Hi Guys

We recently purchased a new car for my girlfriend to the sum of almost £4000.

The car was bought from a trader.

Service history was good and the car drove well, and we negotiated in a fresh MOT which came back with only minor advisories. TDi car on 54K.

We also forked out for a 'Silver' warranty package from Warranty Wise (more on them in a minute).

After 11 days, the turbo has gone back and looks like complete failure.

Warrantywise want me to take it into a VAT registered garage,

pay for diagnosis & have the turbo stripped & sent to them for assessment.

Having read up on various sites about warranty wise

I'm starting to think it isn't worth the paper it's written on

and they will do anything to get out of paying

and will most likely cite "wear & tear" even though the car has only done 54K.

Their silver cover level also says that it doesn't cover the oil seals on the turbo and things like consequential damage is a grey area..

.so if the turbo going has damaged other parts of the engine then we could be in even more trouble.

Also, after having enquired with 3 local garages, they were unwilling to deal with warranty wise due to being messed around with them in the past.

called the trader who said that there was nothing he could do and that it was for the warranty company to sort out.

I told him that under SOGA the responsibility lies with him as the seller to remedy the car,

or that I wanted a full refund as it was only 11 days since purchase.

He said he would call warranty wise and discuss it with them and call me back the same day.

That was 48 hours ago and I've had no phone call from him.

The car is really nice and we would like to keep it if it worked,

but can't help feeling this could spiral out of control and the best bet would just be to reject the goods under SOGA

and ask for the car to be collected (it's over 60 miles from trader so towing at own cost would be expensive).

Are we within our rights to do this,

and how do we go about it formally if the trader won't play nice?

I am going to call Trading standards / Citizens advice this morning,

but any advice from you guys would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Unfortunately, as you're finding out, the warranty is worthless, if you can reclaim any of the money back and cancel this then do so!

Used car or not, you have rights under SOGA, as you have quite rightly pointed out to them.

This may be a case for your local trading standards, ask them for some advice too, they will know if this particular garage has past history of

this sort of thing...

Thanks, will give trading standards a call now. Hoping that such a major failure after just 11 days will go in our favour. Also found some crappy reviews about this garage online, wish I'd seen them first along with the warrantywise reviews!

Is it a local garage or a well known one?

Local garage. Not local to me, but a small independent trader.

Oh dear, lets hope they do the right thing, else some bad publicity might affect his business!

Nothing to do with us is utter rubbish. The regulations say that any fault that appears within the first six months is assumed to have been there at purchase.

If you have an email address, then use that to contact them, sight the Sale of Goods Act and ask when they are going to come and collect it for a repair. If they don't respond or again say it is nothing to do with them, then send them a rejection and request a full refund.

I'm hesitant to go down the repair route as I suspect the engine has been remapped (goes far quicker than it should)

and further problems may ensue due the added stress on the car.

After speaking to my mechanic too a turbo blowing in such a dramatic fashion may have damaged other bits.

Due to how unhelpful the seller has been I wouldn't trust him to do a quality repair.

I think it's safer just to ask for a full refund and walk away.

The regulation state 'you have for a short period'. There is no specific time laid down, so the dealer could claim that after two weeks, you have accepted the car, that means it is his decision on what happens next, repair, replacement or refund.

You say it has a good service history, is this the official service log as supplied with the car when new ?

Rejection must be done in writing, so do it by recorded delivery

What method of payment did you use Danny ?

Hi,

We paid £500 deposit over the phone via Visa debit, then the remaining £3300 cash upon collection. Original service log is included, mostly main dealer stamps with some independent ones.

I understand that the period for rejection is subjective,

but I'd like to think that for it to breakdown to such an extent after 11 days is sufficient grounds for not accepting the car.

I know that only a judge can enforce this though after putting a claim in etc.

Just spoken to citizens advice and they advised me to contact seller and reject car if that's what we want,

and to put it in writing stating 14 days for him to comply with request.

About to call him now so will let you know how I get on.

Regards, Danny.

Just spoke to trader again now.

He's insisting that I use the warranty company and that he's not prepared to even consider a refund.

He states that I'm being unreasonable by not using warranty wise (who as we know are useless).

I don't even want to entertain using warranty wise with the hoops they are making us jump through only to most likely reject the repair anyway.

He is also saying that as I have not taken the car to a garage to have them diagnose it that it might not even be the turbo

(it clearly is - loud bang, huge amounts of black smoke from exhaust, no boost, awful noise from engine).

Should I be the one having to prove that the car is faulty?

I'm guessing that this is going to go down SOGA which I'm more than prepared to do,

but would paying for an assessment from my local mechanic support the case for rejection,

and would I be able to add the cost of the report into the cars condition to the claim through small claims court / MCOL?

Many thanks in advance,

Danny

I said the rejection must be in writing and CAB said the same but you phoned him, this is no good, they are used to wrapping customers around their fingers and throwing them off. This is another 'Hammy' seller and you will get nowhere unless you make it official with hard copy to back up all that has been said.

It is up to the seller to show there was nothing wrong with the car at the time of purchase and not you to show there was.

If you use the (useless) warranty or not is up to you and not the seller.

So how were you sold this warranty, did you ask for it or were you told you needed it ?

You can't really claim it's the turbo unless you are qualified to diagnose that. You are probably right, but that's not the way it works.

Roll on October when the new consumer regulation come into force, the seller won't be able to argue then.

I called him in an attempt to mediate it one last time and to confirm that he was refusing to refund, which he did. I know I will get nowhere stating what I will do over the phone. Letter formally rejecting it will now be done. I'm definitely not using warranty wise for anything.

With regards to warranty, he told us that it came with a 3 month one which would cover XYZ...we then enquired about the price of upgrading it to a better level of cover which we did. It's only since speaking to warrantywise afterwards about what happens next where alarm bells went off about how crappy their service is, and subsequent research online. I should have researched how crap warrantywise are prior to buying it, but that's inconsequential anyway.

I understand what you mean about diagnosing the turbo myself - I'm not a mechanic! But it is the turbo

I called CAB back and asked if should I get the car checked over formally by a garage and send that over with the rejection letter - they said no. Just to stop using the vehicle and reject it in writing due to the breakdown and that it's up to the trader to prove that it isn't faulty.

So, looks like:

* Formal rejection letter in writing sent recorded delivery

* LBA if no refund with 14 working days from seller (do they have to be working days?)

* Issue court proceedings

Is that the route to go down?

One thing I will check though tonight before starting anything is that none of the boost pipes have blown off, if it's just something as simple as that then may be okay. Engine bay is all covered from the underneath so couldn't access without tools.

Formal letter of rejection, not sure if there is a standard template for that or not?

LBA if you receive no response, can be 7 days if you wish?, but 14 days is more reasonable and I think they might have to be working days unless you specify calender days?

Then court proceedings yes....

Keep copies of everything and 'Proof of purchase' (free from PO counter) except for the LBA which needs to be sent recorded..

With regards to warranty, he told us that it came with a 3 month one which would cover XYZ...we then enquired about the price of upgrading it to a better level of cover which we did. It's only since speaking to warrantywise afterwards about what happens next where alarm bells went off about how crappy their service is, and subsequent research online. I should have researched how crap warrantywise are prior to buying it, but that's inconsequential anyway.

Was looking for mis-selling so you could claim the fee back, but as you accepted a warranty and increased the cover, I don't think we can go down that route.

Yeah I don't think we could either. In all fairness it was me looking for extra peace of mind as it was for my girlfriend who's had bad luck with her last car - I should have checked into it properly rather than taking his word on how good it was as it was backed up Quentin Wilson.

I'm just going to leave the warranty well alone as the buck stops with this guy whether he likes it or not. Will probably enquire for a refund of the warranty as I think we have 30 days...but not too sure. May as well have spent £100 on bog paper!

Thanks for all your help so far. Off to check boost pipes now

it was backed up Quentin Wilson.

That speaks volumes in itself!

Hi Guys

We're looking at taking a slightly different stance on this now.

After having the RAC out for a homestart, it turns out that the damage isn't as bad as first thought,

but may still run in to the hundreds to have repaired.

Before we do anything,

can anyone tell us

- if we ask the dealer to pay for the repairs but he refuses,

and we pay to have them done ourselves backed up by a report from the garage stating what caused the failure

and the work required / undertaken,

can we still file through MCOL stating SOGA if he refuses to help?

Kind Regards

Danny

yes but pers I'd simply reject the car under your statutory consumer rights

its failed within 14 days

std contract law applies.

I understand, but to be totally honest we'd rather keep the car if it's only something small that needs repairing, we can't afford to be without a car both financially and logistically whilst we go through the rejection process if we pursue that route.

Citizens advice suggestion is to get a diagnosis of the fault from garage, contact trader and ask if is prepared to pay for repairs, or if not what will he do to remedy? Follow up in writing if he still doesn't play ball asking him to fix car within 14 days. If no response, send 2nd letter stating another 7 days or will pay for repairs ourselves and pursue money through small claims.

Does that sound okay in principal if we want to keep car providing diagnosis shows only small faults?

Regards

Only you know your circumstances, so only you can make that decision if you want to keep it.

Personally and purely IMO, I would get shot, it sounds like it's going to be a money pit.

11 days and I would expect to have done nothing to the car except fill it up and wash it.

The rejection process will be quicker than the advice CAB gave.

You have SOGA on your side, they don't want to go down that route because they probably know it's a lemon and want shot of it!

What are those 'small' faults ?

As BB says, the decision has to be yours and your girlfriends.