i had an m3 for sale a while back,n reg 3.0.had no joy retailing it so i put it on ebay.
a chap from ipswich was interested in buying it and wanted to view the car on a sunday at 9am .could i leave the car cold overnight so he could hear it start up from cold.not a problem,i have nothing to hide.

i told him before coming that i had only the week before had a misfire due to a knackered coil pack unit and that instead of just replacing the one unti i had in fact changed all 6 for peace of mind.the car drove perfect,by the way.

anyway he arrives with his pal who already has an m3!fires it up from cold,no probs.go out for a run,i drive first then let him drive it back to the unit.perfectly happy.spends another half hour looking at this and that then decides he is happy and wants to buy it.i explain that its sold as a trade sale as it is trade money he is buying it for-not a problem.gave him receipt saying as such signed by both.

this was on 27th august.at beginning of september i get a registered letter from him stating he had got the car from me and found it to have been heavy on fuel and had poor throttle response-rather than contacting me he decided to take it to a local"specialist" for them to sort out and to set the steering wheel as it wasnt quite straight.

he got a bill from them dated 28/9/07 for £1543.85 for
changing the exh man gaskets
wheel alignment
new plugs
throttle position switch
adjusted 7 shims for valve clearances
repaired some wiring where they have found the insulation had melted slightly
then;
carried out road test and car still suffered slight hesitation
so
they check fault codes to find a lamda sensor faulty,so they replaced that and all is ok.

not once has he contacted me about this until the letter dropped through the door.
reading between the lines he has took it to his specialist who has tried allsorts to remedy it,then finally realises its a lamda sensor fault.
20 hrs labour-£1057!

he wants me to pay the full amount including the wheel alignment as he feels i should have sorted that out before i sold it.it was that minimal that i didnt even notice it!oh,and he wants me to pay for a new door moulding as the clips had broken on part of it and it popped off when he closed the door-about 8"of it,not completely

basically i have told hime he should have contacted me before doing anything if he was unhappy,not after getting the bill.thus not giving me any opportunity to remedy things through my channels.
he has also suggested that i hadnt fitted the coil packs and new plugs that i had told him.
i have told him that it seems the fault,if any was a lamda sensor so i have offered to pay for that plus fitting £100,which i feel is more than i need to do.
what people dont seem to realise is that us traders have rights too,and thigs have to be done through proper channels.not just send me a letter out of the blue and expect me to jump

daft thing is the car drove mint as i was using it before i sold it.

 

I'd tell him to do one, it was a trade sale .......

 

what an utter clown, tell him to fuck off.

BUT im even more pissed off with the garage, they not skilled enough to KNOW what the problem is so change everything, and then bill the customer for it all.
Loads of garages do that, does my fucking head in

 

tell him to fook off, sold as seen

 

hate to say it same here ...
would offer to pay for the lambda as a goodwill jesture but thats it ..

 

can you not tell him to do one,no.

 

sold as seen Jay

good show for the 100 quid payment though top after sales if you ask me

 

Because they are cunts!

 

yep, trying it on cunts

 

couldn't have put it better myself

the first thing i've done when i've had a problem with an expensive car i've bought it take it back to the garage that i bought it from and ask them why it's gone wrong in such a short time
they said take it to their guy who will tell me what was wrong with it
he told me it was going to cost X amoutn of money to fix the problems and what was involved and explained why the labour charges were so high
i went and done the repairs myself

 

cheeky fucker!!!

 

.....i think you may get done over this as you sold it as a trade sale to get out of the compulsory 3 month warranty to a non trader...i dont think thats allowed is it?????

 

sounds like the guy is on the wind up lol tell him the notes he bought the car with were dirty so u had to have them PROPERLY dry cleaned CLEARLY A JACK ASS

 

And that is more than fair! .....But because of the way they have dealt with this, the fuck all approach seems good too

 

how the fuck can i get done for it.IF there ever was a compulsory 3 month warranty he blew it straight out of the water the second he authorised the repairs from a 3rd party without first contacting me.not allowing me any chance to put right any found faults.......especially a slightly out of alignment steering wheel

if that was the case everyone would just trade buy cars,take them to the main dealers for any rectification and send the bill to the trader and wait for the big cheque to arrive

 

a swift fuck off could deal with that

 

i have just looked at the website of the garage in ipswich that did the work.

looks like a big set up with some nice bmw's for sale also offer full workshop facilities

then at the bottom
TRADE CARS FOR SALE

how fuckin ironic-wonder what their terms are on them.

 

even better

they have a r reg jeep cherokee with 93k miles as a trade sale for £1995!
i would have said a trade sale on this would have been about 1k considering i have just sold a mint t reg one with 80k as a trade sale for 1600.!

i have emailed them to ask what their term "trade sale "means....

 

also got a second letter today from the buyer telling me he is looking to take me to ipswich county court-sleep will not be part of my evening now due to the amount im going to worry

 

Just a thought the garage aint his mates who came with him is it or does he work there?

jon

 

Ring them up and ask them Jay - then quote that to the cunt who is trying to do you out of a few quid

 

Tell him to gobble a dick.
What a fucking clown

 

Jay, shuv the letter up his arse mate. stuipd prick!

 

It's my understanding that if you buy a car from a trader it has to be fit for purpose for x amount of time after the sale, so he would have some degree of come-back. However I believe that come-back is with YOU, not whoever he wants to take it to - I think he might have kicked himself in the nuts with that as he hasn't given you the chance to fix it.

Dan who works here knows better details than me, I'll ask him when he gets in tomorrow.

 

exactly wont stand in court as you havent been offered the oppertunity to rectify the problems.

 

That's my understanding as well. He should have requested in writing that you put any issues with car right. To do it this way and not even contact you until after the effect means he has shot himself in the foot AFAIAA.

 

Fuck him. You weren't informed of the faults..... If there is any duty on you to rectify any problems...you only have to correct the faults...not pay for an unauthorised 3rd party you didn't even know about...who knows mind...the garage could have been run by his mate...hence 20hours labour...? Worth seeing if you can find out if somebody he knows works there or something!

 

to be honest, NOTHING on that list you have put on your very first post is anything you would notice or even know about, let alone try to cover up ... Looking at the dates you have put up, anything could have happened to that car in a month, parts wear out, how can you be expected to take responsibility for a valve shim or a lambda probe?? The guy might have been driving everywhere at 8000RPM, or have filled the car with a fuel that would kill the probe....

Sorry, I would tell him to do one on all counts, he was happy when he drove it, happy when he bought it. Fair enough if it had gone wrong immediatly, but everything on your list is a consumable item, no one knows how long they will last, or how the guy has treated the car. By going to somwhere different first and not even contacting you, I think he's just trying it on ....

I get accused of having a go at traders on here , but only when they deserve it, fair is fair IMHO- treat people well and they will treat you well. As far as I can see you have done everything by the book, and having seen the times you have gone over what is expected to help people out after-sales, I think you have every right to tell the guy to do one, stick to your guns

 

here is the bill as read.

description of work carried out
check veh for high fuel consumption and possible misfire
check exhaust for blow
steering wheel out of alignment
removed exhaust manifold and tested,gaskets found to be blowing,replaced gaskets.
replaced spark plugs
replaced throttle pos switch
adjusted 7 shims for valve clearances
traced burnt wiring for feed to coils and replaced wiring to and from fuse box.
cleared all fault codes
carried out road test vehicle still suffered from a slight hesitation intermittantly
checked fault codes"oxygen sensor fault".checked for air leaks,replaced oxygen sensor on bank 2.road test,all ok.

parts used
2x rocker £11.61
rocker gasket £31.41
6x gasket £31.51
2x gasket £17.60
4xbolt £8.41
switch £53.00
4x nut £6.44
6x e36 sp(?) £66.55
24x nut £7.61
moulding £88.60
lamda sensor £61.08
petrol treatment £14.09
specialist injector cleaner £15.22
consumables £6.67
6x spark plugs £66.55
LABOUR £1057.50

total inc vat £1543.85





wow!

the engine was not tappety at all so why adjust the tappets?
the exhaust manifold was not blowing when left me-how did he remove it and THEN tested it?
i have a pic of the wiring-its about 6"of green thick wire which is not burned,just the insulation has shrunk a little.
could the petrol treatment or the "specialist"injector cleaner have damaged the lamda sensor???

it clearly states they are looking for a possible misfire and reading between the lines they have just tried allsorts to cure it without joy and just kept wacking the hours on the total bill
20 hours labour to do that lot


anyone in ipswich,i wouldnt reccomend going to these fuckers-unless youre very rich..........or fuckin stupid!

 

what i dont understand is how can you say an m3 uses a lot fuel?

i drove it for about a month and yes it was thirsty,but not any more than any other m3 ive had,so i know it was ok.it was a lovely 90k fsh car which drove really well.like i say when it developed a silght missfire on no4,rather than just change the offending coil pack i bought all 6 and did them all- not cheap!

you can picture it.......geeky guy walks into garage"ive just bought this m3 and it doesnt seem quite right,a bit thirsty and i think it may have a slight misfire-can you have a look for me please,whatever it needs just do it"garage owner rubs hands and thinks of where in the world he is going on holiday thanks to this muppet or how much white stuff he can throw up his nose this weekend,paid for by said muppet!

 

Tell him to go fuck himself. Asshole.

 

It's even funnier that if he had gone to a proper BMW dealer, they would have diagnosed that fault in minutes by connecting the code reading machine to the computer and even THEY would have been cheaper at £100 per hour .

 

and people say M3's r cheap to run compared to cossies

but i think u done more then enough offering him the money for the O2 sensor

 

wankers ... Think you are on firm ground mate, you are selling a used car, not a new car, what the fuck do they expect?? Even if the tappets had to be adjusted, so what? things wear, especially if he has thrashed it or run it low on oil .... not your fault if the garage are that bad they have to take the shotgun approach to finding a fault is it? ...... and why do all that work BEFORE putting it on a code reader to find the relativly minor problem? reeks of incompetence to me.....

 

i cant wait for the said garage to reply to my interest in the £1995 p reg jeep that they have stated is a trade sale,and tell me exactly what it means.

then ill tell the buyer to go to them for an explaination of what "trade sale via ebay" means on my receipt.

may even then ring the garage and question what the labour was for and why they did all that work BEFORE finding a faulty lamda sensor(if it was).


would love to find it was a made up receipt...........shit would hit the fan,slightly!

 

Fit for purpose on an "old car" which this was, is that it worked as transport and is safe, NOT that it was exactly like new, he has more chance of fitting that M3 up his arse than he does of a court saying you have to pay to have the valve clearances adjusted etc!

I think your offer with regards to the lambda sensor is a perfectly fair one.

I would withdraw it if he doesnt accept straight away though, if he wants to get all arsey over it then fuck him.

 

Mate, don't get involved with any of it, I can't be arsed to read all the replies above so no idea if you already said this:

You know your rights, he has to give you the opportunity to fix it yourself.

Tell him to contact the Office of Fair Trading if he has a problem and I'll bet the £100 you will never hear from him again.

I wouldn't have even offered him the Lamda sensor, who's to say the garage didn't fuck it up when they were doing the other things?

Contact the OFT yourself and get a reference number if you have to.

 

im sending him a letter tomorrow.
firstly saying how surprised i am to hear all this with no previous contact.then going on to retrace the day he bought it-test drive etc.
then reminding him it was a trade sale as stated on his receipt.
then query the work carried out on the car.
and then explain that he should have contacted me regarding any issues before sending it in to be repaired,well not repaired as such as it wasnt broke in the first place!
if he doesnt accept the £100 he can fuck right off as i know any court would fuck him off.

 

Disgraceful

Cant believe some people would try that kind of thing. Traders do seem to get a raw deal sometimes.

 

i know paddy,i dont even know why im offering him the money for the sensor,suppose im a soft touch

its passed the evening away though rather than listen to my little girl running round all night like a loonatic chasing the dog and the mrs doing pilates(excercises!)on the front room floor!
thanks for listening guys and the comments.

there are some wierd folk out there......