Thread: Tricky dealer situation

Good morning all,
I have a situation that I am trying to resolve.
I bought a used car about 6 weeks ago from a dealer complete with 12 months warranty. Within a couple of days, I had to top-up the coolant. I thought "no problem". A couple of days later, I had to top it up again. I put this down to a small leak. Again, not really a problem. I didn't inform the dealer because I didn't think it was that big an issue. I am perfectly capable of fixing small leaks without the hassle of going back to the dealer to sort it out (which is 100 miles from here I live). The following week, I had the car converted to LPG at great expense, even though the car is 10 years old and has high mileage. this is because I commute a round trip of 150 miles/day.
Anyway, a few days ago, about 4 weeks since I bought the car, the head gasket failed. I have had this confirmed by two garages. So I informed the Warranty company which informed me that I am covered up to £500. The dealer didn't tell me this before I bought the car. Great! This is about two-thirds of what it will cost to get the car sorted out. At this point, I informed the dealer. A few emails later and he has proposed the following:
1. He will stump up £500.
2. I stump up £500
3. The remaining £500 comes from the warranty company.

My question is this: Where do I stand in rejecting the car as not-fit-for-purpose? I presume that I can get my money back on the car, but what about the £1100 LPG kit? I think that his offer of paying £500 out of his own pocket is very generous, but came suspiciously quickly.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Paul.

Yep agree with BF sounds like a good offer to me, saves alot of hassle and stress to try and more. Perhaps you should of got the water loss problem sorted first, if you could not find the leak it must be going somewhere.

You cannot reject the car as it has been substantially modified by you since purchase, ie the fitting of the LPG system.

It seems the dealer is being reasonable about this so I would get it sorted and enjoy your car, with the experince and knowledge now that if anything is wrong with a car, deal with it then and not later.

Rightio. I've contacted the dealer and accepted his offer. It certainly will save a lot of messing about.

Thanks for your advice.

Paul.

Take the offer and run. Believe me mention LPG and they run a mile. I converted mine at just under 100K miles. Paid for itself very quickly. Watch the valves though. Valve clearances ought to be checked every 6K miles and it can eat Lambda sensors and plugs. Plugs to get around the issue are about £6 each but supposedly worth it. BRC by any chance?

Keep in touch via pm on this one. Look forward to it.