Arnold Clark/Vauxhall Finance - Cost of engine repair, not covered under warranty.

[Josh1978]

Hi,

 

I really hope someone can advise me on this.

 

We got our vauxhall astra on PCP 2 and a half years ago. It has 13,000 miles on it and was brand new when we picked it up.

 

The clutch went on the car, or so we thought. We got it towed to a garage who said they would need to replace the whole clutch and would be £1000. So given this advice, we assumed it would be covered under the 3 year warranty. However, we were told this was not covered as we hadnt had the car serviced since we got it.

 

We tried to get it serviced but with the pandemic garages werent taking cars in. Then given the financial crisis we didnt take it for a service the next year. Arnold Clark did a diagnostic check and said that the hydraulics had went and we would need a new engine, they quoted us £9000.

 

Now, this is a cost we cant afford - i dont know who has £9000 let alone pay £9k for a car you are never likely to own. I have contacted Vauxhall head office and await a call from them.

 

Is there anything i can do with this? 

 

thanks so much for any advice, Josh.

[dx100uk]

forget the warranty never worth the paper its written on.

 

if the car is on finance its not your car. you should not have to pay anything to keep it on the road bar routine day to day simple maintenance like fluids etc.

 

who is the finance company ?

 

dx

 

[BankFodder]

I'm going to modify the advice given above slightly.

When you purchase a car or even when you obtain it through hire purchase, you will have certain obligations which include respecting the service intervals – mileage/time.

You have had the vehicle for 2 1/2 years. It has done 13,000 miles. Please can you tell this what the service intervals were – in terms either of the mileage or of the time.

Secondly, if it is correct that you had not serviced the vehicle at the correct intervals then it might become incumbent on you to demonstrate that even if the car had been correctly serviced, it would not have prevented the particular engine failure which you have now experienced.

Who sold you the vehicle?
How did you pay for it?
If it was bought on finance then was it a loan or was it hire purchase?
Who are the finance company?

[Josh1978]

hey, thanks for the response.

 

Its Vauxhall finance we have used. they are clear though that this has nothing to do with them. Really just left with a £9k bill. which i am not/cant pay.

 

The finance agreement was annually, January to January or 20,000 miles, whichever came first.

 

Arnold clark sold us vehicle, we pay it by PCP and the finance company are Vauxhall. thanks! 

[dx100uk]

If you can prove, by getting a full report done, that regardless to lack of servicing and regardless to wear and tear over 2.5yrs/13k miles, that the issue was present at point of sale, then it's down to clark/Vauxhall to argue it out and get your car fixed. it should not cost you a penny.

 

Neighbours Peugeot 2008 car was almost the same, engine failed at almost 3yrs, one service had been missed, which clark claimed invalidated their 3yrs warranty. An AA report concluded the cause of the failure was inherent at manufacture, regardless to the above, finance company/clark sorted it.

 

dx