Bells Garage in Kidderminster. - Faulty used car

[Daffodil44]

Bought a used car within the warranty period it developed a fault . Car garage took it back but couldn’t find fault so we had it back and it was still there along with another fault, took it back along with photo evidence this time. 

 

Garage owner said part is expensive he looking for second hand one to keep our cost down as our warranty don’t cover automatic gearboxes . We never had the warranty emailed to us !

 

Now he is saying it’s too expensive best thing is for him to take it to auction and sell it as seen at a loss and he will buy us another one !

How should I proceed ?

Feel conned 

[BankFodder]

Please will you tell us the name of the dealer. Some details about the car including model, age, mileage, and the price you paid.

When did you purchase it?

 

Some details about the fault as well please and its effect

 

And also, how did you pay?

[Daffodil44]

Bought it 3.12.2020 it was a Renault Modus 2007 plate. Paid £2495 and we had the cam belt changed for another £240 aswell

Bought from Bells Garage in Kidderminster. He said it was the gearbox hydraulic pump or the actuator or something . 

[BankFodder]

Thank you. When did you have the cam belt changed? What can you tell us about the so-called warranty?

You haven't told us of the effect of the fault. Is it driveable? Is it of the road?

Have you had a quotation for the repair?

I asked you how you paid – but you haven't responded to this question

[Daffodil44]

Had the cam belt changed before we collected it on 3.12.2020.
We stated we never had a warranty and he said oh it should’ve been emailed to you. But I never had it. 

Fault is , when driving in auto it switched into manual ( which has only 3 gears ) when you turn ignition off them back on it goes back into auto but happens again after a while and on the display it says check gearbox and a spanner comes up.

We took it back to garage they drove round in it all week apparently and it never happened, we had it back and then it then started juddering and cutting out completely and i took pics this time of the error message .

Took it back to garage and he said it was the actuator.

The car is still at the garage as not sure how to process further .

My partner took out a loan for the car but paid on his card .

67,611 miles when bought and I’ve hardly driven it . 

[BankFodder]

Please notice that I've restructured your post in order to introduce spacing to make it more readable – especially on a small screen.

So you bought a car and even before you collected it you had to pay an extra £240 to have a cam belt replaced. So we can say that you paid about £2700 for the car.

How many miles has it done since it was bought? Are you able to tell us?

When you say you took a loan out for the car, was the loan specifically provided by the lender for the purchase of the car? Or was it a cash loan and you then went on to spend the cash on the car?

 

Also do I understand that the dealer is proposing to sell the car for a certain amount of money and then to help you buy a new one with you making up the difference from your own funds?

[Daffodil44]

Roughly it’s only done about 200 miles since I’ve had it . It was a cash loan and then we bought the car with the cash . 

[BankFodder]

Thanks. So effectively you paid by cash. Please follow the link to understand your position when you pay by cash or you paid by bank transfer for a used car or anything else. Of course it's a bit late now – but you should bear in mind in the future and other people who visit this thread will also benefit.

The dealer says that you were provided with a copy of the warranty. I think it would be worth asking the dealer the date upon which this warranty was emailed to you.

In the meantime, your statutory rights will help you to the extent that you are entitled to buy an item – even a second hand car – which is of satisfactory quality and remain that way for a reasonable period of time. What is "satisfactory quality" depends on all of the circumstances of the transaction.

Although this car was very cheap, it was comparatively low mileage for a car of that age. It seems to me that for it to pack up so seriously after only about eight months of ownership and only 200 miles or so, that it was not satisfactory quality.

You have had some benefit from it. Even though you only drove for 200 miles or so, that was your choice and you could have driven it more if you had wanted – even though this might have meant that the gearbox would have packed up earlier – but you will never know.

We will say that you have had eight months of benefit from it.  This means that you wouldn't be entitled to recover 100% of the purchase price. You would be entitled to recover a reduced sum to reflect the use you have had from the car.

If we say that a car of that value/age/mileage should normally have lasted you for, say, three years without any serious defects emerging, then we can say that you have probably had something like about 30% of the use. This would suggest that you would be entitled to recover about 65% or so of the purchase price.

In principle this would mean that you might be justified in thinking about claiming about £1700.

Of course we don't know what the warranty says. Whether it really does exclude work on automatic gearboxes. The reason it will be interesting to see the warranty and to understand what it provided for is that there is an outside chance that instead of relying on your statutory rights, we might be able to say that as you didn't know what the warranty was about, you were reasonable in assuming that it covered automatic gearboxes.

Did you pay an additional sum for the warranty? Or was it part of the deal?

I think we need to know more about the cost of repairs to understand whether a repair would cost less than £1700 in which case it might be worthwhile claiming for that – or whether a repair would cost more than £1700 in which case it would make economic sense to recover the £1700 and then move on.

So I think that we need to understand when was the warranty apparently sent to you? We need to see the warranty. We need to understand what the cost of repairing the vehicle might be.



 

[Daffodil44]

Thankyou for helping me with this …

so , I’ve done some searching and found the warranty ! But, as the 6 months has ended I can’t download the documents ! 
So I’m going to contact them and see if they will send me them again. 

No I didn’t pay extra for the warranty it came as part of the deal 

[BankFodder]

Okay. What I think you need to find out what it would cost for the repairs. Your garage man has said that it is too expensive – but I think you need to know what he means by that.

A word of warning on used car warranties – they are commonly given away by dealers and they have the unfortunate effect of making most customers believe that once the warranty is no longer applicable, that there are no further rights.

In fact warranties on used cars are almost always completely useless. You should always rely on your statutory rights and never be taken in by the dealer who tries to close the deal by saying that there is also a warranty.

It's a used car dealers scam