Garage not honoring warranty

dmg10

Ok, I'll try and make this short but could do with advise.

I bought a car at the end of January with a 6 month warranty that covered the engine. About 3 weeks later, the engine systems warning light came on and I immediately contacted the garage. As they were based in Dublin and I'm in Cork, he agreed for it to be looked at and fixed in Cork and would refund me the cost. According to the garage it went into, it just needed an a software upgrade. Surprise surprise, I'm still waiting for the cheque on that one even though it is small but nevertheless....

Two weeks later again, the light came on again and has been coming on intermittently since. When it does, I lose power, have to switch off and on the engine for it to 'reset' and it could be fine for another few days or even a week or two.

When it reoccured, I again contacted the garage, and the guy I've dealt with all along, everytime I call, it's 'I'm with someone right now, can I call you back' and he never does. We did manage to agree that the car would go back up to him to be fixed but when I said I'd need a replacement car if he's keeping it in (fair enough I think for a warranty issue?), he said he'd have to see what he could do and he'd call me back, he didn't....I let it go for about 2 weeks as I got so fed up of chasing him but now I'm on the case again.

Today, I got the same excuse. What is an appropriate course of action now at this stage?

If I thought it could be just a small problem like a sensor malfunctioning (which it could well be), I'd just do it down here and go after him for the bill, but as it could be more work involving injectors etc, something that could run up a hefty bill, then I need the garage to do it under the agreed warranty. Is it time to involve legal help??!

Many thanks

kildare.17hmr

Did you get a warranty booklet outlining what was covered? Alot of the time engine and gearbox earranty covers mechanical only and not electrical. Im guessing its just the garage supplying the warranty and not an outside company

Sounds like they are giving you the run around because of how far away you are.

With regards to a courtacy car id always try accomodate but i am not required to

Anan1

Do you have this warranty in writing?

dmg10

Thanks for the responses. Yes, have the warranty in writing. If the light is coming on as a result of an injector problem, then that would be engine related wouldn't it?

One of the problems I have is that all the conversations have been verbal of him agreeing to fix it, should have recorded the phone conversations....

Anyway, in the past half hour, he called back, all nice and agreeable. I'm bringing it in Monday morning and if they have to keep it 'there's no problem about providing a car'....way I look at it, if a car has to be repaired under warranty, you shouldn't need to be left without a car.

mmm we'll see, it's a turnaround but might be due to a voicemail I left...

btkm8unsl0w5r4

This has to be a 335i BMW ????

dmg10

Jaxxon Flat Shinbone wrote: »

This has to be a 335i BMW ????

No :-) a focus diesel estate. Funny thing is it can happen a few days in a row or a few times a day & then not again for two weeks.

AzureAuto

If he's dragging his heels, why not suggest you bring the car in to a decent mechanic who could diagnose the fault, fix it, then charge the invoice out to his company. Remind him of his obligation under trading standards legislation to provide goods of a salable condition. And have his agreement to honour the bill written down?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Oh man I had injector problems with a BMW (suppress suppress) its a mare, its clears but until the injectors are replaced it keeps coming back. Defo an engine problem. Start threatening SIMI or small claims and thing will start to move along. Quite, nice guys get nowhere fast.

Pdfile

Jaxxon Flat Shinbone wrote: »

Oh man I had injector problems with a BMW (suppress suppress) its a mare, its clears but until the injectors are replaced it keeps coming back. Defo an engine problem. Start threatening SIMI or small claims and thing will start to move along. Quite, nice guys get nowhere fast.

yes but d***heads get doors slammed in their face...


OP, you've been a gent up until now, dont lose the rag or anything... find a Good ford mechanic ( via here or one of the ford clubs )

get it fixed and bill his garage, should the work not be carried out... legal action time !

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Pdfile wrote: »

yes but d***heads get doors slammed in their face...


OP, you've been a gent up until now, dont lose the rag or anything... find a Good ford mechanic ( via here or one of the ford clubs )

get it fixed and bill his garage, should the work not be carried out... legal action time !

You will be a gent who has paid for the repairs himself then, no garage is going to do work unsure if they will get paid.

kildare.17hmr

Pdfile wrote: »

get it fixed and bill his garage, should the work not be carried out... legal action time !

why dont you try thr first and let us know how you get on!

Pdfile

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

why dont you try thr first and let us know how you get on!

been their done that... the hard man act gets you nowhere in life...


yes sir no sir 3 bags full... if not, decent lawyer will have no issues getting more then you're fair share back.

kildare.17hmr

Pdfile wrote: »

been their done that... the hard man act gets you nowhere in life...


yes sir no sir 3 bags full... if not, decent lawyer will have no issues getting more then you're fair share back.

your recomending he get the work done elswhere and then get that garage to bill the dealer. I dont care how good your solicitor is. unless the dealer gave the go ahead for the repairs stating he would pay you wouldnt have a leg to stand on

dmg10

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Pdfile wrote: »

been their done that... the hard man act gets you nowhere in life...


yes sir no sir 3 bags full... if not, decent lawyer will have no issues getting more then you're fair share back.

your recomending he get the work done elswhere and then get that garage to bill the dealer. I dont care how good your solicitor is. unless the dealer gave the go ahead for the repairs stating he would pay you wouldnt have a leg to stand on

In this case it's the hard woman act ;-) My voicemail (didn't answer the phone) was polite but pretty clear that he had til the end of the day to ring me back with a proposal otherwise & unfortunately I would have to start getting legal involved although I didn't want to go down that route I would if I had to. He phoned back within 20mins claiming no he hadn't listened to my voicemail but was very 'agreeable'.

I did consider putting it in locally and going after him for the repair costs but as someone pointed out, works done in another garage would need to be agreed or legally I probably wouldn't have a leg to stand on and most garages won't release your car without payment which means putting it upfront yourself.

We'll see what happens next week....I have been too nice up until today giving him the benefit of the doubt but now I've gone into calm & quit mucking around mode. It doesn't help that I'm pretty certain he switched the tyres on me between agreeing the sale & collecting the car...

dmg10

So, brought the car up, they decided it was a fuel filter problem. I went along with it as it's their call although I wasn't too sure it was.

Car was running great from Dublin, had it's power back that I felt had been missing for some time, until I turned off for Cork on the motorway and next thing the engine management light came on and the car once again lost it's power. It was a slow journey the rest of the way home...

This light (was the engine systems warning light before that would turn off if I restarted the engine), is not going off. or at least it didn't for 4 days (haven't drive it all week but started it up each day to see if it was still there). I drove it last night and strangely enough it did go off after making a stop, but this morning when I tried taking it out of my driveway, it spluttered/ bucked a little and the light came back on. So back up the driveway and straight into the local garage first thing Monday (agreed by garage who sold it to me).

Can anyone hazard a guess what might be going on now? Is this still sounding like it could be a sensor issue? Or would you be looking further straight away?

mhigh86

If you want to find out the fault, go to a garage and ask them to do a scan on your car, and get the list of codes off them, they will know what the codes are anyway but it/s good to have them. do a search online to find out more. It cost me a 10e for this to be done. alot of places wont want you to know the codes but make sure u get them and agree a price before you get scan done, scan takes 1min to do.