Hello,

three months ago I purchased a vehicle from a small dealer.

The car worked fine until exhaust inspection system fault light came up on the dashboard.

I took it to a genuine garage

after a long investigation,

I was told that EGR unit has been replaced on this car previously for a non-genuine one.

Being a non-genuine part the genuine garage could not reset the system or update the part in the system.

the only solution was to replace the part for a new one to fix the problem (~£880 for works and parts).

At this point I wrote to the original garage, which I bought the car from, and asked them to fix the problem at their cost.

Car was with the dealer for one week after which he claims he has "fixed it by resetting the car's system".

When I asked for details of the work he has carried out, he has refused claiming that since I did not pay for it I am not entitled to know what works they have carried out. This cannot be right!

I told them that I was not aware before the purchase that the car had EGR replaced and thus I believe it has been mis-sold to me.

Garage's response is that they do not know ALL the work that has been carried out on the car before they purchased it.

The thing is that they claimed it was FULL service history provided on a print-out before the purchase.

This info was only given to me orally though... not in writing.

Thing is that I do not want non-genuine EGR installed on the car

(next time something goes wrong, the genuine retailer won't be able to help me again).

I would not have bought the car had I known this work has been carried out on the car before I purchased it.

What do you think are my rights now?

Does this not constitute "not being of satisfactory quality" as per Consumer Right Act 2015?

is the vendor's lack of knowledge an excuse for them to sell car with any unknown history as long as it works?

Let's assume that the vendor did not say "this is full service history print-out" and had no idea about what has been done to the car in the past. That means that whoever they bought the car from lied to them.

Is the fact that I found out the truth not sufficient the claim a refund, regardless of whether the culprit is the vendor himself or the one before him?

Thanks

Can you tell us a bit about the car you bought please. Make, model, date, mileage, price paid

Can you tell us a bit about the car you bought please. Make, model, date, mileage, price paid

Skoda Fabia Greenline II, year 2012, 52600 miles (on day of purchase) / ~58000 miles now, paid £5295.

all he has done is reset the ecu alarm.

its very common not to fit genuine parts

and for skoda garage its easy money to say it will cost £800 to replace it

when in all truth there is no need to replace it at all

just the skoda garage on a fleecing exercise.

a generic EGR wont hurt you car at all.

I tend to agree that you aren't necessarily entitled to expect a genuine one fitted to a car of that age and that price. The car which you buy must be of satisfactory quality and must remain in that general condition for a reasonable period of time given all the circumstances of the item sold. For instance, you wouldn't expect a 10 year old car to last as long as a brand-new one. But then you pay a reduced price because you are missing 10 years of its life.

What you can expect is that the car you for continues to work for a reasonable period of time. In my view if the EGR as packed up after three months, then you should probably expect rather better than that. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be reasonable to expect a new one by way of a replacement – even a non-genuine one. What is the normal mileage that you would expect from a new nongenuine replacement?

i would expect the ECU EGR alarm was simply because it has been replaced with a generic one

not that its faulty.

I would also expect that it came up because the car was probably left to go flat on the forecourt and the ecu reset itself.

many ecu's are programmed to alarm if non genuine parts are fitted.

just another way for manu's to fleece you.

as you've found out at the skoda garage.

wait and see if it comes back on

if it doesn't - its the fake part alert only of the ECU.

if it does

then the EGR might actually be faulty

eitherway you cant tell

unless the skoda garage told you the fitted one was duff, not just a generic part?

done loads of various car sensors, and that's normally why the ECU alerts the dash warning

esp on modern cars and yours is [2012]

I tend to agree that you aren't necessarily entitled to expect a genuine one fitted to a car of that age and that price. The car which you buy must be of satisfactory quality and must remain in that general condition for a reasonable period of time given all the circumstances of the item sold. For instance, you wouldn't expect a 10 year old car to last as long as a brand-new one. But then you pay a reduced price because you are missing 10 years of its life.

 

What you can expect is that the car you for continues to work for a reasonable period of time. In my view if the EGR as packed up after three months, then you should probably expect rather better than that. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be reasonable to expect a new one by way of a replacement – even a non-genuine one. What is the normal mileage that you would expect from a new nongenuine replacement?

I heard somewhere that EGR lasts about 60,000 miles on average. That means, if it has been replaced before and it malfunctioned at 58,000 then the quality of the EGR must have not been great.

Isn't it a case of misrepresentation if a garage tells you that "this printout contains all the works that have been done on it before" and then you accidentally find out about that the EGR unit replacement which btw. is not on the list? Does it not void the contract between you and the other party?

Skoda garage said they cannot do anything about this unit other than replace it. So as a result I have to go to some shady back street garage which can hack into the car and make it work by some questionable works that they don't even want to share with me. That doesn't sound right to me. I want to go to Skoda genuine retailer (the guys who made the car in the first place) and the car to be serviceable by them. If it is not serviceable by genuine Skoda garage then in my opinion this car is not of a satisfactory quality.

well that's why the car manu's love customers like yourself then..

prepared to pay 2 3 4 or even 5 times the correct price for parts and service,

just remember

its the manu that put that little bit of code in their cars computer [ECU] just so these episodes come about...

and thus they fleece you with this rubbish

just like the VW debacle with faking the emissions readings..exactly the same game...

You're quite right, that if you are handed a sheet of paper and you are told that it contains the list of all the work which has ever been done on the car, then you are entitled to rely on that as part of the contract. The difficulty is whether it is written down or whether it was simply said to you by word-of-mouth. If it was simply by word-of-mouth then you have no evidence for that statement. On the other hand, if the list is headed something like "full service history" then maybe you have a basis for making a complaint.

There are two aspects to making a complaint –

there are two aspects to making a complaint – having something to complain about and secondly proving it.

You're quite right, that if you are handed a sheet of paper and you are told that it contains the list of all the work which has ever been done on the car, then you are entitled to rely on that as part of the contract. The difficulty is whether it is written down or whether it was simply said to you by word-of-mouth. If it was simply by word-of-mouth then you have no evidence for that statement. On the other hand, if the list is headed something like "full service history" then maybe you have a basis for making a complaint.

 

There are two aspects to making a complaint –

there are two aspects to making a complaint – having something to complain about and secondly proving it.

In the auto trader advert it said "VOSA History", on the print-out it said "Vehicle History History Report".

Strange thing is that when I called the Skoda retailer that sold the car the first servicing date and mileage they provided me over the phone did not correspond to the one on the printout - it was two weeks sooner and with higher mileage. Not sure what to think about this... all the trust I had in this car is gone to be honest.

well that's why the car manu's love customers like yourself then..

prepared to pay 2 3 4 or even 5 times the correct price for parts and service,

 

 

just remember

its the manu that put that little bit of code in their cars computer [ECU] just so these episodes come about...

and thus they fleece you with this rubbish

 

 

just like the VW debacle with faking the emissions readings..exactly the same game...

I understand that genuine retailers cost more but usually you have the security of a big company following certain standards and someone who will sort things out without hassle should anything go wrong.

Skoda quote for the EGR replacement was £880, the small garage quoted me £700 for the same job with a genuine part to be installed. I think £180 is worth the hassle-free experience.

Plus, finding a good garage is a story on its own. There are countless cowboys around who not only mess your car up and charge a bomb but also try to trick you into getting a job done which is not required. So unless you know honest and high quality garage around Leicester I will have to stick to the genuine ones for the time being.

In the auto trader advert it said "VOSA History", on the print-out it said "Vehicle History History Report".

 

Strange thing is that when I called the Skoda retailer that sold the car the first servicing date and mileage they provided me over the phone did not correspond to the one on the printout - it was two weeks sooner and with higher mileage. Not sure what to think about this... all the trust I had in this car is gone to be honest.

*"Vehicle Maintenance History Report"

I think you should be more worried about the differences in service date & mileage than an EGR.

Do yourself a favour and have the EGR valve blanked off as it's not needed. Only fitted to all cars since SOME markets demand it. Car will probably go better without it.

Very sorry to read your ideas of small garages---main dealers in my experience are at least as bad as you describe "Back Street" garages. Every car repair business has to start somewhere!!!!!

If you want a car repaired properly, then find a family owned garage which has been going for years--possibly out of town. Here you are more likely to find mechanics who work on "Experience" and not just a computer fault code.

Today's modern motor trade thrive on people like you who think only the big boys can do the job properly---NOT SO.