kids in it. I am not a well off person this is the first 'decent' car I have been able to afford, and was able to purchase it because of an inheritance of a relative passing away.

What now?

What recourse do I have?

Can I ask for my money back? Should i stop them working on it and have it inspected? Can I have their MOT license 'inspected'? I need to stop them working on it if so I imagine, god knows how I am going to arrange anything happening to the car when it is in Birmingham and I am in Northampton. I had to agree to that because I only had the opportunity to get it to one destination with the RAC, and I was pretty shaken up at the time and could only think about getting it to the garage which covered it's warranty.

Please help me...

You can contact VOSA, the details are on the MOT form if you believe the MOT was not carried out satisfactorily. Also Trading Standards are fairly hot on motor dealers and will give you info on whether you may be able to reject the vehicle.

dazron

Question A - I may have got the year of registration wrong I was doing off the top of my head at four in the morning!

B - it 'could' have not been there at all.. i guess the issue is proof?

C - next step - ring trading standards I guess?

pulliptears

Hi Dazron, may I suggest posting your problem over here:

http://www.northerndevils.co.uk/forum/

This is a dedicated PT Cruiser club who may have some insight into the problem, and or why it happened.

PT's are exceptionally safe cars, I've seen a couple through the club sites that have been involved in heavy accidents and all parties have walked away uninjured. There are side impact airbags as well as front ones and it does have a good ncap rating:

http://www.euroncap.com/tests/chrysler_pt_cruiser_2002/138.aspx

Dont let this put you off the car, they are lovely motors to drive.
x

ozvaldinho

Sorry to hear about your scare.I would try and find out whether the car has had any work done on the gearbox or drive shafts. You would need to look up the service history or ask the garage for a printout of the detailed history if they have one.
In my limited experience, things like this only go wrong when they've been messed around with. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there had been a previous transmission problem.
If this is the case,you could see if there is a warranty in place on the work and also investigate recovering the costs if poor workmanship was to blame for the damage.

nej

Try getting the garage to buy the vehicle back (at the same price you paid, of course).

A similar(ish) thing happened to my brother once. He took his car in to a garage for some work (not the place he bought it from), and the next day whilst driving down a dual carriageway at 60mph a wheel came off! The garage recovered it and fixed it, and the next day it happened again! He made such a fuss that they bought the car from him. The scary part was he's seen it around town a few times since as the garage use it as a courtesy car!

Conor_3

dazron wrote: »

B - it 'could' have not been there at all.. i guess the issue is proof?

Impossible for it not to be there at all because there's no such thing as a pin on the balljoint. Its actually the balljoint that has failed. There is no pin. He may have been referring to the threaded stud part of the balljoint but IME, most recovery mechanics are as thick as dogmuck which is why they're doing 12 hour days out in all weathers for £400 a week instead of sitting in a nice cosy workshop earning £500+ for 8hr days.

If it is indeed this threaded part that has failed, I'm afraid that's just down to "tough luck" as it is something that wouldn't have been able to be detected in an MOT and would have been hidden by the rubber boot that covers the balljoint which you can't remove for inspection. It would have failed from metal fatigue which is down to poor manufacturing.

If the whole of that bit complete with the ball on the end of the threaded bit has come out, then you do have recourse because that means that the balljoint itself would have had play in it which would have been detectable during the MOT and would have been a fail.

You need an independent motor engineer to inspect it to find out the cause of failure. Make sure that the garage who does the repair DOES NOT DISPOSE OF THE BOTTOM TRACK CONTROL ARM with the balljoint in it. Good news is that if there's no damage to the bodywork or the wheel rim, you're looking at a cheap repair. Personally, I'd be phoning up VOSA afterwards, explaining whats happened and get them to inspect it.

lauren_1

Just a few q's
When did it get MOT'd
When did it get serviced?

Unfortunatly it could just be one of those things, if the fault was there when they sold it to you it i doubt it would have lasted 4 years until it had gone.

RedBern

you're in the RAC - so don't they provide a free legal advice service through your membership for this type of thing. I seem to recall that they can do a report for you and, if appropriate, help you write letters etc.

dazron

Yes I am in the RAC I will speak to them about Legal matters although they have been of no use so far.

Regarding the 'pin' or indeed the threaded part - I have no idea on that although I did take pictures... would a pic of it help you work out if it indeed 'hard luck'?

I just feel like I cannot trust the car anymore, and that for a car to have it's front wheel collapse like that after 800 miles / 8 weeks is completely un-acceptable!?

dazron

It was MOT'd and Serviced by the Garage that sold it to me in March.