Bought a Car from Dealer Differential is failing after 5k miles of ownership

[Mr Ploppy]

Hi Everyone,

I purchased a vehicle from a dealer just over 2 years ago. Since owning the vehicle its only covered 5000miles. Car now has 85k miles on.

Recently the vehicle had an issue mouse attack. on collecting it the repairing garage stated that the rear differential was on the way out.

The car was not cheap over £12k. The car is nearly 10 years old but purchased when 8 years old and has good service history. They apparently do have a big history of the diffs failing.

Am I pretty much screwed the cost of repair is between £700 to £1500 I bought the car cash no finance or credit. Annoyingly I had a warranty till December last year.

It seems for it to start to fail after 5k miles is not acceptable and was very much present when purchased.

Edited February 19 by Mr Ploppy

[lolerz]

Is there any history of the diff being repaired or replaced when you purchased the vehicle? If not, it is failing after 85k miles, not 5k.

As you're outside of the 6 months, it's on you to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the fault was either there or developing at the time of sale. To do this, you need to get the differential examined and a report produced by an independent garage that confirms this. So start by getting the car inspected by someone to confirm the diagnosis and time of failure.



 

[Mr Ploppy]

There is no history of it been replaced so yes it's done 85k.

 

Due to its nature it hasn't failed basically the bearing are starting to get noisy so it will fail. Similar to a wheel bearing really get gradually worse but doesn't usually fail completely

[BankFodder]

Have you been in contact with the dealer about this? What is their response?

You need to do something about the make and model of the vehicle. Have you had a formal inspection and a quotation?

When you buy vehicle it has to be a satisfactory quality and remain that way for a reasonable period of time – given its age, price, any claims made about it and any other circumstances.
I disagree that one has to show that the problem existed at the time of sale. That requirement really only becomes necessary when you are exercising a short-term right to reject – six month or 30 days.

Satisfactory quality for a reasonable period of time is a much more generic kind of requirement.
The idea of a good being of satisfactory quality and loss in that way for a reasonable period of time is rather being overshadowed by the right to reject provision in the consumer rights act and people are losing sight of this statutory provision as focus seems to be on whether or not the fault existed at the time of sale and delivery.

I have a feeling that the focus on the fault being present at the point of delivery is something that has been adopted rather enthusiastically by the motor trade because it suits them but actually the liability of a commercial seller to a consumer is far wider than that – and we shouldn't let it fade in the consumer consciousness.
It is actually much more important than the rights to reject and the point of delivery question.

You have bought vehicle two years ago for 12,000 miles and with 80,000 miles on the clock.

Clearly you will have to expect that it will have some wear and tear on it.

The real question is that if the vehicle has been properly serviced, what would be the average life expectancy of a differential?

I have driven lots of pretty old cars in my life and I've never had one with a differential which fails. I'm not a mechanic – but I would expect that a differential should keep on going for a couple of hundred thousand miles – but maybe somebody with more expertise and experience @theberengersniper might be to come along and tell us – although they would need to know the make and model et cetera, I am quite sure.

Assuming that it would be reasonable to expect at least 150,000 miles on the clock, then it might be reasonable to say that the differential is only lasted for half of its useful life.
Therefore it would be reasonable to expect that the dealer would be responsible for half of the price repairing it or replacing it.

If this is correct, then if the prices the repair is £800 then it would be reasonable to expect the dealer to cover £400 of that. They would certainly be unreasonable for you to expect to buy a second-hand car with 80,000 miles on the clock and then be able to expect a brand-new differential free of charge to be fitted.

These are only rough back-of-the-fag-packet calculations.

We need to know more about the make, model, expected life expectancy of that vehicle and then to understand what repair is being proposed. As a brand-new differential or is it simply a repair job.

We need to know if you have approached the dealer. I can't imagine that they would be pleased and in fact I would imagine that they would be extremely surprised but I think that they would be liable to the extent that I have suggested above.

You would certainly need to have at least one independent inspection which confirmed the work necessary – and two comparative quotations before proceeding.

[Mr Ploppy]

Hi BF, 

Thats a brilliant analysis thank you. They do seem to want you to prove it was present when as you have stated 5k miles is not really acceptable and definitely well under what I would expect. 

Firstly I will reach out to the Land Rover specialist who repaired it last week and ask them if they could knock up a quick report and quotation to fix. 

I will then contact the Vauxhall dealership where I bought it. 

 

Thank you very much for your help

[BankFodder]

You don't seem to have given us the name of the dealer. He also don't seem to have responded to the question as to whether or not you have contacted the dealer and what the response was.

Are you trying to protect the dealer? It will be helpful if you would answer our questions