Wear & tear or dealer liable?

Tiuilip

Hi,

I was hoping someone could give me some advice. We bought a '09 Volvo v70 at the end of January from a dealer. He included a one year warranty. Car was going great until yesterday when it died on the N11 and we had to get it towed back.

Dealer has been very polite but says it's down to wear & tear so not covered by warranty. We haven't put much mileage on in the few months we've had it (about 2,000 miles) and there was no revving or noticeable problem until yesterday. It's going to be very expensive so wondering how we can negotiate that the warranty should cover it. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks!

BoatMad

Tiuilip wrote: »

Hi,

I was hoping someone could give me some advice. We bought a '09 Volvo v70 at the end of January from a dealer. He included a one year warranty. Car was going great until yesterday when it died on the N11 and we had to get it towed back.

Dealer has been very polite but says it's down to wear & tear so not covered by warranty. We haven't put much mileage on in the few months we've had it (about 2,000 miles) and there was no revving or noticeable problem until yesterday. It's going to be very expensive so wondering how we can negotiate that the warranty should cover it. Any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks!

That's a dealer warranty unless it's an accepted wear item ,clutch , brakes etc

Dord

Did he explain what the issue was with the car?

Atomic Pineapple

Dord wrote: »

Did he explain what the issue was with the car?

This, how can anyone offer an opinion without knowing what the issue is?

colm_mcm

Also, what actual warranty did you get? As in, what's covered?
Without knowing what's actually wrong, it's hard to say whether it's covered.

Tiuilip

Apologies, I knew I left something out! From the way it was revving, wouldn't go into gear and the smell it seems the clutch is totally gone. Towing company said so too and garage only looking at it tomorrow so will know more then. I'm guessing clutch is wear and tear 😕. Possibly something called a flywheel (?) could be gone too. Thanks for replies!

colm_mcm

Clutch is never covered on a used car warranty.
If they're replacing the clutch, they do the flywheel too.

Stheno

Tiuilip wrote: »

Apologies, I knew I left something out! From the way it was revving, wouldn't go into gear and the smell it seems the clutch is totally gone. Towing company said so too and garage only looking at it tomorrow so will know more then. I'm guessing clutch is wear and tear 😕. Possibly something called a flywheel (?) could be gone too. Thanks for replies!

Clutch is consumable and would be considered wear and tear iirc

Tiuilip

colm_mcm wrote: »

Also, what actual warranty did you get? As in, what's covered?
Without knowing what's actually wrong, it's hard to say whether it's covered.

On the documentation we have it only says one year warranty -should there be more detail elsewhere?

colm_mcm

Nah, usually you might see something like "engine only" or "engine/gearbox"

In this case though, if it's his mechanic checking it out, they'll tell you it just wore out. Either way I can't see this ending well. You could try and get them to cover some of the cost for you as a goodwill gesture. (Get a second price to compare though)

Tiuilip

Stheno wrote: »

Clutch is consumable and would be considered wear and tear iirc

Thanks, is that even after only 3 months with reasonably low mileage? I thought clutch problems were usually gradual?

Tiuilip

colm_mcm wrote: »

Nah, usually you might see something like "engine only" or "engine/gearbox"

In this case though, if it's his mechanic checking it out, they'll tell you it just wore out. Either way I can't see this ending well. You could try and get them to cover some of the cost for you as a goodwill gesture. (Get a second price to compare though)

Thanks, how depressing...

billyhead

colm_mcm wrote: »

Clutch is never covered on a used car warranty.
If they're replacing the clutch, they do the flywheel too.

Sorry Op for butting in but would you know if a battery is covered under 2nd hand dealer warranty Colm?

Homer

You could burn the clutch out in a matter of hours/days through misuse (not saying it's your fault) and that's why it's never covered.

colm_mcm

Unless you can prove that it was a component that failed outside wear and tear.
Difficult to do that TBH.

I had a car where the release bearing exploded, taking the clutch with it.
That wasn't wear and tear, but I'm not sure if your guy would have covered that for example.

If they're stripping it, maybe you might be able to get an independent mechanic to check the clutch for cause of failure.

colm_mcm

billyhead wrote: »

Sorry Op for butting in but would you know if a battery is covered under 2nd hand dealer warranty Colm?

I used to cover them anyway, but it varies from garage to garage.

I don't think yours will be covered, going on what you told me about them before (that's the place in Dublin right?)

billyhead

colm_mcm wrote: »

I used to cover them anyway, but it varies from garage to garage.

I don't think yours will be covered, going on what you told me about them before (that's the place in Dublin right?)

Yep;)

savagethegoat

with a used car you have almost no way of knowing which bits are worn excessively. It's the chance you take buying secondhand. Clutches do indeed wear gradually, yours has been wearing since the car was new no doubt. Three months is plenty of time for the clutch to go from acceptable to kaput.

BoatMad

Tiuilip wrote: »

Apologies, I knew I left something out! From the way it was revving, wouldn't go into gear and the smell it seems the clutch is totally gone. Towing company said so too and garage only looking at it tomorrow so will know more then. I'm guessing clutch is wear and tear 😕. Possibly something called a flywheel (?) could be gone too. Thanks for replies!

Yes that a wear item.

Atlantic Dawn

Tiuilip wrote: »

Thanks, is that even after only 3 months with reasonably low mileage? I thought clutch problems were usually gradual?

Did you do a history check on the car when you bought it, are you sure it's not clocked and got much more miles on it?

9935452

Homer wrote: »

You could burn the clutch out in a matter of hours/days through misuse (not saying it's your fault) and that's why it's never covered.

I know a man who burnt a clutch out in a new corolla in 800 miles

ironclaw

9935452 wrote: »

I know a man who burnt a clutch out in a new corolla in 800 miles

Took in a Yaris from an elderly relative who was no longer driving. We figure it currently has its fourth clutch and its barely over 45k miles.

seagull

9935452 wrote: »

I know a man who burnt a clutch out in a new corolla in 800 miles

There was a car dealer at the bottom of the hill when I was in university. I doubt it was even 1km from there to the university. Some bright spark bought a new car, and had banjaxed the clutch by the time he was going past. It gave out opposite the steps up onto campus. The stench was horrendous. For some reason, he'd bought a manual having never driven one before.

H3llR4iser

savagethegoat wrote: »

...Three months is plenty of time for the clutch to go from acceptable to kaput.

That I can vouch for - sometimes it just quite literally happens within days. Had this with my current 159 - bought it that had 117k km, and at around 130k the clutch needed changing; It was expected as it was still the original one, but the "funny" fact is that when it finally begged for relief, it went from feeling completely OK to juddering horribly within a matter of minutes. Start the car, feels fine, get to the first traffic light, restart - clutch starts complaining. Can happen, unfortunately.