Hi everyone. Im needing some help.

Bought a used car arnold clarke. 11 plate, 70k miles, scirocco. About 8 months ago. For 10k on finance.

It had an issue with the dpf sensor, that was fixed under warrenty.

3 weeks ago, it started sounding rough on gear change, so I tock it in, for a sservice and mentioned to them the noise and roughness. They came back and said it was fine. No problem I thought.

2 weeks later, the gear stick stopped moving. I had to get it towed to the garage. They came back to say that the gear box would need replaced, as they had checked it, and it had no oil, due to a massive leak. £4k!

Im not best pleased. They have advised they can get the gear box overhauled, at a cost of £2k. Plus, anything else they might find.

The part that really gets me, is that I took it too them, with a gearbox issue and they said it was fine. The report I got from them, after the events, says "unable to fault noise". Which in my mind is different to "its fine".

From the sounds of it, they didn't check the gearbox at all, when I initially asked them too. Leading to this.

Ive asked another garage, about it, and they reckon the same. They also dont think they can fix the gearbox.

So what do I do? Get arnold clarke to do the repair, and complain to head office? Small claims? Or trust my gut and take it somewhere else? Bare in mind it cant move.

First of all you are covered by the provisions of the Consumer Rights Act.

This means that you are entitled to have a second hand car satisfactory quality and it should remain in that condition for a reason. Of time.

How much do you pay for the car? In any event, it is unreasonable to expect that a car of pretty well any kind of age which you have bought only eight months ago will need to have thousand pounds worth of work.

As you say, the car won't move and this leaves you with the problem. Ideally you would go and get some independent quotes and then threaten the dealer with action if they failed to match one of them.

In this case it seems to me that it's going to cause you a lot of difficulty and possible expense getting the car moved around so that you can get the independent quotes.

If you have the £2000 and then I would say the most practical solution is to have the work done, pay the money and then sue to get it back plus interest.

On the basis of what you say, your chances of success are much better than 90%. There is a possibility that your award would be reduced by a margin to represent the fact you bought the car in use condition anyway. However you would probably end up getting most of the money and in fact the dealer would probably end up putting their hands up to all of it once they receive the court papers.

Did you pay at least £100 for part repair on a Credit Card? If YES try using s55(?) of CCA against CC Co.

3 weeks ago, it started sounding rough on gear change, so I took it in for a service and mentioned to them the noise and roughness. They came back and said it was fine. No problem I thought.

who with Arnold Clarke?

if not sue the garage.

i'd be informing the finance company too!!

Contrary to what BankFodder advises I'd rate your chances as 50/50. It's a six year old car with in excess of average mileage and the fault is in excess of 6 months where the dealer has to prove the issue was not there. The onus is now on you to prove it was and even if you do don't expect a full refund as you have had the car for 8 months.

Is it a DSG box by any chance??

10k for the car.

Car was serviced where I bought it. It came with a service plan.

Manual.

m going to have to take them to court.

Thougjt that might be the case.

Whats the procedure?

Write a complaint to head office?

When that goes no where, threaten the small claims court?

Well a complaint to head office in the past will get you nowhere with Arnold Clarke based on previous reports. Would the car have a full and valid VW service history by any chance? There is an alternative route to try with VW by the way which might mitigate the costs however due to the huge fines and compensation they are having to give under dieselgate, getting any goodwill out of VW is difficult at the moment.

As regards trying to pursuit a legal action against Arnold Clarke this is going to cost as the onus is on you to prove the fault was there prior to sale and with the above average mileage this is going to be difficult.

It's not a nice position to be in I know but all too often on this site they say go to court when in reality you'd be better off cutting your losses. Not right I know but is fact.

For example, If I was to pull and strip the box my time alone would cost £800 to do so and write a report plus the lab analysis fees which would probably be the same, plus the lawyers fees and probably a year of your wasted time!!!

Surely the fact that they serviced it 2 weeks prior to the gearbox seizing, and where unable to find the issue is the focus of my complaint? There own report says "unable to fault noise" to my mind this means there was a noise, but they couldnt find the source or cause. Which logically means there was a fault before the service, and after, and they missed it. Leading to the now major repairs needed.

Arnold CLARK.

Tell Clark that your brother or whoever is a lawyer and has checked out your rights. At that price you are entitled to a car of satisfactory quality and you expect them to put it right at no cost to you.

Arnold Shark-----Never again

Just inform actual garage you have received advice of their liability under CRA.

Update.

Arnold clark refused to accept liability.

Car needed £500 extra work on top of the £2k. As a good will gesture they will drop the full bill to 2k.

The offer contained the line full and final settlement.

If I accept, can I no longer take them to the small claims court?

you accept then that is it = full and final

what do the finance company say..

its their car!!

you shouldn't have to pay a penny

let AC and them fight it out