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I bought a second-hand Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi back in January of this year. It came with a 12 month/£1000 per claim warranty from a company called Warranty Management Services.
Within a week, it developed a starter motor fault. Reading up on the Internet, I discovered that a common fault on these cars is failure of the DMF (Dual Mass Flywheel) which is often the cause of the starter going wrong. I brought this to the attention of the dealer, the warranty company and the garage given the repair (the one nominated by the warranty company). The garage reported no problems other than the starter motor and replaced it.
Three months/6,000 miles later and the starter is playing up again, just the same. Again, this is a classic symptom of DMF failure (i.e. fitting a new starter only for it to fail shortly afterwards).
I have contacted the warranty company again, and they said 'Ah, yes, DMF failure. That's a design fault and we don't cover design faults!'. Spoke to the dealer who was initially smpathetic, and spoke to the warranty company rep for me. He came back and said that the warranty company would pay for another starter to be fitted, but he also said that if it is a DMF problem then 'its wear and tear, so not covered by the warranty'.
It seems to me, that given the fact that the initial problem manifested itself only a few days after purchase (and therefore is likely to have existed prior to my buying the car), and that it is a reasonably well-known fault, that I would have a claim against the dealer even if the warranty company won't pay out?
Hi ,we have the same problem at the mo
We bought the same car and a week alter ,same fault
We immediatly stopped using the car and requested our money back as it was not fit for purpose ( Consumer direct /Trading standards helped with the wording of the letter as did kind folks on here )
When we bought the car it had already had a new starter motor fitted to 'mask ' the DMF faillure for a few thousand miles we were just lucky it showed up again so soon!
Take a look at my thread it may help?
Good luck!
Well, the warranty company have refused to pay for the DMF, claiming that it is a common fault which occurs over time and as such is not a 'mechanical failure', and not covered.
I don't know what to do now.
Should I pursue the warranty company to pay for it, or given the fact that the fault manifested itself immediately after purchase should I go after the dealer on a SOGA breach?
Some advice would be appreciated!
Your best bet is go for the dealer, SOGA etc. and get them to sort the DMF problem or give you your money back. inherent fault with the car when purchased. so dealer problem.
I've now gone from a little annoyed to apoplectic with rage!
I have kept the dealer informed of what my intentions were throughout, including giving them the costs for the repair etc. Last Friday they offered £200 plus £350 from the warranty company towards the bill. I got the work done and my car returned on the understanding that they would negotiate with the warranty company for a larger contribution.
Spoke to them today and they say because I've had the work done and paid for it, I have assumed responsibility for it and they will pay nothing!!
They said that I have denied them the opportunity to fix it (which they have never, ever offered - they have always referred me to the warranty company). I feel like they have tricked me into getting the work done by using the warranty company as a smoke screen and now have pulled the 'opportunity to fix' line out of the hat to avoid paying!!
I'm so angry (both at them and myself for being fooled by thier 'reasonable' attitude) I can hardly type!!!!
To be fair you should waited and let them repair the car as you had pushed them for that solution.
its not clear whether you got the car repaired after the offer or before?
what did you have done and at what cost.
You may still have a claim if you had to get repair done so you could use the car, but they probably wont agree to the other garages total charge, as it is chaeper for them to do; trade discount on parts and they can write of labour costs against tax etc.
You can take them to court for the costs of the repair. they are still liable to put the car right in a reasonable time.
I hadn't pushed them to repair the car - they always maintained that it was the warranty companies problem. As I said, they never even mentioned the possibility of them repairing it despite me telling them the total cost of the repair and what I was doing.
The offer was made while the repair was being carried out, which they knew was happening (although now thier recollection seems a little 'hazy'!).
The complete repair (DMF, clutch, starter motor & labour) cost £1170.10, of which £290.79 I am 'happy' to pay since it represents the cost of the clutch, which strictly speaking need not have been replaced (but with the gearbox off it is normal practice). So I am asking them for the balance, some £879.31.
Surely thier defence would required that they had offered to repair it at some point rather than wait until I've had it done and then say 'why didn't you let us do it'??
Surely they can't use that arguement after having previously made an offer of a contribution (which surely implies that they are not doing the work)??
Quite interesting this one. On the one hand it's a well known fault, on the second it's claimed is a design fault but the killer is the warranty company trying to get out of their obligations.
Warranty companies study defect/failure rates and charge a premium accordingly. It's just like life or house insurance. They base the premium on recognised statistics.........or so they should do.
The reality is that on recent vehicles, this data is not available as is commercially sensitive so mickey mouse companies base it on assumption that the manufactuer has got it right. It something that should be investigated by the OFT and TS that I have been advocating for some tme. It's not a warranty but an insurance policy against mechanical failure.
It's not sold as as such and needs to be properly explained but then the salesperson doesn't understand this either.
However, in this case, for the failed assembly to get into production it has to have gone through quite rigourous testing to be signed off. So as in production and has failed can only be by definition a mechanical failure which is what is insured for. Therefore the onus must be on the "warranty" to pay out up to the value of the liability on each and every claim.
Well, bit different really - no third party warranty involved.
My situation is 54 plate mondeo tdci with 92k miles, £3400. Dealer repaired starter motor which displayed problem day after purchase, assured me that the dmf was showing no sign of problems. approx 4.5 months later and the same problem has reemerged, dealer is denying that its his problem as the starter only has three months guarentee as a recon, and they only offer one month warranty on used cars.
I have written requesting repair at the dealers cost quoting the SOGA, the 14 days is up on friday (since receipt of letter). I am now wondering whether it is worthwhile to persist and send a letter before action giving seven days (assuming no response by Friday) or just get it repaired and chalk it up to experience.
To close the story - I paid for the repair myself (£1200 in total) after both the dealer and the warranty company refused.
The warranty company basically said that they only cover mechanical failures, and the DMF had worn out rather than failed. The dealer just refused to honour their verbal agreement after telling me when I bought the car that they would "sort out any problems, no worries".
The solicitor I spoke to was next to useless and suggested that I take Ford to court over it. I wonder if he thought I was made of money :cry:
I would advise anyone to think carefully before paying any money on a Warranty Management Services warranty and would advise against buying a car from DeVere Motor Company Ltd, also known as Newgate Motor Company in Fareham, as in my experience they say all the right things - until it comes to paying out of course
I think both you guys could have taken this further or perhaps even take it further. However both cases are different and need to be seperated out as to avoid confusion.
So lets assume that inigos is still current.
Can you post the whole story again with what you have learned so far from here if you still need help? This will avoid any confussion.
Hi, thanks heliosuk,
I bought the car mid june 2009, a one previous owner mondeo tdci 130 54 plate. it was relatively high mileage at 93000.
the day after collecting the car i was unable to start it due to a starter motor problem, the dealer offered to repair. I managed to get the car going after a bit of rocking. they duly repaired the car, i was pleased with the result.
In August the car needed a new wter pump, I did not contact the dealer, figured at this age and mileage thats just the luck of the draw, not really relevant but thought i should mention it.
In october the starter motor problem resurfaced, I notified the dealer who said it wasn't his problem - they only offer one month warranty on cars and the starter motor was a recon. so only three months warranty on it.
I then wrote to the dealer, laying out the problem, explaining that the car is not of satisfactory quality and therefore not fit for purpose under the SOGA 1979, and requested that the car be repaired at the traders cost and gave 14 days to reply. The 14 days from when the letter was recieved (recorded delivery) is up in two days.
My question is where i go from here? do i need to give the dealer more time and letters or can i now get the car repaired and use small claims to try to get some money back? With a car 5 years old and high mileage am i likely to get the cost of a proper repair - likely to include a new dmf costing altogether about a thousand. I need the car for work and don't want this to drag on till christmas!
My advice would be not to get it repaired unless you absolutely have to, as it puts you in a weaker position not only with the dealer, who can argue that you didn't give them a fair opportunity to rectify the fault but also even with yourself as its tempting to just avoid all the hassle and chalk it up to experience. I ended up doing that and am still kicking myself for it now.
yeah, i don't want to let them get away with it, but at the same time i have children a business and a life to get on with - how much of my time is all this (especially small claims) likely to take? are there no win no fee types who take on this kind of case?
I know exactly what you mean, I am self-employed and it was costing me money every day the car was off the road so I had to get it done. Looking back, it might have been cheaper to hold on...can you borrow a car or something in the mean time?
Mondeo TDCi DMF problem - dealer responsible?
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