Garage Hassle - Need Legal Advice

Undercoverguy

For those who remember i was sold a car with a 5 speed gear box instead of a 6 Speed Gear Box.

The original thread is here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054932150&highlight=punto+sporting

But the garage has come back with 3 options for me:

1) Give them two weeks to find another car the same and just switch.

2) Refund me the money for the crar.

Both options i dont like as i've gotten a lot of cosmetic work done to the car and have it just nice now so i dont want to hand it away.
Is there anything legally that forces them the fix the problem or to even give me the rough amount the car has been devalued by?

Let us know guys,

Thanks

BArra

Is it that much of a big deal? its a 1.2lt probably, do u really need a 6th gear?

In saying that it should have been a 6 gear, so perhaps squeeze out a longer warrenty or something along those lines?

colm_mcm

In fairness to the garage, they're doing all they can. is a new gearbox out of the question?

junkyard

I'd say buy a 5 speed gearknob and live with it tbh, one less gear to worry about considering its a Fiat and all that. How often are you going to use 6th gear anyway?

zilog_jones

Undercoverguy wrote:

Is there anything legally that forces them the fix the problem or to even give me the rough amount the car has been devalued by?

/me remembers back to Junior Cert Business Studies...

Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act!

You were sold a car that was believed to be a Punto Sporting. That's what it should be - it should not be some other model rebadged, and it should have 6 gears if that's what that model is supposed to have (you didn't make it clear which model/year it was exactly, so I dunno), so you're entitled by law to either a replacement, repair, or refund.

It depends on how you take the wordings exactly, on whether you're entitled to get them to put in a 6-speed box if the current is a 5-speed and it's definately supposed to have a 6-speed.

In all fairness you shouldn't have done said "cosmetic work" until you resolved the whole missing gear thing...

spockety

The garage are being very reasonable. I mean, being offered your money back no hassle is a dream situation that most people never get to when they have problems with shops/garages/suppliers!

Take the money, and find another car with a different garage.

Seth Brundle

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th & reverse = 6 gears

maidhc

Undercoverguy wrote:

But the garage has come back with 3 options for me:

1) Give them two weeks to find another car the same and just switch.

2) Refund me the money for the crar.

3) ?

Nope, they are offering to refund the money, that is as good as it gets.

Henry Ford III

A refund isn't a bad offer.

Undercoverguy

but if anyone looks at my post hsitory they'd see i had battle finding this car, in this colour with the right milage and year.... I'm caught betweek a rock and a hard place!

Dilbert75

Did they indicate how it came to only have 5 forward gears? Back to the question on the original post - is it definitely a Sporting or just an ordinary Seicento with a dress?

Do you want the car as it is? Will you get a refund for the money you've put into it?

Hagar

Have you considered how awkward it's going to be for you later on when you try to sell it or trade it in and the same question is asked about the gears?

The money spent on cosmetic repairs will be nothing to what you could potentially loose in the long run.

Take the refund.

DukeDredd

Undercoverguy wrote:

For those who remember i was sold a car with a 5 speed gear box instead of a 6 Speed Gear Box.

The original thread is here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054932150&highlight=punto+sporting

But the garage has come back with 3 options for me:

1) Give them two weeks to find another car the same and just switch.

2) Refund me the money for the crar.

Both options i dont like as i've gotten a lot of cosmetic work done to the car and have it just nice now so i dont want to hand it away.
Is there anything legally that forces them the fix the problem or to even give me the rough amount the car has been devalued by?

Let us know guys,

Thanks

Jeez mate - the garage is offering you your money back. I know i would bite his hand off to take the cash if i was in your situation. 99.9% of people would too. I think they're being more than reasonable - extremely rare for garages to offer the money back. You don't have to buy another car there when you get the cash.

MercMad

Have you considered how awkward it's going to be for you later on when you try to sell it or trade it in and the same question is asked about the gears?

The money spent on cosmetic repairs will be nothing to what you could potentially loose in the long run.

Take the refund.

Hagar gives the best advice !

Take the money and run !

Undercoverguy

I know he does

But in intend on keeping the car for about 2 years at the least so i'm guessing wather it has 5 or 6 gears its still only gonna be around 3000 euro.

What if i pushed for another years warrenty and aa cover? I reckon i could get that and easy enough, and the potental problems with fiats this could save me well over that.

For example, i left the car in for what i thought was a simple snag list - the cost of the snag list was 900euro!

The car was sold for 6750 - when you add the TOTAL cost of repairs the garage has done to the car since it was traded in the value if over 10,000euro! CRAZY!

Anyway they said they'd call at 5 with hopefully another option. I'll keep yas posted!

Hagar

Takes bow, waves to crowd, exits stage left.

unkel

junkyard wrote:

I'd say buy a 5 speed gearknob and live with it tbh, one less gear to worry about considering its a Fiat and all that. How often are you going to use 6th gear anyway?

It will be impossible to sell on

Hagar wrote:

Have you considered how awkward it's going to be for you later on when you try to sell it or trade it in and the same question is asked about the gears?

The money spent on cosmetic repairs will be nothing to what you could potentially loose in the long run.

Take the refund.

Exactly. Take the refund.

le-dub

There is a simple solution to your problem. The garage have offered to take the car and replace with the same model and 6speed gear box...yeh?

Then you simply remove all the mod cons you added or as much as you can and present the car back in the condition it was presented to you. Get the new car and add your mod cons on to this...

Other wise cut your loses and get your moeny back and remove all mod muppett:) things you have added to it