Gearbox fault on car bought from trader

[torqy]

Just after some advice, your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I bought a 2010 Audi A4 at the beginning of September 2013 and have only done 2600 miles in it. The car recently started making a loud noise so I took it to an independent VW/Audi specialist who have diagnosed it to be a gearbox problem. They stated the gearbox would need to be removed and then taken to a gearbox specialist who would strip it to pinpoint the exact fault. I asked them not to do any further work and then collected it.

 

The next day I phoned up the car super market I bought it from, after several calls to the after sales guy I managed to get a conversation out of him. He was a bit cautious of admitting that the car would still be under some kind of warranty as it was bought less than six months ago and had done a very small amount of mileage. I did mention the sales of goods act to him which he did try to fob off as well. I explained to him that the car had been diagnosed with a gearbox problem from the garage I took it to and stated the gearbox would have to be removed/stripped for inspection. He suggested I called a local gear box specialist to find out if there was a common problem with these cars and what it would cost to remove/strip the gearbox to find the fault. He then told me to forward all this information by email to one of his seniors. He also mentioned that I would have to pay for the gearbox to be removed/stripped/inspected.

 

So I called my local gearbox specialist who told me they wouldn't know what the fault was until they stripped the gearbox. They also gave me a price to do the work.

 

I have forwarded all this information on by email to the trader on Friday and have had a reply by email the same day to acknowledge they have received it and they would get back to me once they have spoken to the relevant parties concerned. So I am now waiting for further communication from them which I hope will not take too long as I need a car to commute.

 

For now I would greatly appreciate any advice in this matter, I am not sure if they will come back to me with an excuse or if they will just carry out the work to resolve the problem. I just want to be ready to give them a reply if it is the former so the advice would be very useful.

 

I would also like to know what your take would be on me paying the costs for the initial work, that is to get the gearbox removed and stripped for inspection. This will set me back £350 + VAT before any repair work. Should I be paying for this or should the car super market be doing this?

 

Also what is the chances getting a courtesy car from them so I can use it to get about?

 

Thanks

[garage flower]

Car supermarket are not liable for any repairs unless the problem was present at the point of sale. Get a report that proves the gearbox would have been faulty when purchased and car supermarket will have to do the repairs for you. If the problem was not present at the point of sale you will be liable for the repairs and any assistance car supermarket offers is as a gesture of goodwill.

 

You are unlikely to see the £350+VAT again. You will be liable for this bill. Once again if car supermarket offer to pay this it will be as a goodwill gesture.

 

Your garage are under no obligation to provide you with a courtesy car.

[gwc1000]

Car supermarket are not liable for any repairs unless the problem was present at the point of sale. Get a report that proves the gearbox would have been faulty when purchased and car supermarket will have to do the repairs for you.

The burden of proof lies with the retailer when the date of sale was less than six months previous. It is up to the retailer to prove that the goods were not faulty at the point of sale. This is known as "the reversed burden of proof". OP check out the amendments to the Sales of Goods Act (EC Directive 1999/44/EC) that came into force on 31st March 2003.

[torqy]

Thanks for the replies. I have also found this

 

The amendments to the Sales of Goods Act (EC Directive 1999/44/EC) that came into force on 31st March 2003 now place the burden of proof on you 'the car dealer' for the first six months after a purchase. If your customer makes a claim in the first six months it will be up to you to prove the vehicle was correct when it left your premises.

This is your customers’ legal rights, not their warranty. In addition to having their legal rights a customer may be offered a warranty by the car dealer on a voluntary basis.

So assume the Car Supermarket is responsible to find out what the fault is, so they need to be paying for the gearbox removal, stripping and inspection?

Having only done 2600 miles since I bought the car this gearbox problem I can only assume was already there when I bought it.

I am partially deaf, so the noise could have been there when I bought it, have only noticed it now as it is now loud enough for me to hear it!

I'll wait for a response from them and hopefully will not have any problems.

[king12345]

Is it a manual or automatic?

If automatic, there's no way you could have damaged it yourself in such short time.

However, I've seen manual gearboxes being taken to the ground in a week by careless shifters.

Not saying that you have broken it, but something to keep in mind.

[torqy]

Hi

 

It is a manual. Not a careless shifter, no gear crunching or anything like that. It is most likely a bearing that has gone, not the actual gearing system itself. However cannot be sure until inspected. Thanks

[blackknight]

How many miles has the car done in total??

[torqy]

Hi

 

It is on 73,600 now, on invoice when bought it states 71K.

[king12345]

I would be inclined to think that the gearbox was faulty at point of sale.

It's very unlikely to break a gearbox in 2.5k miles, but that's up to the county court judge if it goes that far.

I would pay for the inspection and then claim the money back.

Let the garage know that you will have an inspection done and the associated costs.

Good luck

[zumbanikki]

don't you have to give the garage that sold the car a chance to fix it first,before anyone else does anything?

[torqy]

I should get an answer from them tomorrow morning on what they plan to do/if they plan to do anything. At the moment I am just waiting from them to get back to me.

 

So far communication has been good, basically saying they need see what someone from higher up in the company decides. Emailed today and got a reply instantly to say they would let me know in the morning.

 

king12345, no point in getting the inspection done yet unless I know who is going to pay to fix it. No point in taking the gearbox and then putting it back on only for it to have to be removed again for repair.

[king12345]

Sorry, I misread the posts.

I thought they refused to fix it.

You're right.

See what they say, hopefully they will fix it themselves.

Otherwise you'll have to take for inspection and of course have it fixed before it's put back together .