used car warranty

scorpio77

bought a secondhand car 3 months ago and on day of warranty being up the clutch went(on a saturday)so i brought it to a garage to be fixed but was later told the gearbox was broke aswell.so i rang company i bought car from and was told warranty out of date nothing they could do even though i rang monday morning.need help do i have any rights......

jor el

Consumables such as tyres, clutch, brakes, wipers, etc, are generally not covered by a garage warranty, and I'm not sure if you have any cover at all. What you should do is ring the garage and pretend to be interested in buying a 2nd hand car. Ask about the warranty and what it does and doesn't cover, get a copy in writing if you can. Look through it to see if you have any hope.

zzantara

Consumer Law states that a car should be guaranteed "for a reasonable length of time",this statement is vague as to your/the garages interpretation of "a reasonable lenght of time ".
Factors that need to be taken into account are the age of the vehicle/mileage etc/price paid/whether the garage should have known that this fault existed etc.
For instance if the car had 80000 miles it is reasonable to expect some repairs like a clutch wheras if the car has 30000 miles it is not reasonable to have to do major repairs ?
I work in this area and if you give me more details I will give what advice I can ?

scorpio77

car is a 2002 bought it 3 months ago with 58500 miles on it i have not even done 1000,dont mind getting clutch fixed but dont think i should pay for gearbox after short time i have it.traded in a car and paid nearly 6000 cash as well.

jor el

Very interesting. You have the exact same rights when buying a 2nd hand car, as when buying new, but only from a dealer, and not a private sale. The fact that they only gave a 3 month warranty should therefore be irrelevant, as you are still entitled to your statutory rights and full consumer protection.

What you could do, is get an independent garage/mechanic to check out the damage and do a report. Get them to state whether or not they believe the breakage was due to abuse by you, or if it was down to them being sub-standard when you bought it.

Armed with this report, and anything else you can get of the NCA website, or from them in emails/writing, go back to the garage. Legal action is also still an option. Small Claims, if it's just the repairs you want done. Solicitor and civil case if you have to go for a full refund on the car.

scorpio77

thanks for the advice ,at the moment im writing a letter of complaint to the garage and if i get no where i will take him to the small claims court for repairs,i already brought car for fixing when i thought it was clutch it was them who told me it was gearbox aswell so i told them not to fix it ill go back to garage.

zzantara

Hi Scorpio,
You are taking the right course of action,ignore the "Shoot from the hip" advice and deal with the problem in a non emotional , firm ,non abusive manner.
If you do need to take things further the fact that you have been reasonable will greatly assist your case.
It seems clear that a car costing €6000 + with 58000 mls should be in good condition and just because the garage gave ( or got away with) a 3 month warranty doesn't mean that you have not got a claim.
You should make an appointment to talk to the most senior person in the Garage(Director/owner),bring a friend for moral support + as a witness as to what is said,have a notebook and take notes of relevant points,(this will be of great assistance if things get more serious and it wil also appear to the person from the garage that you are taking things seriously).
Explain your position clearly and let them know that you are not a pushover and will take things as far as necessary to get a fair result.
If you don't get satisfaction invoke the SIMI (I assume that the garage is a member)arbitration process. This is a free/quick/informal/ very efficient way of resolving disputes and from experience I can confirm that they very much lean in favour of the customer,if they come out on your side and the garage does not act in your favour they will be "Dead in the Water" in somewhere like the Small Claims Court.
Hopefully you get a result from the garage, you are welcome to contact me (zzantara@hotmail.com)if you think I can be helpful to your cause.

jimmycrackcorm

The garage can't say that when the car was brought in on the last day of the warranty that the gearbox wasn't gone, only that they looked at the fault later.

liger

Hi,

I'm in similar situation, 00 volvo s40. bought 4months ago for €6000.

The breakdown service said it sounds like the alternator. Rang the Dealer and he says its not covered under warranty, and its out of date anyway. He tried to say the altenator is a ware and tear thing, and he could get his contact to fix it at trade price for me which shocked me. When i told him i'd get back to him after i ring the NCA and that for all I know the engine is completly shot he agreed to get it towed to his volvo dealer and have it looked at.

But he hasnt agreed to cover the costs. Am i covered by sale of goods act 1980? Is the alernator a ware and tear part??? i didnt think so.

zzantara

Wear and tear is used for items that you have an influence on such as tyres/brakes/clutch etc,you have no influence as to how long an alternator will last,however you did buy an 8 year old car and implied in that is that you bought an 8 year old alternator ,so to be asked to make a contrubitution is not unreasonable.
Reconditioned alternators are a good option and are what the trade use most times,I would recomend that you offer to go partially towards the cost of repairs.

loughrey

zzantara wrote: »

Wear and tear is used for items that you have an influence on such as tyres/brakes/clutch etc,you have no influence as to how long an alternator will last,however you did buy an 8 year old car and implied in that is that you bought an 8 year old alternator ,so to be asked to make a contrubitution is not unreasonable.
Reconditioned alternators are a good option and are what the trade use most times,I would recomend that you offer to go partially towards the cost of repairs.

If he had a warranty and the alternator is not a wear and tear issue he absolutely should not have to contribute to the cost. The whole point of a warranty is to cover non-wear and tear issues the occur during the warranty period, regardless of the age of the car. Generally if a car is very old a dealer will not offer a warranty and sell the car as is, if they are offering a warranty then they have determined after their mechanical inspection of the car that they are confident that no mechanical issue will occur within the warranty period and that if they do occur in the unlikely event then they will cover it. Alternators are known to go for years and even decades, they are not a wear and tear issue and are covered in all warranties that cover the engine. The onus is on the dealer to have his mechanics thoroughly inspect these mechanical components before they agree to the trade in from a seller, once they accept it and offer a warranty to the new seller then the onus is on them to put things right, not the new owner. I hope the OP didn't take your advise and cave in, but got the repairs covered by the dealer as he was entitled to. I have demanded new replacement car batteries etc. from dealers and got what I wanted, too many sellers cave in to the dealers demands and lose more money, increasing the overall cost of the car which was already well over the cost the dealer paid for it. Don't be pushovers folks!

dudara

@loughrey - please pay attention to the dates on threads when responding. This particular thread is over 7 years old!

dudara