Help Needed Dealer Sold Faulty Car

[Marvel]

I just bought one month ago a C3 2003 with 30500 miles on it, as i drive 120 miles to work i made 3000 miles this month.

 

No the car is broken. The balance weight of the gearbox stripped of and has taken the thread with it (explanation of mechanic)

 

I bought the car for 3.500 and now the repair of the gearbox would take 2.500.

 

I had a warranty which is refusing to carry this because "it is not included" and if they will i am just covered up to 500£

 

I recently had the car full serviced and MOT done.

 

So what could i do? With the Sale of Goods Act, the car dealer should have to cover this or not?

 

As this is my first car i don't have a clue what do and where to go to to seek advice.

[kfk]

Seen a couple of these and know that they are happilly running around without the balance weight connected. ......havent noticed an problems with them, can only assume it helps reduce vibration through the gear lever.

I assume for the price they are quoteing they have recommended a new gearbox....why if it needs to be done cant they drill it out, has it broken the casing, or have they made the situation worse by trying to drill it out and getting the hole off centre?

 

Obviously, i realise it doesnt help you with regard to who should pay for repairs....maybe the selling garage should be responsible seeing as you have only had it a month.

 

Have the garage removed the gearbox yet or is it still assembled?

[Marvel]

Seen a couple of these and know that they are happilly running around without the balance weight connected. ......havent noticed an problems with them, can only assume it helps reduce vibration through the gear lever.

I assume for the price they are quoteing they have recommended a new gearbox....why if it needs to be done cant they drill it out, has it broken the casing, or have they made the situation worse by trying to drill it out and getting the hole off centre?

 

Obviously, i realise it doesnt help you with regard to who should pay for repairs....maybe the selling garage should be responsible seeing as you have only had it a month.

 

Have the garage removed the gearbox yet or is it still assembled?

 

 

Thanks for the fast reply.

 

I brought the car yesterday to the garage.

They got the yes from the waranty to fix the car.

So they seem to have taken the gearbox out to repair it (i dont know the garage called me late and i talked just one time with them)

Then they saw that the gearbox shall be replaced, which the waranty is refusing to pay. Now it seems like that the gearbox is out of the car with a bill of 405£.

The car drove fine without the weight

[kfk]

I suppose a question that should be asked here is this........did they ask your permission to remove the gearbox and advise you that you were liable for costs until the warranty company agreed responsibility......they should have done.

 

No warranty company will accept costs until a diagnosis has been made and it is confirmed that the failure is covered by the policy.

 

is your vehicle at the garage who sold it to you or a main dealer?

[Marvel]

its at nationwide as prefered in the waranty.

 

i didnt gave my permission to do that and advised them to get the permission from the insureance.

 

it was dodgy because the garage said they called, but the insureance said that they havent.

then the garage said they had the permission for 5h repair.

[raveydavey]

You need to do the following:

 

Get out the warranty paperwork and read it all, especially the small print. This will tell you what is and what is not covered. It's a virtual certainty that YOU will be liable for any costs associated with diagnosing the fault until it is confirmed that the failure is covered under the warranty. It is also entirely possible that the warranty has a limit - it seems your claim limit may be £500 which clearly won't cover these costs. Technically you do not have a "warranty" - the garage sold you "mechanical breakdown insurance" for the car.

 

Insist that the repairing garage give you a full written breakdown of exactly what the fault is that they have diagnosed. Check any paperwork that you have from them too. If you signed a job card (or similar) you may well have entered into a contract to settle any bills, albeit unknowingly from what you have posted. Ask them to explain this and ask for details of their complaints handling procedure.

 

Contact the warranty company. Calmly and politely ask them to explain why they won't cover the repair. Refer to the written diagnosis from the garage if needs be. Ask if the warranty company have inspected the fault, or have they just dealt with the matter over the phone - if so request that they send their engineer to inspect the car and confirm the garage diagnosis. Ask for them to confirm what they have told you in writing. Insist that they include details of their complaints procedures with the written diagnosis.

 

Contact the selling garage. If you bought the car from a trader you have cover under the Sale Of Goods Act (or whatever it's called this week). This puts the onus on the garage to prove that the fault was not present when they sold you the car. Ask them to explain the low warranty claim limit. Remain calm and polite throughout, even if you are seething inside.

 

If you are getting nowhere at this point you may wish to consider getting your own independent engineers report on the car. Do some research. Choose a suitably qualified engineer who has experience in this type of matter and in presenting evidence to court (for that is where you may end up). Do NOT skimp on this - a good engineers report is likely to cost £100+ but could be worth it's weight in gold. Talk with the engineer before and after the inspection - be prepared for the possibility of not liking what he tells you - it is his job to provide you with his honest professional opinion regardless of if it's what you want to hear or not.

 

Advice is available from the Citizens Advice and Trading Standards, or a solicitor if you are rich. If you appoint a lawyer make sure they are familiar with this type of work. Just because a lawyer did a good job on the conveyancing your house or reading Aunt Dotties will does not make them and expert on this field of law. And an expert is what you need!

 

You don't say what sort of garage you bought the car from - I'm guessing it's not a dealership or you wouldn't be at Nationwide for the repair? Be prepared for them to give you the run around, it's a sad state but much of the sales side of the motor trade are like that.

 

Did you buy the car on finance? If you did the finance company are liable for the car as it is on "Hire Purchase" and belongs to them - it doesn't belong to you until you make the final payment. The finance company may well deny this but persist and mention "the ombudsman" (more on this later). The finance company probably do a lot of work with the garage and have a lot more clout that you do - use this to your advantage.

 

If all else fails advise the warranty company and garage you intend taking the case to the ombudsman at the Financial Services Authority (the FSA). This costs you nothing and they will make a legally binding ruling on what is or is not the responsibility of the warranty company and other issues such as (potentially) if you were mis-sold the warranty.

 

I hope things work out for you - if not ask the garage how much they would charge to supply and fit a reconditioned gearbox. This will be substantially cheaper than a new gearbox and may be a solution to get you back on the road - do your own research if necessary. Your local AutoTrader will have adverts in from gearbox reconditioners, so give a few a call to get an idea of cost yourself.

 

Be prepared for a long battle, sadly experience tells me this is probably the way it will go. I don't know the full facts (nor do I want to - sorry), but I've given you honest advice on how you can proceed now.

I have a little knowledge in this field but I am not an expert and am offering you this advice in the hope it will point you in the right direction of where you can get professional qualified advice, nothing more.

 

One final piece of advice - stay professional, calm and polite when dealing with people - even if you feel the opposite inside. Be firm by all means but keep emotion out of the situation as much as you can. It will make your case that much harder to resolve if you get peoples backs up. If you don't understand what they tell you ask them to explain what they mean in laymans terms, not technical jargon. People respond better to politeness, so behave in a manner that you would expect to be dealt with if the situation was reversed. Do not resort to being Mr Angry - it may provide a temporary relief to your rising blood pressure but you will regret it later.

[Marvel]

 

Thanks RaveyDavey with this information. This is really good.

 

I already called consumerdirect and opened a case with them. They advised me to get it checked for "Wear and Tear" damage.

 

I am definitely going to get the car checked cause that will be my only chance for evidence.

 

Thanks for this advise i will follow a lot of it

[Marvel]

So i have the update from the garage and the waranty that the gear box is going to be put back in again and that i can maybe pick it up tonite and they will fix it with some kind of aluminum thing. (i didnt understand him) but it will be not completly fixed.

 

Are these independent engineers sutiable for this case? Does anyone have experience with them?

 

https://www.car-checkers.co.uk/index.php

 

and i found a nice guide from BBC and i will defintly reject the car

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/x-ray/x_guides/cars/car1-2.shtml

[Marvel]

So one trouble comes after an other.

 

As i took the advise and called an independent engineer it was already to late.

 

I called first thing this mourning and but the garage already fixed the gearbox with chemical metal and glued the bolt, as they had the OK from the warranty.

 

Now the independent engineer says its to late now to check the car because it should have been in a dismantled state. I should have called them last week but i dint knew then what to do.

 

So maybe somebody has an advise for me what to do next.

I can only think about going to go the citizen advise office to seek help.

[raveydavey]

OK - this isn't ideal, but you can still proceed.

 

You need to politely insist that both the garage who did the repair AND the warranty company give you a full written report detailing exactly what the fault is / was and what work they have carried out to rectify it (even if they only class it as a "temporary" repair).

 

Once you have this you need to get back to Consumers Direct / Citizens Advice and they will advise what you can do from here.

[iannez]

i understand you bought the car with your hard earned cash and expect it as i would to be 100% but as kfk said these cars drive fine without this counter weight attached. what i would do is have the weight removed and forget about it as i could not justify the amount of time it would take to get this sorted but its your decision. for some reason Citroen love sticking counter weights here there and everywhere and if they were removed you would not notice the difference. your car mate so if you want it 100% i wouldn't blame you but it just seem like a lot off work to me for some thing you could live without.

[Marvel]

@ raveydavey

 

That was the first thing what i did and thought of as i had the trouble, i already opened a case @consumerdirect and we are going today to Citizens Advice.

But thanks for your list of things to do, i guess that can help a lot of people which are in trouble. If i had that list one week earlier then i would have known better.

 

@iannez

 

the car drove fine as i brought it there and i think it will be fine and i will check how much a reconditioned gearbox will cost me and if this repair brakes one day i will replace it.

 

But i am going to get advise and try anything to get my rights grant as a comsumer

:blink:

[iannez]

i have done quite a few of these marvel and its just a case of removing the air box, drilling into the snapped bolt, knocking a torx bit in the hole and winding the broken piece of bolt out. even if it will not come out you should only need to have the outer casing of the gearbox renewed so you need to start asking why it needs a complete gearbox.

[Marvel]

That is actually a good question ...

 

because i havent got my car back yet. As they built the gearbox back in somehow a cilinder was leaking so they are waiting for the part and i will know tomorrow !

(i was so frustrated didnt ask properly today)

 

This whole thing is now really screwed up ...

[iannez]

the clutch slave cylinders don't like being messed around with. normally start to leak when they are compressed to fit Back in behind the clutch arm.

[Marvel]

so one more question ...

 

as the car should have been finished Monday and as the garage screwed the repair up, can i claim then a rental car?

[raveydavey]

You could ask about a loan car, but I'll doubt you'll get one.

 

The only other option would be to rent a car yourself and then try claim the costs back from someone - probably the people who sold you the car in the first place. That wouldn't be a straight forward task if they didn't play ball and could easily end up costing you.

 

You could also check your warranty paperwork and see if they cover you for one?

[Marvel]

I have checked the warranty papers and it was just a mech breakdown cover.

 

But the best thing is as i picked up the car from the garage.

The speedometer isn't working anymore, the blinker didn't work automatically till we drove a few times and the steering wheel had now grip. The steering was totally light, there was no kind of pressure when steering.

Then as we went shopping and where in stop & go traffic, in first gear i had to press the gas fast, if i pressed the gas very slow the engine was stuttering like it would go of and we where already rolling.

 

As we went today for brunch, the steering wheel was like glued and very hard to steer and the first gear was very hard to put in.

 

I assume my biggest mistake was, to bring the car to that garage.

 

As i complained immediately at the branch, and as i came home i received a call from the regional manager who wants to bring the car to another garage and get it checked by an other garage and will fix it and i will get a rental car for the time they are fixing it.

 

As i wanted a full report, it included only the repair that has been done for the gearbox, no word about the clutch or what happened after they built the gearbox back in.

 

The dealer replied at from my letter very friendly and i shall bring the car to him so that a mechanic can check it.

 

This week i will go again to citizen advice and i will definitely seek legal advice.

[Guest myc3car]

hi, dont know where you get repair of the gearbox would take 2.500.

you can buy a gearbox from a salvage yard aprox £150 and most small garages will charge aprox £100 to fit it.

keith

 

I just bought one month ago a C3 2003 with 30500 miles on it, as i drive 120 miles to work i made 3000 miles this month.

 

No the car is broken. The balance weight of the gearbox stripped of and has taken the thread with it (explanation of mechanic)

 

I bought the car for 3.500 and now the repair of the gearbox would take 2.500.

 

I had a warranty which is refusing to carry this because "it is not included" and if they will i am just covered up to 500£

 

I recently had the car full serviced and MOT done.

 

So what could i do? With the Sale of Goods Act, the car dealer should have to cover this or not?

 

As this is my first car i don't have a clue what do and where to go to to seek advice.