As in the title but here goes. Saturday I drove my car 200 miles down to Gloucester to do a deal with a chap that had a van that I wanted for work. In the eyes of we buy any car his van is worth £685 more than my car but we came to a deal that I would give him £1500 plus my car with 55,000 miles on the clock. Since owning that car I spent a small fortune having the clutch and dual mass flywheel done and full service and then also before we did the deal I had all the starter motor changed for a brand new unit, paintwork imperfections sorted as I told him I would and all the wheels refurbished. I went above and beyond to make sure the car was right as I am honest and also didn't want the deal to go pear shaped after travelling all that way. The guy also drove up around 150 miles from his address so we could meet half way so to speak and save one of us travelling too far. We both did checks and I did HPI checks for both vehicles etc.. we both had test drives checked all relevant documents and decided to do the deal. We both drove home and obviously both satisfied. Then today around 36 hours later he calls me to tell me the turbo had blown and oil was all over and he wants me to pay for it. I feel awful but at the same time I can't help but think I have already spent a lot of money on it and we have already done the swap and agreed to the deal. What if the van brakes down or anything happens today,tomorrow or next week I have taken that chance jut as he did. Where do I stand legally with this one? It was a private sale/swap and neither of us are traders or dealers. Many thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light on this problem as I am losing sleep over it.

I've been itching to buy trainer the a long time. I've had an exercise bike for a few years but I was getting fed up with it, partly because bits of it was time to wear out but also because it didn't really replicate cycling at all well. I was looking for a trainer and although I really wanted something that is generally compatible and in the majority, I was put off by the noise tests of the Wahoo Kickr and most of the other more common trainers. In the end, I saved up and settled for the Elite Real Muin because it was apparently so incredibly quiet. I was also looking for a virtual trainer. The Elite Real Muin arrived today. Here are some initial thoughts: – It’s well built Looks fantastic Extremely quiet The instructions are rubbish You can work it out without the instructions, eventually. Here are my main criticisms: – Firstly the software is extremely poor. It looks as if it was designed quite a few years ago. It’s clunky and frankly it’s badly behaved. In particular, the Ant connection is extremely finicky. You have to use the supplied Elite dongle to get any kind of connection at all. This is fair enough of course but the connection is unreliable and constantly drops out. I don’t think this is a function of the dongle or of the trainer. I think it is a function of the software because when I tried the dongle with other software such as Veloreality and Zwift the dongle was recognised without any problem and without having to reset it. As soon as I went back to the Elite software, there were problems. Looking at the Elite troubleshooting guide, there is so much time spent advising on Ant problems that it is clearly an issue. In fact looking around the Internet, I have noticed a number of people complaining about it. I noticed that DCRainmaker has talked about Elite’s commitment to the Ant standard, but this is not strictly true because Elite user own private Ant standard. In fact Elite only use private Ant for their power signal. The Cadence signal is a standard protocol and for instance, Veloreality had no problem receiving it and using it. Another nuisance about Elite’s implementation of Ant is that there seems to be no pairing. In other words the Elite software will automatically pair with whatever signal is being produced. Nice and easy, you might think – but actually it’s just an added problem because if you already have a Garmin Ant sensor on your crank arm, the Elite software doesn’t know which signal to use and so it uses neither of them and simply stops working. The only remedy for this is to remove your Garmin cadence sensor while you are using the trainer and then put it back when you have finished. Not a huge problem – but just a nuisance and once again points to a shabby and half-hearted implementation and lack of a customer facing approach from Elite. Surely it would only take a small bit of programming to make the Elite software pair and recognise a particular signal – but they certainly haven’t done it yet. Even when the software is receiving the Ant signal correctly, the stats are sometimes all over the place. I had finished a short session and had dismounted from the bike, but there was still a substantial wattage showing and also a cadence rpm of 64 and this continued for several minutes. The lag between cycling effort and what comes up on the screen makes it extremely difficult to ride virtually. On another occasion, I started pedaling and produced something like 1800 W traveling at 647 km/h! It’s not possible to know what is causing this but it might be glitches in the Ant signal. There were no such problems with the cadence readings In Veloreality or in Zwift and not only that, when I stopped pedaling, the cadence rate returned to 0 very quickly. With the Elite software, the cadence rate generally failed to return to 0 at all. I sort of feel that a lot of these problems would be ironed out if Elite implemented a standard Ant + on its trainers. I know that there are rumours that they are proposing to abandon private Ant – but frankly these rumours have been going on for at least a couple of years – and when I contacted Elite, they told me they had no plans. The trainer is great, but the software is extremely poor and I think that most people are paying this level of money to use the virtual training aspects and I suspect that many people will be disappointed. Elite needs to sort this out – but maybe they’re making enough money without having to bother. Incidentally, I have tried this on two powerful desktop computers and also a similarly specified laptop. All three of them passed the Elite tests as to whether they were suitable computers, without any problem. I forgot to add that Elite provide their own cadence sensor, which although is on an open protocol, has to be plugged in with a wire into the trainer. This is fine, but the problem is that for some reason or other known best to them, Elite have designed the cadence sensor in the most extraordinary shape so that is enormously difficult to get the receptor part close enough to the magnet without the rest of the body of the unit hitting the pedal. I suppose they wanted to do something a bit individual – but it means that they have come away from all the acquired wisdom of cadence sensor manufacturers going back several years. They’ve decided to try and reinvent the wheel – or the cadence sensor in this case and frankly it is just another thing that doesn’t quite work properly or easily.

I am having a dispute with Volkswagen over a turbo that failed on a car I bought from one of their dealerships. The car had done around 6,000 miles when I bought it but just a fortnight after the three-year original new car warranty expired the turbo failed at around 23,000 miles. The repair bill would have been in excess of £3,000 but whilst the dealership paid half of the labour charges and as a 'goodwill gesture' VW paid for all parts, I was still left to pay just under £400. I have attempted to recover this from Volkswagen but they have refused to pay. I am arguing with them that under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 they should be responsible for meeting my costs as a part as major such as a turbo should have a life expectancy of well beyond 3-years and 23,000 miles and should probably last for the life of the car. I am now considering taking legal action against VW to recover the £400 that I am out of pocket and my legal insurer have advised me to issue a 'Notice of Intent' but I am not sure how to do this or what the wording should be. Can anyone help please?

bought a mercedes 2003 diesel car ,trader described car as perfect, 2 weeks later i have had the car checked by a garage and the turbo is faulty .the car makes a whistleing sound while driving. was making whistle sound when i bought it. trader refusing to refund or fix the car. trader denies being a trader, he now says he is a private seller. what should i do. i want to take the dishonest trader to court. do i need to get an estimate from a garage,or do i need an expert opinion. also i have evidence that the trader is in fact a trader as he has 2 more cars for sale from his home address. any advice would be appreciated.

Garage replaced my turbo 18 months ago with a new Garrat turbo - £1170 - my car has not performed well since - can not overtake a bus !! Have returned the car on numerous occassions to be told car drives fine. Last week after returning again - Garage tell me that the Turbo has seized - it is out of warranty therefore not their problem. I have written a letter under the sales of goods act - they say they will strip down the turbo to find out the fault but the cost of replace/repair/labour is down to me - I am furious the car has only done approx 15,000 since fitted. Anyone have advice - thanks

Hi All. I recently bought a 55 plate Renault Grand Scenic 1.9DCi from a small dealer in Portsmouth. We have had the car for 8 weeks and so far we have had to charge the AC as it wasnt giving any cold air at all, taken the car back to the dealer to have an emissions fault fixed and now the car has lost all power and seems to have a failed turbo. We have spoken to the dealer and they have said that they will only pay for the first £300 of repair as per their warranty conditions. Now, as I see it we are covered under the SOGA as the car to us is only 8 weeks old and a failed turbo is a serious issue. We have spoken to our local mechanic and the quote is £950 using genuine parts. We are going to email the dealer to try to resolve the issue but should the dealer stick with only paying the first £300, should I get the car repaired myself and take him through small claims? Thanks for your advise!! EDIT: Just had a thought, the car was purchased using my Tescos credit card. How does this affect the issue and getting it resolved? J.

Long story but in short, bought a ford focus 1.6 tdci estate oct13th 2011, by 25th jan2012 turbo had failed, well within 6 months SOGA advise. so emailed trader twice followed by 3 recorded letters, and then took to small claims court, trader then contacted me, (surprise surprise) said he would fix car, got car back on 4th may today 2nd june turbo fails again! AA have taken back to garage what to do next ,do itake back car after 2nd repair or demand money back! Have lost all faith in car and garage! What do i do next?? regards Jill

Hi, I hope you guys can help, i was looking on the internet for answers and found this thread "316924-2005-Ford-Focus-TDCi.-Turbo-issues-new-engine-required" (sorry cant post the link) so i thought i would start one about my problem. I bought a used Focus from an authorised FORD dealer at the end of October '11. I took the extended warranty coverage option at a cost of approx £400 for a year. After 5 months the turbo blew and the garage replaced it with a new one as a warranty job. about 2000 miles later it blew again and this time the garage put a new one on and changed the vacuum pump (i think) as well as do a complete flush of the engine etc etc (i think they were following that Technical bulletin referred to in the other thread this second time) The garage did this work themselves and it wasnt paid for by Ford protect under warranty. I can only assume the garage felt they hadnt done the first one right. 2000 miles turbo blows again, its now June '12 .... this time the garage told me that it would have to be a new engine and FORD technical dept agreed with the service manager on this, FORD said the engine had to be stripped and inspected, when it was inspected FORD said that it was a build up of carbon and therefore warranty wouldnt cover this. I still havent had the issue resolved and have been without my car this whole time, although the garage did give me a courtesy car which i am still driving. The garage was in discussions with FORD and say that FORD as a goodwill gesture have now agreed to pay for a second hand engine, they have sourced one with 65000 miles (5k more than my old one) I said i wasnt happy with this and want a new engine, this second hand engine will come with a 3 month warranty which they say will take me beyond my warranty anyway, i have warranty cover up until september but from my perspective i had a car for 5 months of a 12 month warranty period where it worked the rest of the time the car has in effect been broken. My questions are : - Can FORD really do a warranty job with a second hand engine and not a new one, they say this engine will put me back to where i was but i dont see it that way, i will have an engine that i know nothing about that could break in 3 months time or have reduced power etc etc and have no protection - where would i stand legally challenging this as the car had a full service history from FORD authorised dealer, i bought the car from same dealer, paid for extended warranty and car didnt make it to its first service and lasted 5 months before it started blowing turbos ... can i force them to give me a new engine? Any help would be greatly appreciated, i am getting the run around and its taking up a lot of time and causing a lot of stress. ownership of the problem seems to bounce between FORD and the dealer cheers john