Can any of you guys give me any advice on this please...
13 months ago I bought a Vauxhall Vivaro van for about £5500 from a used van dealer in Southampton, which had a 6 month warranty and an MOT completed by their garage. Within two weeks of having it I was growing concerned about a chuffing noise from the engine so took it in to Nationwide Autocentres locally. They said – “don’t know what it is, don’t think it is major, but your power steering pump / pulley is damaged and needs replacing “. Got it done – cost of £350 and no go through the warranty as it was a part that wasn’t covered. They also said all your brakes (discs and pads) need changing and that would be over £600. As you can imagine, I wasn’t happy, so I went back to the dealer and they fixed the front brakes but said the rear ones were ok for another 25,000 miles. This has subsequently been verified by another mechanic.
Two months back, I had problems with my gearbox, which needed replacing (along with the clutch). Whilst replacing it, the garage found lots of bolts missing (one even replaced with a threaded screw) – one of the bolts was actually one of three that held the gearbox in place, so every time I changed gear, the whole mechanism rocked and was probably the reason the bearing went in the box. The radiator and air box were not secure either, each rattling around and causing damage to pipes / cables next to them. They also said the blowing noise that was still happening was an issue with the manifold and would be an MOT fail, so I booked it in to get that done as well as MOT. The manifold had a bolt where the head had sheared off – hence the blowing noise. The turbo had a problem which had been “repaired” by bypassing it, except whoever did it bypassed a bit that worked and left the broken bit to do its stuff!
The bottom line is that the latest set of repairs cost me a further £2400, meaning I have spent about 60% of the purchase price again in keeping the thing on the road. My garage said that the van should never have passed the MOT when I bought it because of the manifold issue. I therefore went back to the dealer asking for compensation and they have told me to do one as I have had the van for over 12 months. In order to find out the full extent of the engine problems, I got that done as part of the MOT – which was done one year exactly after purchase date.
I know this is a long winded explanation and that I may be asking for something I don’t deserve, but what are your thoughts / suggestions etc? Do I have a leg to stand on re compensation?
Cheers,
Chris
(oh and one last thing - especially for Gooner - "two nil...and you mucked it up!!":lol
13 months ago I bought a Vauxhall Vivaro van for about £5500 from a used van dealer in Southampton, which had a 6 month warranty and an MOT completed by their garage. Within two weeks of having it I was growing concerned about a chuffing noise from the engine so took it in to Nationwide Autocentres locally. They said – “don’t know what it is, don’t think it is major, but your power steering pump / pulley is damaged and needs replacing “. Got it done – cost of £350 and no go through the warranty as it was a part that wasn’t covered. They also said all your brakes (discs and pads) need changing and that would be over £600. As you can imagine, I wasn’t happy, so I went back to the dealer and they fixed the front brakes but said the rear ones were ok for another 25,000 miles. This has subsequently been verified by another mechanic.
Two months back, I had problems with my gearbox, which needed replacing (along with the clutch). Whilst replacing it, the garage found lots of bolts missing (one even replaced with a threaded screw) – one of the bolts was actually one of three that held the gearbox in place, so every time I changed gear, the whole mechanism rocked and was probably the reason the bearing went in the box. The radiator and air box were not secure either, each rattling around and causing damage to pipes / cables next to them. They also said the blowing noise that was still happening was an issue with the manifold and would be an MOT fail, so I booked it in to get that done as well as MOT. The manifold had a bolt where the head had sheared off – hence the blowing noise. The turbo had a problem which had been “repaired” by bypassing it, except whoever did it bypassed a bit that worked and left the broken bit to do its stuff!
The bottom line is that the latest set of repairs cost me a further £2400, meaning I have spent about 60% of the purchase price again in keeping the thing on the road. My garage said that the van should never have passed the MOT when I bought it because of the manifold issue. I therefore went back to the dealer asking for compensation and they have told me to do one as I have had the van for over 12 months. In order to find out the full extent of the engine problems, I got that done as part of the MOT – which was done one year exactly after purchase date.
I know this is a long winded explanation and that I may be asking for something I don’t deserve, but what are your thoughts / suggestions etc? Do I have a leg to stand on re compensation?
Cheers,
Chris
(oh and one last thing - especially for Gooner - "two nil...and you mucked it up!!":lol
