Used Car Warranty

[sarah1986]

Hi All,

 

Evening all,

 

Back in late October I purchased a 2007 Audi TT with a DSG/automatic gearbox.

 

Recently the car has started to drop into first gear whilst slowing down for corners. The car is still travelling at 15mph ish and would ordinarily be in third gear at these sorts of speed. The car only does this 5% of the time at the very most and many journeys can be completed without the fault occurring but it has begun to get more frequent.

 

The car is going into a local Audi specialist for a full service and diagnostics on Friday. It is suspected that the fault is a faulty mechatronic unit on the gear box (a fairly well know fault). The repair would be in excess of £1000.

 

Could anyone tell me where I stand legally in terms of the garage coughing up on this fault? The car cost circa £13k, and I feel it is reasonable to expect the transmission to last longer than 4 months, particularly as it is an automatic where human error cannot be blamed.

 

The garage are telling me they only supply a 2 months parts and labour warranty. Any advice gladly welcomed.

 

Thanks

[sailor sam]

Hi and welcome to CAG.

 

What the garage havn't told you is that under the SOGA (as amended), a fault which develops within the first 6 months of purchase is presumed to be present at the point of sale (ex wear and tear). It is for the seller to prove otherwise. Any warranty is merely an extension of those rights anyway.

 

The seller should have the opportunity to inspect and rectify as necessary. You should write to them formally advising them of the problem and invite them to rectify under the SOGA 1979 (as amended). Give them a time limit of 7 days to respond and send by recorded post.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Conniff

[Conniff]

An initial contact by phone is ok, but you should really do any talking to the seller in writing. You have already had a warning from them that they aren't interested by them saying they only give 2 months warranty.

 

Take Sailor Sams advice and quote 'Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) says during the first six months it can be presumed the fault was there when you bought it'. See what they come back with.

 

Email is as good as a letter.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Conniff

[sarah1986]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Sorry I think I may have explained it incorrectly, I have not contacted them regarding the warranty I just know that is what they gave me when I bought the car. I have not yet approached them about the problem I will be doing this tomorrow once I have had news from the garage it is going for its service.

[Conniff]

You must contact them and don't assume they will help out on work once it has been carried out.

 

They should be the first call made when a problem occurs, if they have their own workshop they will probably be able to do the repair job a lot cheaper.

[sarah1986]

The car is not going in to have the repair done tomorrow. It is going in for a service and they are going to see if they know what the problem is, not fix it! We will be contacting the garage we bought it from first thing tomorrow via email.

 

Thanks