where do i stand?

[BLEU BOY]

.........maybe dont have a leg to stand on , but i will relate my troubles to you all anyway and maybe,just maybe, one of you experts on here can point me in the right direction.

 

I bought a vehicle on Finance from a dealer about a year ago, the vehicle was an April 2007 plate and had a full service history, and had 25000 mls on the clock. The vehicles previous owner was citreon lease. The vehicle now has 33000 mls on the clock.

 

Now last weekend i had a problem with the vehicle, i was driving home when it suffered a loss of power, then the engine management light came on and seconds later the engine shut down - I got it towed to the main dealer on the monday morning, and the first contact they made with me was, now you know the vehicle is out of warranty, dont you? , yes i said i am aware the warranty was up at the end of April 2010, then she went on to say we are about to run a diagnostic check but you must agree that you will pay the £88 costs before we commence, i again said yes go ahead i will pay the costs.

 

Well, to cut a long story short they say the oil pump "may" have failed and this has caused irepairable damage to the engine and Turbo - as you can imagine i was (and still am) in shock - they then went on to quote me a cost for replacing engine and turbo and at this point i was almost having a siezure - £6500 +vat , i debated with the service manager a while and she said that she would contact citreon uk as regards a "goodwill" gesture - she came back and said sorry citreon uk will not be making any contribution so they cant either - after a bit of too-ing and fro-ing and me speaking to citreon uk myself the estimate was reduced to £4030 + vat, still a lot more than i can afford to pay.

 

Now there main points for not supporting me fully are the following;

 

I am not the original owner.

 

The van was serviced "outwith" the group and may have been improperly done ie used the wrong oil etc. The van was with citreon lease when this service took place, i have managed to track the garage down and the service manager has assured me that they would only use the correct oil as per the manufacturers recommendations - he is sending me up copies of the service paperwork on monday coming.

 

I am not a citreon customer, i never bought the vehicle directly from them.

 

And, of course the vehicle is out of warranty - (just over 4 months)

 

I really dont know what to do folks, i am planning on writing to the MD of citreon uk early next week, but am terrified of getting a negative response from there aswell-

 

The thing i cant get my head around is how all the different consumer laws and rights are applied, or not in circumstances such as mine-i would like to think that after spending that amount of money on a 2 year old vehicle that it would be a reasonable assumption to expect more than 1 further year from it before it became unusable ??

 

Any help or Advice gratefully recieved as to what my options might be,

 

thanks

 

Bleu Boy

[papasmurf1cx]

Perhaps you should lease in future? I had a bad experience a few years ago with second hand cars and always now buy from new as at least I know I am the only driver that can be blamed for faults arising. At a loss at what to suggest.

[Surfer01]

Join a Citroen forum to see if this is a common occurence and if it approach Citroen again..

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

Try an independent specialist garage. They can often give a cheaper quote.

 

Also consider getting an independent engineers report. It is quite possible that Citroen have misdiagnosed the issue or repairs needed.

[kevanali]

do NOT believe the main dealer, ask friends etc what garages they use locally, ask if you can get the car recovered to them for inspection, there are many citroen specialists or a good family business, you will be much safer. You may wish first to advise citroen uk that your wife works on the production team of 'what car' magazine and will be writing a column about your citroen,,it may help, car manufacturers hate bad publicity.

[Surfer01]

We on in the process of buying a car and yesterday walked away from a possible purchase of a Citroen due to a few bad reviews on different forums not related to mechanical breakdowns etc.

[DesignTime]

You have just been unlucky! Get a second hand engine from a scrap dealer about £650 plus fitting