Breather valve left off new (second hand) car

amycgill

Hi everyone,

So I picked up my new 15d car on Saturday from a reputable main dealer of the same brand.

The minute I left the fourcourt I smelled a strong whiff of fumes/petrol. I figured it was coming from the car in front of me. I got home and could still smell the fumes especially in idle/reversing. I thought there might have been stale petrol from sitting on the fourcourt for months so brought it for a good run.

The smell wasn't going so got on to the salesman who told me to bring it over. I had to take a half day from work and when I arrived he didn't even greet me just said 'bring it around the corner to the mechanics'. Very different attitude to the day I bought it - four days previous.

Turns out the breather valve was off the car leaking fumes into the car. I did not receive any apology for the inconvenience of having to take time off to go over and have them sort something that should have been sorted before I bought it. I was told 'it wasn't done on purpose'

I feel quite angry about how the whole thing was handled. Is leaving the breather valve off the car dangerous? I suppose I am asking should I escalate the issue to the owner?

Thanks in advance,

Amy.

Toyotafanboi

It leaves a sour taste and means you probably won't buy another car there but salesmen only want to know you when you're buying, you're just a number towards his target.

To be fair, they invited you straight back and it sounds like they fixed the problem promptly, first time. I'd be happy with that. You bought a used car, it had a fault and they rectified it and it surely wasn't intentional, they didn't want to see you back as much as you didn't want to go back.

Sounds like they may not have been polite about it but there's not a lot you can do about that, a courteous apology would have been nice and probably retained you as a repeat customer however but that's their issue, not yours really. I'd be happy it's fixed and move on tbh.

amycgill

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

It leaves a sour taste and means you probably won't buy another car there but salesmen only want to know you when you're buying, you're just a number towards his target.

To be fair, they invited you straight back and it sounds like they fixed the problem promptly, first time. I'd be happy with that. You bought a used car, it had a fault and they rectified it and it surely wasn't intentional, they didn't want to see you back as much as you didn't want to go back.

Sounds like they may not have been polite about it but there's not a lot you can do about that, a courteous apology would have been nice and probably retained you as a repeat customer however but that's their issue, not yours really. I'd be happy it's fixed and move on tbh.

Thanks a million for the reply. I'm actually raging I had to bring back the car after a few days for something fairly obvious when you start it up ! You're right though it's all sorted now and yes I will definitely be thinking twice when I am trading in.

livingthedream

Unfortunately most salesmen are always your best friend right up until the point where you hand over the cash as you are still part of their current sales period and or target/comission.. After that, they are looking for their new best friend..




~LTD