URGENT - Second car car faulty - please help :)

[goblinpoo]

Sorry for the lengthy post

 

Bought a second hand 4x4 off a dealer, and it's had a wealth of problems.

It was out of warranty (3 months - though I know this mean nothing),

 

 

we took it to a local garage - in fact, we actually only took it to a local garage because of another issue, so weren't to know we should have taken it to the dealer

(who's mechanics would not have been able to look at it for at least a week anyway).

 

Here's my letter so far below

(my partner is the owner, so in the letter I read as the partner).

 

 

Our issue is right now, that he has agreed to get the garage he uses to fix the timing chain,

but not for 3 weeks, and to be honest,

 

a) this is the garage that looked at the car saying the brakes were ok,

b) the mechanic who swore at my partner

c) we have no guarantee when he looks at it in 3 weeks, he won't try and argue that it doesn't need doing, or is a recent fault and expect us to pay for it anyway

d) we have lost complete faith in them.

 

We have looked into it, and to hire a 4x4 pickup for this time, will cost more than the cost of the repairs. We also believe that he will fit non genuine parts, as there as no way that he could get fixed for cheaper with genuine parts. Also, we would have to, for peace of mind, have the car inspected afterwards.

 

Where do we stand?

Will we get anywhere if we claim for any of this?

I know he has agreed to repair, but it will cost us more to go with that option.

 

I've had enough quite frankly. It has made my partner ill (and I mean ill, he has a historic brain injury and the stress has knocked him down, and will effect him for a long time yet), and already cost us over £600 as we have spent 3 days trying to resolve.

 

INFO: the car has done just over 2000 miles since we bought it, now at 80,000 miles.

the issue with the brakes, bearings etc occurred approx 400 miles ago.

The issue with the timing chain was diagnosed this week, but according to the mechanic has been present for a long time, and could have broken at any time.

 

DRAFT LETTER

 

I brought my vehicle from your garage on 3rd November 2015 for £9650.

I collected on 7th November 2015, as you said you would have the car serviced and the brakes checked.

 

Vehicle make & model: Nissan Navara

Registration: XXXXXXX

 

Before collecting the car you assured me that the car would be serviced and the advisory on the MOT certificate for the brakes looked at.

 

On collecting the car, you advised me that there was no problems with the brakes and this had been checked and was satisfactory.

 

After driving the car, I still felt that the brakes were not in satisfactory condition. You assured me, that the mechanic had looked at them and this was just ‘how they were’ on this type of car.

 

Within a month, the car developed an issue which meant it kept cutting out.

You said you would fix, but were unable to do so for at least 1 week,

which meant I had to hire a vehicle in the meantime.

I also mentioned the brakes again, and asked for them to be checked.

 

When I brought the car in to have the issue resolved, the mechanic was extremely rude to me, but the car was booked in, and I was assured that the problem had been resolved and there was no issue with the brakes.

 

The car did cut out a few times, in the next few months, but we put this down to the cold weather as it was very intermittent.

 

At the start of February, I had to call green flag out due to an issue with car (a large metallic scraping sound from the right front wheel).

Green flag attended, took the right front wheel off, finding rusted out brake discs, a loose track rod end.

Green flag advised that they couldn’t see anything serious, but that I should book the car into the garage as the track rod end may need replacing, or that it could have been rust scraping on the car making the noise.

 

The green flag mechanic advised, that he if needed he would follow me to the garage, or if I came into difficulties, to call Green Flag again for the car to be recovered. I said, I would book it into the garage and drive it there, but ring Green Flag if I had any concerns during the journey.

 

Needing some new tyres,

I booked the car into the local garage (Sidmouth Tyres and Exhausts),

and asked them to look at the track rod end whilst it was in.

 

 

I then received a phone call to say that the track rod end and bearings did need replacing,

and the brakes were in such a bad condition, they were dangerous and needed to be changed.

As I needed the car to be safe and useable, I agreed to have this done.

 

This made me very concerned, as I had been assured by you that the car was in a safe condition and that the brakes had been checked, I booked the car in for a full service .

 

 

I then had to go to an event in London, so planned to contact you the following week to see if we could find a resolution. The sat nav & media system also started to work inconsistently

 

 

when i looked into repairing/updating, was told, they couldn’t do this, as it was a cheap Chinese import and hence, could not be repaired.

 

On the day before the service, the car started to cut out again, we asked him to check this.

On the day of the service (23rd February), initially, the mechanics thought it was an issue with a sensor and changed that, but after further research found that the issue was with the timing chain, and had been the issue all along.

 

 

The mechanic believes that this was a fault when the car was sold.

The mechanic advised that it was not in a safe condition to drive.

 

My partner then contact you via phone on the morning of 25th February.

You said, you would have to look into this.

 

 

At this point you admitted that you had not had the car serviced as promised when you sold me the car. You said that as it had a recent MOT (1.5 months earlier and over 1000 miles earlier),

you had not bothered with a service. You agreed to call back by 1pm

 

You called back at 11.45am, and my partner explained the issues again.

She also explain that the garage were prepared to write a report detailing the issues,

and stating that they believed them to be there when the vehicle was sold.

 

 

You said that I should have brought the car back to the garage.

My partner explained, that this would not have been possible, as we had taken the car in for a service, and they were replacing a sensor (which was thought to be the issue), and it was only then that the problem with the timing chain was found.

 

 

My partner explained, that the car was unsafe to drive, and that it could not be moved.

You said that you could not authorise the repair without your partner, and this would be at the earliest Tuesday.

 

 

My partner politely explained that we needed the car for business purposes, and if it wasn't fixed in the next few days we would have to hire a vehicle, which would be very expensive.

 

 

My partner tried to be reasonable, and said that we would write off the money spent on brakes, bearings, car hire, sat nav, if you would agree to cover the costs of timing chain.

 

 

My partner advised, that if we could not come up with a resolution, then unfortunately we would have to start with legal proceedings to claim all of the costs back.

You said you needed to speak to people, and would call back by 2pm.

 

You called back at 2pm and said that you would not repair the vehicle, or cover costs.

You told my partner that she should contact VOSA about the MOT not showing up wear on the brakes.

 

 

My partner stated that this was not up to her, as she had been sold the vechile with the MOT already, and that you had said you would service, and didn't.

 

 

My partnet tried to reason with you, but you were adamant that it was not your issue.

You were quite rude, and my partner was very upset.

 

My Father then visited you at XXXXX, and spoke with you in person. You then agreed that you would speak to the local garage the following day and get the problem resolved.

 

On the 27th February at 3.30pm you did speak to the local garage, and you then advised that you would not pay for the vehicle to be fixed by the local garage, but would have it recovered to your mechanic and that he would complete the repairs. You said this would be on the 16th March (nearly 3 weeks later).

 

 

The vehicle would also take at least 2 days to fix.

My father then rang you and asked if you would provide a courtesy vehicle, or pay for hire vehicle in the meantime, as I had to continue to use a vehicle for my business. You declined to do this.

 

I then got quotes for the hire of a similar vehicle for 3 weeks which amounted to more than the cost of repair.

 

 

I feel you have left us in a situation where we will have to get the car repaired ourselves, or we will lose money, not to mention the stress involved, and time taken.

[Conniff]

So sorry your thread has been missed. Have you had satisfaction with your problem or is it still ongoing ??