wirralphil

Ok so here goes...

In June this year my Mother bought a 2003 Picasso 2.0 HDI with 88k on the clock from a local used car dealer.

The car came with a service book with a "Cambelt changed at 83414 miles"

She had the car for 3 weeks and a "humming" started from the near side front wheel, turns out the wheel bearing was goosed. And the downpipe was blowing. This took 4 weeks for the dealer to sort out, the exhaust was patched up and the bearing changed.

Fast forward to last week, the car is now on 92k and during a cold morning the car started and there was a "tapping" sound coming from the head area of the engine, this concerned me due to a mates van having the same sound and the cambelt letting go.

So I arranged for a local mechnic to look over it, this was Thursday evening.

I received a call from him telling me that the tapping sound was from the cambelt shredding itself and that we are lucky it did not snap.

He also told me the downpipe is also knackered.

He told me the cost of the work at approximatly £285 for a cambelt, waterpump, aux belt and labour. And £175 for the downpipe (cat included on this price)

Now as the car was bought from a used car dealer can we claim for the cost of the cambelt change from the dealer?

Many thanks

Phil

Nath

Did you contact them before giving the car to the local mechanic and if so what did they say?

wirralphil

No contact before the work was done, however I called the dealer Friday and got told to call Monday.

He was not in Monday so we are going around shortly, the dealer is also aware the work has been carried out.

I am not sure if this is relevent but the dealers Wife is friends with my Sister, so hopefully a good outcome will come of this.

maxest

iTrader: (1)

You should have taken it back to the dealer,, but how much warranty was it sold with? Usually 3 months in which case they'd do nothing anyway

Nath

I know it's too late now but in the first instance the dealer is supposed to have the first opportunity to rectify any problems and if any work is done before that, unless it's agreed, it's then down to the buyer.

I'm sure it's up to 6 months after buying that there liable for problems. If the car has a 3rd party mechanical warranty then that won't cover found problems, just breakages, then the usual "wear and tear" excuses start coming out

It's good you know what the problem is, but you may struggle getting fully reimbursed for all costs. If there decent they may pay all or some. If there not then you'll be footing the bill.