Secondhand car with flywheel issue
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spikypaddy
Posts: 27 Forumite
So I did a stupid thing last week and purchased a 10 year old secondhand car, sight unseen, from a dealer in the midlands for £3650. I live almost in Cornwall. Car looked great in the ad and was advertised with a full main dealer service history and just over 100,000 miles on the clock. I called up and asked a few questions, ran it past the wife and we agreed to go ahead (desperate for a nice car because ours had just been written off and living in the sticks we're 100% reliant on it). It was about bang on book price for that model in good condition.
Collected the car, paid by a combination of bank transfer and cash and paid extra for a 12 month warranty. Got halfway home and noticed juddering under load and a very, very stiff clutch. Pulled in at the services and did some Googling, then called the dealer as it would appear the flywheel was on its way out. Dealer said "Get home, see how it is and give me a call back." So I did. No change.
Called him again and he said "Leave it to get a bit worse, then claim on the warranty, innit? But if you claim immediately, they might reject the claim." My reading of that is "We want you to wait until you're outside of your 30 day purchase rights before you try taking it up with anyone."
Done a bit more research - clutch and flywheel not covered under RAC warranty. Called back: "I'll speak to our account manager and get back to you." Nothing.
Now, I had the cambelt changed (just as well because it was almost on the verge of letting go). I've also had the garage check it out and yes - the flywheel is failing. Total cost of repair - £995.
Can I keep the car and get the dealer to pay for it to be repaired? Once fixed, I'm sure it will be great - but I can't justify (or afford) spending over a quarter of the purchase cost on fixing it and can't get it back to the dealer for repair either.
Collected the car, paid by a combination of bank transfer and cash and paid extra for a 12 month warranty. Got halfway home and noticed juddering under load and a very, very stiff clutch. Pulled in at the services and did some Googling, then called the dealer as it would appear the flywheel was on its way out. Dealer said "Get home, see how it is and give me a call back." So I did. No change.
Called him again and he said "Leave it to get a bit worse, then claim on the warranty, innit? But if you claim immediately, they might reject the claim." My reading of that is "We want you to wait until you're outside of your 30 day purchase rights before you try taking it up with anyone."
Done a bit more research - clutch and flywheel not covered under RAC warranty. Called back: "I'll speak to our account manager and get back to you." Nothing.
Now, I had the cambelt changed (just as well because it was almost on the verge of letting go). I've also had the garage check it out and yes - the flywheel is failing. Total cost of repair - £995.
Can I keep the car and get the dealer to pay for it to be repaired? Once fixed, I'm sure it will be great - but I can't justify (or afford) spending over a quarter of the purchase cost on fixing it and can't get it back to the dealer for repair either.
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Comments
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How many errors can you make in one purchase?
Paying with cash and bank transfer.
Your choice to buy from a dealer you can't return the car to.
And if you do return it now he'll say that you've had work done on the car so it's no longer in the condition it was when it was sold.0 -
How many errors can you make in one purchase?
Paying with cash and bank transfer.
Your choice to buy from a dealer you can't return the car to.
And if you do return it now he'll say that you've had work done on the car so it's no longer in the condition it was when it was sold.
With hindsight, I appreciate that I have not necessarily helped myself in this situation - but I'm new to buying cars of this value - previously I've had sub £2k runarounds purchased locally. However, I would appreciate any advice that can be offered on how to get the issues resolved to a satisfactory conclusion.
On the cambelt replacement - I hear what you're saying, but it is just as well I had it done. The garage who carried out the work said the belt was seriously degraded and they were surprised it hadn't failed on the way home and this wouldn't have been covered by my RAC warranty as it hadn't been replaced in line with the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule.0 -
spikypaddy wrote: »
On the cambelt replacement - I hear what you're saying, but it is just as well I had it done. The garage who carried out the work said the belt was seriously degraded and they were surprised it hadn't failed on the way home and this wouldn't have been covered by my RAC warranty as it hadn't been replaced in line with the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule.
With a 100K miles on the clock, checking the cambelt had been replaced should have been a priority.
I cannot see the dealer agreeing to refund you the cost of the repairs. Whether he would contribute towards it is another matter. You haven't given him the opportunity to inspect the vehicle and for all he knows, your repairer could have carried out unnecessary work.If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales0 -
spikypaddy wrote: »With hindsight, I appreciate that I have not necessarily helped myself in this situation - but I'm new to buying cars of this value - previously I've had sub £2k runarounds purchased locally. However, I would appreciate any advice that can be offered on how to get the issues resolved to a satisfactory conclusion.
On the cambelt replacement - I hear what you're saying, but it is just as well I had it done. The garage who carried out the work said the belt was seriously degraded and they were surprised it hadn't failed on the way home and this wouldn't have been covered by my RAC warranty as it hadn't been replaced in line with the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule.
Thought you said it had a full main dealer service history.0 -
Flywheel is a wear and tear item these days.
Will the warranty actually cover it because they dont tend to fail and leave you broken down, they can rattle for a long time, may kill a starter motor or three though.
A service history maybe an oil change and a stamp in the book. The dealer can say the belts due, owner may say i will do that later just change the oil. No recipts for the belt them assume its not been done.Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0 -
Thought you said it had a full main dealer service history.forgotmyname wrote: »Flywheel is a wear and tear item these days.
Will the warranty actually cover it because they dont tend to fail and leave you broken down, they can rattle for a long time, may kill a starter motor or three though.
A service history maybe an oil change and a stamp in the book. The dealer can say the belts due, owner may say i will do that later just change the oil. No recipts for the belt them assume its not been done.
I thought as much in relation to the warranty and flywheel. I assume this means my best recourse at this point is looking like a letter to the dealer ref: my 30 day right to repair/refund because the vehicle could be considered faulty at point of purchase.
You're exactly right on the service history - it had all the stamps in the book, but I called the main dealer garage who'd carried out the servicing to check on the history. I was informed that the previous owner had the car serviced at the correct intervals, but a cambelt change had not been done.0 -
Last time I rid myself of a car, it was due to the fly wheel being near the end of its natural life at 170,000 miles! It was 9 years old, had done me a decent service, but there was a decent replacement on the forecourt for £9,000. Four years on, I have not yet ran that one into the ground, but when I do, there will be plenty of buyers!0
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So as an update to this one - I called the dealer a few times, and their attitude was "Warranty will cover it." I got a copy of the policy documentation from the warranty cover, highlighted the fact that it wasn't covered and their stance became "Bring it up here for us to do, we'll cover half the cost."
Then wrote to them - upon advice from CAB. No response. Wrote a second time. Received an empty envelope from postmarked from the dealer's location. Wrote a third time referencing the empty envelope, giving them 14 days before I initiated small claims and got my local independent garage to do it at a cost of £1000 - suddenly received a phone call saying "Bring it up to us, we'll get it sorted and lend you a courtesy car in the meantime." Managed to time it to coincide with a trip I had to take up to the midlands, and then took a day off work to go back up to collect my car nearly a week later. Seems to now have been sorted, thankfully.0 -
And so the saga continues. I got the car repaired and back home and all appeared OK - until the first time I drove at night, when I realised the headlights were aiming far too low. Worked out that somehow the bracket for the headlight levelling sensor had been broken - can only assume it was whilst the flywheel was replaced. Ordered a replacement and took it to my local garage to fit and asked them to check the car out at the same time, since work had been done on it and I'd also noticed a limp mode fault under hard acceleration - suspecting a boost leak. Garage called me to say that it was showing symptoms of the bottom end of the engine failing and that it was a common issue on this model. Cost to rebuild engine - £2800. Cost to replace with a brand new engine - in excess of £4k.
Upon advice from CAB (now at 3 months from date of purchase) I called the dealer and advised that since the car had already had one repair and was once now unusable I was rejecting it as not of satisfactory quality. Dealer said they wouldn't take the car back unless I had it fixed as I had "blown it up". Advised that I was within my rights to reject the vehicle and shouldn't need to repair it and was told that in that case I should follow the matter up legally. I responded that I would, but in the meantime would leave negative feedback via the usual social media sites and Auto Trader and was told to "remember that we know where you live."
Wrote again saying I wanted to reject the vehicle and giving 14 days for a response. Received by 1st class post from a Midlands postmark a leaflet about trips on a steam train. Got the wife to video me opening it and - upon closer inspection - you can see that the envelope had been written with the leaflet inside as the imprint of my address is present on the leaflet. 10 days later I received a copy of the delaer's local parish newsletter by post from a Midlands postmark. Once again the wife video'd it being opened. I have now sent a letter before action - not heard anything yet.0
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