KregRS

So, I bought an Alhambra 4 weeks ago, 51 plate, 127k, £2500. In those 4 weeks its been back for various issues, to have some trim replaced which was agreed at time of sale, plus investigation in to an overheating problem and a knocking from the front suspension, which has all been rectified.
Now, bearing in mind I was given 3 months warranty when I bought the car, I've been back to them with a couple more problems that have cropped up, namely the wiper mechanism plays up, an air con pipe is snapped and brake pad sensor needs replacing. On speaking to the manager today, he tells me the pipe is £155, the mechanism is £169 and both are going to be plus labour, he has to draw the line somewhere, and can't really justify spending another £400 on what is an 11yr old car, basically telling me he can't be arsed, and he'll fit recon\used parts, and will only fit new if I contribute to the cost.
So, where do I go from here? I've politely told him I'm not prepared to contribute towards the cost, I honestly don't see why I should, he sold the car to me, supplied a warranty, and is now trying to get out of sorting the problems. Granted the car is 11yrs old, but at the moment, what we paid is a lot of money to us, so as far as I'm concerned, his argument doesn't stand.
So, opinions please...

Carlos-Titx

Warranty is warranty. If he fits reconned parts but are fit for service then is be happy with that. But I'd want reassurance of warranty from te date fitted.

I'd be looking at contacting trading standards though. What's the point in warranty if he is not going to honour it.

Dealer had to sort some jobs on my car. After a few admin charges he gave me on the finance I didn't know about he got billed over £1k rectifying faults.

liam-rst

iTrader: (1)

In my opinion if he's sold you a car in full working order and given a warranty as such unless its printed in the small print he has to fix these, he should have looked over the car properly when he got it not pass the faults on to you, I dont know how this would stand legally though

mechanic28

iTrader: (5)

do u not have 28 days right to return

KregRS

Thanks for the replies, pretty much what I was thinking...
There is one thing that's bugging me. Where the air con pipe is, if they had the car up on the ramp and serviced it like they say, they'd have noticed the aircon pipe before I mentioned it. So that leads me to think either they knew about it, and kept quiet, or it hasn't been serviced...

mechanic28

iTrader: (5)

give the car back and ask for a re fund

liam-rst

iTrader: (1)

As above, I bet they say that they will repair it

KregRS

I would but they've still got my old car I traded in, and I really don't want that back!
Seriously though, I looked for quite a while to find this, wanted a Galaxy\Sharan\Alhambra, and there wasn't much available local in my price range. Its just these last few faults that need sorting and then I'll be happy.

trev1964

To be fair an 11 yr old car isn't going to be perfect and any warranty is only going to cover major faults.
I spent a lot of years in used car sales and as a dealer you do have a responsibility to supply a usable car for the money spent.
He seems to have been reasonable up to now, you should pop in and have a chat with him.
Hopefully you can agree an amicable solution.

v man

Bum him

Cossy Mike

iTrader: (4)

He has a duty within the 3 months to fix your car to a 'satisfactory' condition, thats the law.

Really he could source new or used parts so long as the repair is done.....question the MOT if they have put a test on it before you bought it.

If it goes tits up, take the car to Vosa and show them what he passed

dojj

iTrader: (3)

you bought a car from him with a 3 month warranty

unfortunately, if he's going to be bummed that's his fault for selling it too cheap in the first place

tell him that as far as you are concerned the car needs to be fixed at his cost within a certain time period or you will be asking for a refund of your money or taking to trading standards

pretty sure you can buy a decent motor for that money, guy at work just sold his first generation 2.3 galaxy for £900

turbolee

My brother bought a car had warranty found a few faults went back to garage bloke was a total ass hole went to trading standards total waste of time they said all they could do was write a letter and the garage didnt have to reply so hope you get sorted mate

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

i think you've also got to be fair. What exactly does your warranty cover?

The car is 11 years old and it has done virtually 130k, you cannot expect him to cover everything under warranty. If you went to trading standards they would probably suggest you;d have to contribute to the cost of putting things right

warranty does not cover everything, i think people forget this when buying 10+ year old cars.

the garage where i do some work sold a 6 years old megane, the women come in after 2 months effing & blinding that her window wouldnt go up or down, we said you buy the part and we will fit it for free. the women wouldnt have any of it and said she'd take us to court blah blah blah. She spoke to trading standards and they said the free labour was the right decision if she bought the part.....she came back with her tail between her legs.

some garages will tell you to piss off and others will offer you something as a gesture of goodwill.

i think you are being a little harsh expecting them to foot the bill for everything that happens

tezzer

fill a bike pump with nitromors, and go and have a look at his car front and see what takes your fancy, then give it a squirt all over, and serves him right.

Carlos-Titx

I doubt it's been serviced.

Mine wasn't when they said it had and the guy that bought y old ST off them also said the same.

Used car dealers are rogue trainers and want to cut every corner and £ they can.

And before I am hung I know there are some good traders out there, somewhere, hopefully.

KregRS

I don't think I'm being harsh at all. I accept that with the age of the car there are going to be issues, and a lot of the minor faults I'm sorting in my own time at my cost. But having wipers that do their own thing, and stop wiping at 60 on a dual carriageway isn't something I'm prepared to accept. Likewise, when I've been told that the heating and air con has been checked and only requires regassing, I was prepared to accept that and go 50\50 with the bloke on the regas, before I find that a pipe is no longer attached to the compressor and regassing it would absolutely useless. Or when I'd had the car 4 days and it overheated due to NO coolant, this is despite the car having been checked and serviced before I collected it. So I won't cut him some slack and yes I do expect him to foot the bill, otherwise what's the point of a warranty?

KregRS

Yes he's been reasonable so far, but then, so have I. An amicable solution would be to sort these last 2 faults, and any other issues that come to light. I don't expect the warranty to cover everything, only non consumables.

S1sam

It's an old car - if the engine or box blows up then YES take it back to get sorted, but anything else you should just fix yourself - especially after a month.

Roscopeco

iTrader: (1)

I must admit i was going to say something similar but you beat me to it

Danster76

iTrader: (2)

Here you go. Buy a new one. Seems like what you expect for old banger money! Lol
http://www.seat.co.uk/content/uk/bra.../discover.html

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

you asked for an opinion in your 1st post, i've given you my opinion which you dont like.

By the sounds of things you've already made your mind up.

i'm not sticking up for the garage here either, just trying to offer a view from both sides.

I think you really need to find out exactly what warranty you've got and what it covers, once you've got that information i think you can make an informed decision as to what you can claim for and what you cant.

But maybe in the future go over the car before buying it spending as much time as you want to check everything. Things like air con not working or pipes not connected and banging from suspension should of been picked up before you bought it. And this isnt meant to sound patronising

155lee

iTrader: (10)

It's 11 years old
It's done 127k
You bought it with a knocking noise
It overheated due to no coolant
It sounds bodged
It's a seat
The garage must have had big windows and I'd say they are being fair up till now even offering warranty on this car,by the time he pays the repairs he will be out of pocket as there's no way there's any profit left,but that's his fault for selling poor quality cars.
You also say you don't want your old car back,is that worse than the shed you bought therefore the poor guy that buys that has also been dry bummed and the dealer again has to pay the repairs on that too?sounds like it to me.

1.9 xr2 on 40's

let him fit good used parts, there will be a clause somewhere that states the car need to be tested on the moon at customers expense or summet so he could fuck you off the warrenty if he really wanted to

as in the thread where you asked if it was a good deal, it wasnt

and why do people buy from dealers? i dont want everyone to go out of business but it seems to me they had to buy that car to sell it and make money so cut out the middle man and save the money yourself, if they are buyin at auctions go see, if they take big dealers trade ins go ask the big guys 'whats out back'
i always buy private and i always check everything before i leave without my cash, last car i bought i didnt notice the stereo didnt work til i was nearly home (had an aftermarket but was swapped back to original) but i swapped to aftermarket too.

dont take it if it knocks, and check the aircon when driving it

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

i think its easy to say if you actually know stuff about cars, people buy from dealers because alot of people dont know much about cars. There are plenty of decent reliable garage which sell good quality used motors.

Ima Racing

iTrader: (1)

When i bought my rs6 i did some investigating into the service history to find contary to what the trader told me, the cambelt was well overdue, also the rear discs and pads were on the limit even though it passed an mot with an advisory, i of course went back to the trader and to my utter suprise paid for genuine audi rear brakes and a cambelt water pump service, the car came from norfolk but it was collected from me in maidstone by a local audi specialist who did the work, the invoice total was £1600, the trader was assured when he took it in it had the cambelt done but unfortunately not. A true gentleman trader, he admitted he lost all profit in the car, believable too imo.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

If the dealer sold you an 11 year old car with a warranty, then he has to honour it - not every last niggly thing, but he has to honour the warranty he sold you to the letter.

None of this "ooh, to be fair to the dealer" - He shouldn't deal in cars that are that old/unreliable and offer warranties if he's not prepared to back them up.

LHD220Turbo

iTrader: (4)

Depends on what warranty was given with car; most garages only offer a engine & gearbox warranty on 10+ year old cars.

mechanic28

iTrader: (5)

its not only back street garages that lie about service history or whats been done in the service prior to cars being sold

vaughant

iTrader: (1)

100% agree.
The guy is selling an old motor and IMO you should have checked it better and offered to come back when the faults were rectified or reject the car and look elsewhere.
If your expecting new parts in the deal then I think your asking too much personally,as long as its fixed then I think you should be grateful.
The wiper motor is a common fault on them as well plus £2750 for a mk2 galaxy is pretty cheap from the dealer,plus your p/x was a nail.
If he fixes it secondhand then fair enough.
Was the aircon pipe removed on the service perhaps?
I had to do this before on a fiesta tddi to get the aux belt off.
If its bolted up and recharged then wheres the problem?
A dealer "service" is an oil change and tighten up the handbrake,if you think their gonna send it to a ford dealer to sort for average £500 profit per car you must be dreaming.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Which is why he has to honour the warranty he sold him. There is obviously the Sale of Goods act which supersedes any warranty, but obviously you couldn't expect perfection from a car of that age.

KregRS

It states on the receipt '3 months warranty', it doesn't say what is covered and what isn't. As for stitching him up with my trade in, he was given the keys while I took this car out for a test drive. The friend who was with me, looking at other cars told me the guy didn't even look at it, he had as much time to look over the car as I did.
As for recon parts, I'm happy for him to fit them, but obviously new parts come with reassurance which recon parts don't.
When we looked at the car, we were reassured that the faults we'd found would be sorted - they weren't. The aircon pipe isn't simply unbolted, its completely snapped off.
I'm not expecting perfection with the car, 2.5k may not be much for a car to some of you on here, there are plenty of other issues I've let go, but as he'd agreed originally to sort it, I expect it to be done.