Dodgy dealer?

[azzymo]

Hi all, I don't often post here but thought I'd use some local knowledge and input as my issue with a particular car dealer seems to be growing. I'll not mention names or details as yet incase it affects any future development..

I bought a motor around a month ago from a dealer who gave a 6 month RAC warranty and a full service. When driving on M2 citybound in fast lane on Monday doing 70mph the car suddenly lost power and wouldn't accelerate. I went down the gears and nothing, only for the fact I was going down the hill the car kept going or it would've been ALOT worse. The car slowed all the way down to under 50mph as I still couldn't accelerate and was only going by downhill momentum, after about half a mile the car picked up again and drove normally. No dash lights illuminated.

On Tuesday after driving ok in the morning, the car lost all power when it was out at lunchtime. At junctions you simply couldn't pull away, the car was barely struggling to reach 10mph and wouldn't accelerate at all through any gear, again no lights showing. Added to this, the cruise control wouldn't work. I believe this is known in Vauxhalls as 'limp mode' where the engine protects itself.

I took the car straight to dealer, on the way the engine management light illuminated but went out before I reached the garage. The dealer plugged it in to their diagnostics while I went for lunch. I arrived back 10 minutes later to see the car sitting ready to go again and the guy told me that nothing untoward was showing up and that it was more than likely dodgy fuel and asked where I got fuel from. He added that they could change the fuel filter but I would have to pay. I took the car from the dealer there and then and same problem, no acceleration, until after maybe flooring the accelerator for 5 or 6 seconds, then the car would take off. I had no option but to struggle carefully back to work. Coming home tonight the car drove ok I guess, maybe not as much power.

I know what dodgy fuel would feel like and seeing that the fuel in the car on Monday (the 1st episode) was different from Tuesdays fuel (two different garages) I know it's down to fuel.

I phoned and RAC guy came out under the warranty today and hooked car up to diagnostics and surprise surprise there are 5 fault codes showing. Now I'm quickly losing faith from who I've bought this off!

RAC said there's problems with a leak with the air intake and problems with the EGR with another 3 more minor issues. Apparently my warranty covers up to £1000 of work per claim. Thing is, the dealer who I bought the car off told RAC guy that they didn't have a workshop to do the work, which is false as they supposably serviced the car when I bought it, and I was in the workshop yesterday where they were working on cars. Now maybe I've misunderstood the term workshop but by heck it looked like one to me... Now have the car booked in with a Vauxhall dealer to get the work done. Now I don't even believe the dealer serviced the car at all in January.

Where do I stand with this dealer who seems to be bending the rules or am I expecting too much? Anyone else ever had such an experience? Even if not, what do you think, any advice?

 

[Richy]

I doubt they'll recoup you for the work thats gonna get done at Vauxhall, as going to Vauxhall was your choice. Did you tell him the RAC man got five codes out of the car?

 

[Jonny1992]

got to citezins advice and if the car was bought from the daler with warranty then they have to fix it or give you your money back,

 

[BoutYa]

so your RAC package covers this work at any garage (the vauxhall garage) up to £1000 if they approve it?

am i wrong?

and I hope you are pushing this all the way, would be nice to know who this dealer is when the time is right as that is not the service id expect.

sorry to hear this

 

[lighter7]

That's bad dude so sly when it's a new car to you and all. Can't you had back any products as long as it's within 14 days? Or maybe that's just smaller things.

 

[Crimson]

Shocking, it sounds like they didn't service it at all - maybe filled up the washer bottle and topped up the oil FFS! A "service" seems to mean different things to various dealers out there as does the term "valet" our Fezzer supposedly received a valet prior to us picking the car up - the boot liner was full of doghair before and after we picked the car up!

I would contact trading standards and advise them of your situtation and how long you have had the car - doubtful a car can develop five faults within one month of ownership, obviously the problems were there beforehand

I would also name the dealer - avoids them getting away with this kind of thing again

Hope you get sorted lad

 

[tbdevpaul]

Let's see if you get the fault resolved before there is any naming and shaming as it can really affect your case once names are slung about the forum.

 

[Woodcutter]

Sounds like the same problem we have with one of our work cars, a Vauxhall Astra 1.7cdti. It has been in 5 times and they don't seem capable of fixing it.

You need advice from your solicitor, the car should have a 3 month warranty by law if the chap is a car dealer, so if he's trying to get out of that I would have my solicitor write to him reminding him of his responsibilities.

 

[_ZS_]

My advice is, don't buy a diesel Vauxhall. When they start going wrong, they'll break your heart. The 1.3CDTi is junk, the 1.7CDTi is an old boat engine from Isuzu, and the 1.9CDTI is Fiat's hand-me-down made more unreliable by GM fitting cheap inlet manifolds and EGRs. The dealers are worse than useless too.

 

[azzymo]

Thanks for all your replies.

I doubt they'll recoup you for the work thats gonna get done at Vauxhall, as going to Vauxhall was your choice. Did you tell him the RAC man got five codes out of the car?

The RAC guy phoned the dealer, that's when the dealer denied having a workshop as that would probably mean the dealer paying for work themselves. The RAC guy then suggested that he'd be recommending we go to Vauxhall and the dealer said to do that, as the claim then goes through the warranty with RAC.

so your RAC package covers this work at any garage (the vauxhall garage) up to £1000 if they approve it?

am i wrong?

and I hope you are pushing this all the way, would be nice to know who this dealer is when the time is right as that is not the service id expect.

sorry to hear this

You are right. RAC will cover this work up until 1k. Car is going in in next few days to get priced and hopefully approved for fixing by Vauxhall.

My advice is, don't buy a diesel Vauxhall. When they start going wrong, they'll break your heart. The 1.3CDTi is junk, the 1.7CDTi is an old boat engine from Isuzu, and the 1.9CDTI is Fiat's hand-me-down made more unreliable by GM fitting cheap inlet manifolds and EGRs. The dealers are worse than useless too.

Strange thing is a traded in a perfectly fit and well diesel Vauxhall against this. It's just that I wanted a change, something newer, quicker, more toys with far less miles as I wanted another few years of hassle free motoring.

Unfortunately the dream has turned rather sour rather quickly.

 

[big_pete]

It may have been a valeting shed you were in and they outsource their mechanical work. Not
uncommon for small independants. It's also possible it wasn't picked up by their obd reader. It would amaze you the difference in them.

5 fault codes could all relate to one dodgy part too

 

[NI_Volvo_Nut]

TBH, I don't see what the issue is here.

OBD readers, even main dealer ones, don't always get the fault codes, some cars also don't have a fault code memory, so no codes unless the management light is on, so the fact there was no codes the 1st time is just unfortunite.

Used car warranty's are pants, very few, if any offer a full proper warranty, most will wriggle out of a claim by saying its natural wear and tear items.

As already said, most small car dealers have a mechanic which does the work for them, probably a friend, who works on cars at night, and more than likely hasn't got diagonstic unit.

It seems to me you are getting all worked up because your car wasn't fixed as soon as you called into a dealer for 10 mins, from what I can see you havn't had any bad service yet, infact to call into a main dealer, and for them to look at your car whule you go for lunch, I would say is pretty good service

I would relax, and start getting worked up after your a month down the line and no further on.

 

[azzymo]

It may have been a valeting shed you were in and they outsource their mechanical work. Not
uncommon for small independants. It's also possible it wasn't picked up by their obd reader. It would amaze you the difference in them.

5 fault codes could all relate to one dodgy part too

I've been in their workshop, so much so that when I took the car in on Tuesday that they were servicing/working on 4 cars in their rather large workshop. I do admit, I can be dumb at times but I'm sure this is no valeting shed. I could stretch to believe though that maybe their reader didn't pick up all or maybe any codes though.

The fault codes relate to problems with air intake, EGR, ABS, Vehicle speed sensor malfunction and one other.

It seems to me you are getting all worked up because your car wasn't fixed as soon as you called into a dealer for 10 mins, from what I can see you havn't had any bad service yet, infact to call into a main dealer, and for them to look at your car whule you go for lunch, I would say is pretty good service

I would relax, and start getting worked up after your a month down the line and no further on.

I appreciate the response but what I'm getting all worked up about is that I could've been in a very serious accident on Monday especially and my 'recently serviced' motor has a serious problem and the dealer is fobbing me off with 'that's just cars for you' which I don't think is a acceptable response. As I say above, I could possibly accept that one reader wouldn't pick up the code if that was the only issue, but I couldn't actually accelerate out of his yard so bad were the faults, yetwithall he claims there is nothing wrong with it. Fault code or not, the car just wouldn't drive anywhere near normal. The fact that the RAC guy was very bemused and frustrated with the dealers response adds to my annoyance with what I regard as poor treatment as the seller is not acknowledging major faults with the car, I think that is my main gripe.

 

[rory-d]

I've been in their workshop, so much so that when I took the car in on Tuesday that they were servicing/working on 4 cars in their rather large workshop. I am dumb at times but I'm sure this is no valeting shed. I could stretch to believe though that maybe their reader didn't pick up all or maybe any codes.

The fault codes relate to problems with air intake, EGR, ABS, Vehicle speed sensor malfunction and one other.



I appreciate the response but what I'm getting all worked up about is that I could've been in a very serious accident on Monday especially and my 'recently serviced' motor has a serious problem and the dealer is fobbing me off with 'that's just cars for you' which I don't think is a acceptable response. As I say above, I could possibly accept that one reader wouldn't pick up the code if that was the only issue, but I couldn't actually accelerate out of his yard so bad were the faults, yetwithall he claims there is nothing wrong with it. Fault code or not, the car just wouldn't drive anywhere near normal. The fact that the RAC guy was very bemused and frustrated with the dealers response adds to my annoyance with what I regard as poor treatment as the seller is not acknowledging major faults with the car, I think that is my main gripe.

Mate i would be getting more than worked up about this. Obviously imo the dealer knew there was something wrong with the car or why would he lie to the rac man about not having the garage. Im sure if it happened to JCLC he would be raging as well.

Who is the dealer name and shame because he obviously know what he is at.

 

[Gaz]

No name and shame please, or this thread will be removed. Until something is actually proven, much of this thread is speculation and RMS cannot be put into yet another legally shaky position because of one person's word against another being published on here. Feel free to continue with the thread though - the dealer's name has no relevance to the discussion about warranty stipulations and your legal position.

 

[pablo]

well, you bought a car, something is wrong, RAC are fixing it under warranty at a dealer (up to a grand).

sounds like a half decent result tbf, the fault took a month to show, so likely the dealer didnt know about it when he sold it.

Being honest, this sounds like typical trader behaviour. Sells car, car has fault, says use warranty.

What exactly is your preferred outcome to this?

Also note if this was a private sale youd be boned, and left to fix all yourself. Not trying to run you down or make light of your problems but I doubt many traders would do more.

 

[Eamo_vxr]

Edited cause I said who I thought it was!

 

[azzymo]

Mate i would be getting more than worked up about this. Obviously imo the dealer knew there was something wrong with the car or why would he lie to the rac man about not having the garage. Im sure if it happened to JCLC he would be raging as well.

Who is the dealer name and shame because he obviously know what he is at.

I'll be more worked up if I have to pay for any repairs myself. I'm just not 100% on these RAC warranties so if anyone has any experience specifically with these types of warranties I've very much appreciate it.

No name and shame please, or this thread will be removed. Until something is actually proven, much of this thread is speculation and RMS cannot be put into yet another legally shaky position because of one person's word against another being published on here. Feel free to continue with the thread though - the dealer's name has no relevance to the discussion about warranty stipulations and your legal position.

Good call, don't want this being any more problematic than it already is.

well, you bought a car, something is wrong, RAC are fixing it under warranty at a dealer (up to a grand).

sounds like a half decent result tbf, the fault took a month to show, so likely the dealer didnt know about it when he sold it.

Being honest, this sounds like typical trader behaviour. Sells car, car has fault, says use warranty.

What exactly is your preferred outcome to this?

Also note if this was a private sale youd be boned, and left to fix all yourself. Not trying to run you down or make light of your problems but I doubt many traders would do more.

True, a private sale and I'd be facing a huge bill I imagine. The main difference I see between this trader and all the others I've dealt with (about 5 others) is that this one isn't prepared to fix it themselves. Makes me wonder why do certain garages use this RAC Warranty? I just don't get it. When I bought the car the dealer told me that they would indeed fix any problems, now that I have it they're taking nothing to do with it and I'm having to run about phoning these premium rate warranty lines for ages for faults, codes, organise work, replacement car etc.

That was one other thing added to the mix... I was shown and given a freephone number by dealer to call if anything went wrong and a code to give, I of course rang this number and gave code and both proved to be totally irrelevant and I've to phone a premium number. Just more frustration I guess. My love for my new car is over unfortunately.

 

[rory-d]

No name and shame please, or this thread will be removed. Until something is actually proven, much of this thread is speculation and RMS cannot be put into yet another legally shaky position because of one person's word against another being published on here. Feel free to continue with the thread though - the dealer's name has no relevance to the discussion about warranty stipulations and your legal position.

Soz Gaz lol

 

[big_pete]

We sell RAC warranties as an option on our cars. They seem fairly comprehensive and very rarely turn something down unless it is genuine wear and tear. The problems you have mentioned will be covered no problem.

the dealer really isnt at fault here. That is why you took the warranty is it not. Plus he did accommadate yuo by plugging the car in at short notice. People expect the earth

 

[azzymo]

We sell RAC warranties as an option on our cars. They seem fairly comprehensive and very rarely turn something down unless it is genuine wear and tear. The problems you have mentioned will be covered no problem.

the dealer really isnt at fault here. That is why you took the warranty is it not. Plus he did accommadate yuo by plugging the car in at short notice. People expect the earth

Thanks regarding warranty. I must admit on first impressions the RAC do seem to be helpful.

You may feel I'm being unreasonable but some others don't, I guess it's just how you judge the circumstances. When the dealer states that he'll fix any problems and that if issues arise I can drop the car up to be fixed, only to then say he doesn't have a workshop then surely that's slightly strange? I just think it's the total denial and lack of assistance from them which is unfortunate, I personally expect more and have received far better service elsewhere. When I hand over thousands of pounds I expect at least some consideration.

 

[big_pete]

Well I suppose in that respect yes they should be more helpful

 

[PeteMoore]

In fairness JCLC's comment would be the same as mine, however, that is the reason the service industry in this country is ****e.

If you give money to a business for anything, and the product fails or breaks or is not fit for purpose then the business should be bending over backwards to ensure you, as a customer are happy with the outcome.

Thats how it works everywhere else in the world, why not here?

 

[_ZS_]

Strange thing is a traded in a perfectly fit and well diesel Vauxhall against this. It's just that I wanted a change, something newer, quicker, more toys with far less miles as I wanted another few years of hassle free motoring.

Unfortunately the dream has turned rather sour rather quickly.

I did the same. Traded in a well sorted and totally reliable Mk4 Astra. 2.0DTI SXI, ex-Vx company car with ESP, electric everything. Bought the Mk5 1.9CDTI Sporthatch. Kept the Sporthatch about a year, it broke my heart. Stupidly bought another Vx, which died horribly in 8 months.

 

[sacodetoro]

The whole point of them offering the RAC warranty is basically an insurance policy for themselves intended to reduce losses that they would incur if they had to repair sold vehicles themselves, using the warranty means it costs them nothing and you still get your car fixed.

Something like this is a necessity IMO if you are a second hand dealer who can't absorb big losses.

It won't affect your rights with regards to the statutory 3month warranty, so even if the repairs above 1k then in theory you can get this off the seller but will probably require a solicitor to get them to pay out the difference.

You're getting your car fixed, you aren't having to pay any money out. I don't see the issue.