Bought second hand car, week later it broke down. What can I do?

aerobandit

aerobandit

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So I bought 54 reg Toyota on 15/02/2016 with 119k milage for £1650. Dealer assured me that everything is ok with the car and even offered me 6 months warranty for additional £100 which I took. Today out of a sudden, engine stopped in the middle of the road while doing school run. Called AA to recover it and the guy told me it's most likely timing belt. I've checked small print and it says that maximum repair payout is £500. I'll be towing it tomorrow to the garage that I bought it from. Since it never happened to me, I'm not entirely sure what to do. Do I have any chance of getting my money back since it's been only 7 days from purchase day, or is it a lost case?

Thanks
 
We've had two post like that in the last ten days. In short, yes. The dealer must sort it. I'd be worried if it is he timing belt and it happened whilst driving it. :eek:
 
neil_g said:
trading standards say you have 30 days to either reject the car or get them to repair (clock stops on the 30 days while repairs are being done)
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Thanks Neil. Should I contact Trading Standards in case the garage gets difficult and say they won't give my money back (I've got a feeling they will be difficult). I booked a towing truck for tomorrow and it will already cost me £70.
 
As has been mentioned, the Consumer Rights Act was amended in October 2015. This gives you the right to reject the goods within 30 days of taking delivery. If it is the timing belt then I doubt if any of the repair will be covered by the warranty, in my extensive experience this tends to be an exclusion in most warranties that cover that age and mileage of vehicle. Here is the act in question.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/22/enacted
 
dejongj said:
We've had two post like that in the last ten days. In short, yes. The dealer must sort it. I'd be worried if it is he timing belt and it happened whilst driving it. :eek:
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Dealer probably won't repair, given what was paid for the car it would be uneconomical for most timing belt failures as the engine will have destroyed itself. Of course, it might be a non-interference engine and cost an hour's labour and the belt, but those aren't that common nowadays. Even in that case one would want to know why the belt failed - age, tensioner failure, pulley failure etc. Who would want to be a trader selling near end-of-life vehicles at the bottom of the market? I certainly wouldn't.

Timing belt failure while driving is like ignition failure, the car coasts to a halt as the engine is producing no power. It's not particularly scary, I've had both happen on the motorway at 70mph, just indicate to the side and pull up at an orange phone box, summon the AA and wait. In town (had this happen too), just pull over to the kerb, call the AA and wait. If you can't make it as far as the kerb in town, get out and push, or put it in first and move it the last few feet with the starter motor.
 
Have you looked through the history to see when the service belt was last changed?
 
thanks for all replies guys. just had a call from he garage and they said it was a radiator. it really annoyed me as the guy started conversation by saying "you didn't check the water in the car". I was really tempted to mention Consumer Rights Act but I think he realised that he shouldn't have said that and promised to fix the issue by Tuesday. Let's see...
 
A fault in the radiator wouldn't make the car stop dead, it would just overheat. Was there any steam coming out from under the bonnet? I would have thought an AA man would have spotted a leaking radiator easily too. Be interesting to see how the garage manages to fix this.
 
I wouldn't expect to have to check the water levels on a car I had only had for seven days ,and as stated that wouldn't stop the car anyway unless it led to either water on electronics ? Or engine seizure ..
Check it out thoroughly when you get it back .and ask why ,what,where on pick up ,it might well be a genuine garage there are still some about or it might be a bad one trying to fob you off
 
sthwild said:
thanks for all replies guys. just had a call from he garage and they said it was a radiator. it really annoyed me as the guy started conversation by saying "you didn't check the water in the car". I was really tempted to mention Consumer Rights Act but I think he realised that he shouldn't have said that and promised to fix the issue by Tuesday. Let's see...
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IF it was the radiator the engine would over heat because it had no or low water. If the engine overheats it is scrap 100%. If the engine has a management system of some sort it may have stopped the engine so it does not overheat due to no or low water to protect it.I f that is the case (the engine management stopped the engin so it did not overheat) then you need to know where the water in the cooling system went to ? there is no way a car that has water in it runs low or dry within 30 days. You need to ask the repairer why was there no water in the system? where did it escape from? has it been repaired? and how it was repaired?
Otherwise hand it back.
I
 
Just hand it back unless you really trust that dealer to do a good job.
 
Id be handing the keys back as has been suggested, do you really trust a car that goes wrong that quickly?
 
I'm not defending the garage but a car that old with that mileage could have anything go on it at anytime. The radiator has may have been temporary sealed with a RadWeld solution or suchlike by the previous owner prior to them getting rid.

In my opinion old cars need the bonnet opening at least once a week, even once a day in the early ownership of buying such an old car. I'd expect there to be hidden issues on most cars.
 
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Just got the car back. Water leak wasn't a reason for it to stop. It did leak somewhere though as the guy had to refill it and bleed the system but when I told him that the engine didn't have symptoms of overheating and it wouldn't just stop like that suddenly, he admitted that timing chain skipped and he had to fix broken part and readjust everything. He said he was looking for a leak for a couple of hours after giving car a good run and everything seems dry. The car seems to run very smooth now but I guess time will tell. I told him that I will return the car if anything else like that happens again.
 
sounds like a lucky escape for both of you ,i guess if it went on a school run it would have happened at slow speeds ,it would have been very different on a motorway .keep a eye on the water though !!!
 
Have you checked the engine # against documents? ................ just in case they've fitted a cheaper, lower powered, or even a scrapper :D
 
Better safe than sorry all over again
 
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