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Hi Guys, i hope that you can help me with very frustrating situation. I purchased a vehicle from a dealership in Norwich on the 16th August 2017. The vehicle was financed by a company called Billing Finance and the broker was Car Finance 247, The vehicle was supplied with a New MOT, had 56000 miles on the clock and as identified within the service book and by the sales person the car had undergone and full service, new clutch and new Timing Chain (and associated parts)
The vehicle seemed to be ok but i noticed issues with engaging the clutch around the 8th November and as such i put this down to the cold weather however this gradually got worse so I contacted the dealere and they advised that i bring this down as it would seem to be the Master Cylinder so i drove the vehicle to Carscene in Norwich (some 90 miles each way) and left the vehicle with them for 1 week to sort the issue, they provided me with a loan car for this period.
When i returned to collect the car they informed me that they had not changed the master cylinder and had indeed changed the clutch regulator and that the issue was fixed. They then told me that they had claimed on my car warranty without my consent rather than rectify the issue at their expense. I was however at this point happy that the issue was apparently fixed and took the car and drove home. A few weeks later i noticed the issue was arising again and as such i contacted the dealer again, they advised me that i should claim on my warranty and get the work done locally, at this point I was extremelly frustrated at the issue arising again so I agreed and arranged for my car to go into a loacal garage.
My car was taken there on the 29th November to be diagnosed and I was advised that the issue is down to the master cylinder, i then questioned that Carscene were supposed to have carried this work out but instead changed the Clutch Regulator, subsequently i agreed to have the master cylinder changed under my warranty however i had to pay £190 and claim some of this back.
Despite the 2 different levels of work I have consulted expert advice from specialists and they have advised that when the clutch was changed (which apparently was done by the dealer when the car was serviced) the Slave Cylinder should have been changed as a matter of course (as this required the gearbox to be removed) and it would appear that the issues are caused by this because it has not been changed.
Secondly I noticed a very faint thump coming from the rear of the car when accelerating, I put this down to the traction control however I have noticed this getting progressively worse, again I have consulted VXR Experts and they have advised me that it may be the Haldex Unit (4x4 transfer box) that may need servicing or may need replacing (again a common issue and should have been checked before the vehicle was sold) and as a result needs to be diagnosed.
I contacted Billing Finance early december to complain about not only the issues I am having but the fact i felt like i had been sold a car that was not fit for purpose, I advised then that not only did i have an ongoing clutch problem that is clearly a result of the selling garage not carrying out the work on the clutch before they sold me the car like they claimed to have done but i now have a potentially dangerous issue that can cause the diff to lock and potentially cause a fatal accident.
I was advised that a complaint was made and that an investigation will be carried out and subsequently the selling garage agreed to rectify the issues however I had to pay for the vehicle to be recovered over 90 miles away and then incur the cost of having to travle by train all week and then get the train up to norwich to collect the car 1 weeks later (car was recovered there on the 8th December and i collected the vehicle on the 16th december.
However the clutch issue was also still present so i again complained to Billing Finance who basically told me that they will not investigate this issue because i have had work done on the car (despite this being done by the garage i brought the car from) so i subsequently spoke to the garage and advised them they need to sort the clutch out once and for all and they agreed they would do this when they repaired the Haldex Issue
(in regards to the haldex i advised them and the finance company that there are technical bulletins for the haldex issue that the garage should have been aware of and as such this issue should not have arisen)
I collected the vehicle on the 16th and after a couple of days i noticed that the clutch issue was till there so I contacted Billing Finance who again fobbed me off claiming it was not their issue so i contacted the dealer and asked them why they had not sorted the issue and they again advised me that they would sort it but i had to again travel all the way to norwich to deliver the car so they could repair an issue that has only arisen because of their incompetence. I had to wait for over 2 weeks (because of christmas and new year) before i could take my vehicle to norwich
When i picked the vehicle up a week later i was pleased that the issues had been solved and despite the fact i was still very angry about the way this had been dealt with and the thousands of pounds i had had to spend on travel, fuel, recovery, getting work done, train travel to work every day, i just wanted to move on. On Tuesday 20th February i got into my car at 5am the same as any day and started my car (which was running fine the evening before) however it started and sounded very lumpy which i put down to the cold weather so i continued on my journey. By the time i got a couple of miles down the road the vehicle was undrivable so i parked up in Baldock Services on the A1 and called my breakdown company,
When they arrived the said it would be best to recover this to the garage as a fault light had appeared and the car would hardly start.The car was recovered to a local garage and i subsequently contacted my Warranty Company (AA) and Billing Finance and advised them of the situation, i was extremelly angry that yet again its another issue with the car. The local garage advised that they were unable to read the fault code but the mechanic did say that it would seem to be an issue with the Timing Chain (which as per earlier in this letter, the garage i brought the car from had claimed to have replaced)
I contacted Billing Finance to make another complaint as I could not believe that yet another issue with the car and was on a mechanical part that the selling garage had supposedly changed, yet again i was treated with a "dont care" attitude and quickly advised that I was past the 6 month limit and its now down to me to prove the issue was there at point of sale. In the meantime i arranged for the car to be recovered again to a main dealer so they could carry out a full diagnostic of the vehicle and having spoken to the today (21st Feb) at pm they advised me the following
The timing chain has become loose and major tensioners have failed causing the timing to become out of sync and therefor the only remedy is to replace all the belts, chains and tensioners at a cost of over £2k, subsequentlly the warranty company told me they would only cover the cost of up to £500 so no have the prospect pf paying lots of money again
I have a report from the garage confiming that the issue is proberbly down to poor maintenance/shoody workmanship or fault parts and that the dealer should rectify the issue however i have sent all this to Billing Finance and i am now awaiting a response, I have asked them for a full report on the issue as this is yet again the 3rd major mechanical failure on this vehicle and the 2nd failure on elements that the selling garage were supposed to have fixed.
I again called billing finance and explained the issue and advised them that i believe the vehicle has been mis-sold and that the car garage have not carried out their requirements to make sure that the car is safe to use and I am paying finance on a vehicle that is at the moment not safe to drive or is mechanically non roadworthy and as the have a financial interest in the vehicle I would like to know what my rights are and to get this sorted out
At the moment i am going to be financially at loss again, i have been told that i cannot get the vehicle repaired by the main dealer as Billing Finance will close my complaint so I will have to leave my car unfixed at the dealer waiting for Billing Finance to carry out another investigation (which will have nothing to do with the fact that this car is a deathtrap and all the issues point back to poor workmaship) after which IF billing finance and the garage agree the i have to fork out more money to recover my car to norwich AGAIN and wait another week whilst forking out more money untill they can fix it and i am supposed to then pay for a car that i dont want to drive because i cannot trust that the work has been carried out properly.
I no longer want to drive the vehicle and certainly do not want to drive it after the garage who have carried out 2 major elements of work attempt to fix the work they could do correctly, so i believe considering the circumstances that I should be able to return the vehicle and either cancel my finance or get a replacement
can you please advise on this, I have issued a further complaint to the financial ombudsman regarding this issue
Thanks
Deane
The vehicle seemed to be ok but i noticed issues with engaging the clutch around the 8th November and as such i put this down to the cold weather however this gradually got worse so I contacted the dealere and they advised that i bring this down as it would seem to be the Master Cylinder so i drove the vehicle to Carscene in Norwich (some 90 miles each way) and left the vehicle with them for 1 week to sort the issue, they provided me with a loan car for this period.
When i returned to collect the car they informed me that they had not changed the master cylinder and had indeed changed the clutch regulator and that the issue was fixed. They then told me that they had claimed on my car warranty without my consent rather than rectify the issue at their expense. I was however at this point happy that the issue was apparently fixed and took the car and drove home. A few weeks later i noticed the issue was arising again and as such i contacted the dealer again, they advised me that i should claim on my warranty and get the work done locally, at this point I was extremelly frustrated at the issue arising again so I agreed and arranged for my car to go into a loacal garage.
My car was taken there on the 29th November to be diagnosed and I was advised that the issue is down to the master cylinder, i then questioned that Carscene were supposed to have carried this work out but instead changed the Clutch Regulator, subsequently i agreed to have the master cylinder changed under my warranty however i had to pay £190 and claim some of this back.
Despite the 2 different levels of work I have consulted expert advice from specialists and they have advised that when the clutch was changed (which apparently was done by the dealer when the car was serviced) the Slave Cylinder should have been changed as a matter of course (as this required the gearbox to be removed) and it would appear that the issues are caused by this because it has not been changed.
Secondly I noticed a very faint thump coming from the rear of the car when accelerating, I put this down to the traction control however I have noticed this getting progressively worse, again I have consulted VXR Experts and they have advised me that it may be the Haldex Unit (4x4 transfer box) that may need servicing or may need replacing (again a common issue and should have been checked before the vehicle was sold) and as a result needs to be diagnosed.
I contacted Billing Finance early december to complain about not only the issues I am having but the fact i felt like i had been sold a car that was not fit for purpose, I advised then that not only did i have an ongoing clutch problem that is clearly a result of the selling garage not carrying out the work on the clutch before they sold me the car like they claimed to have done but i now have a potentially dangerous issue that can cause the diff to lock and potentially cause a fatal accident.
I was advised that a complaint was made and that an investigation will be carried out and subsequently the selling garage agreed to rectify the issues however I had to pay for the vehicle to be recovered over 90 miles away and then incur the cost of having to travle by train all week and then get the train up to norwich to collect the car 1 weeks later (car was recovered there on the 8th December and i collected the vehicle on the 16th december.
However the clutch issue was also still present so i again complained to Billing Finance who basically told me that they will not investigate this issue because i have had work done on the car (despite this being done by the garage i brought the car from) so i subsequently spoke to the garage and advised them they need to sort the clutch out once and for all and they agreed they would do this when they repaired the Haldex Issue
(in regards to the haldex i advised them and the finance company that there are technical bulletins for the haldex issue that the garage should have been aware of and as such this issue should not have arisen)
I collected the vehicle on the 16th and after a couple of days i noticed that the clutch issue was till there so I contacted Billing Finance who again fobbed me off claiming it was not their issue so i contacted the dealer and asked them why they had not sorted the issue and they again advised me that they would sort it but i had to again travel all the way to norwich to deliver the car so they could repair an issue that has only arisen because of their incompetence. I had to wait for over 2 weeks (because of christmas and new year) before i could take my vehicle to norwich
When i picked the vehicle up a week later i was pleased that the issues had been solved and despite the fact i was still very angry about the way this had been dealt with and the thousands of pounds i had had to spend on travel, fuel, recovery, getting work done, train travel to work every day, i just wanted to move on. On Tuesday 20th February i got into my car at 5am the same as any day and started my car (which was running fine the evening before) however it started and sounded very lumpy which i put down to the cold weather so i continued on my journey. By the time i got a couple of miles down the road the vehicle was undrivable so i parked up in Baldock Services on the A1 and called my breakdown company,
When they arrived the said it would be best to recover this to the garage as a fault light had appeared and the car would hardly start.The car was recovered to a local garage and i subsequently contacted my Warranty Company (AA) and Billing Finance and advised them of the situation, i was extremelly angry that yet again its another issue with the car. The local garage advised that they were unable to read the fault code but the mechanic did say that it would seem to be an issue with the Timing Chain (which as per earlier in this letter, the garage i brought the car from had claimed to have replaced)
I contacted Billing Finance to make another complaint as I could not believe that yet another issue with the car and was on a mechanical part that the selling garage had supposedly changed, yet again i was treated with a "dont care" attitude and quickly advised that I was past the 6 month limit and its now down to me to prove the issue was there at point of sale. In the meantime i arranged for the car to be recovered again to a main dealer so they could carry out a full diagnostic of the vehicle and having spoken to the today (21st Feb) at pm they advised me the following
The timing chain has become loose and major tensioners have failed causing the timing to become out of sync and therefor the only remedy is to replace all the belts, chains and tensioners at a cost of over £2k, subsequentlly the warranty company told me they would only cover the cost of up to £500 so no have the prospect pf paying lots of money again
I have a report from the garage confiming that the issue is proberbly down to poor maintenance/shoody workmanship or fault parts and that the dealer should rectify the issue however i have sent all this to Billing Finance and i am now awaiting a response, I have asked them for a full report on the issue as this is yet again the 3rd major mechanical failure on this vehicle and the 2nd failure on elements that the selling garage were supposed to have fixed.
I again called billing finance and explained the issue and advised them that i believe the vehicle has been mis-sold and that the car garage have not carried out their requirements to make sure that the car is safe to use and I am paying finance on a vehicle that is at the moment not safe to drive or is mechanically non roadworthy and as the have a financial interest in the vehicle I would like to know what my rights are and to get this sorted out
At the moment i am going to be financially at loss again, i have been told that i cannot get the vehicle repaired by the main dealer as Billing Finance will close my complaint so I will have to leave my car unfixed at the dealer waiting for Billing Finance to carry out another investigation (which will have nothing to do with the fact that this car is a deathtrap and all the issues point back to poor workmaship) after which IF billing finance and the garage agree the i have to fork out more money to recover my car to norwich AGAIN and wait another week whilst forking out more money untill they can fix it and i am supposed to then pay for a car that i dont want to drive because i cannot trust that the work has been carried out properly.
I no longer want to drive the vehicle and certainly do not want to drive it after the garage who have carried out 2 major elements of work attempt to fix the work they could do correctly, so i believe considering the circumstances that I should be able to return the vehicle and either cancel my finance or get a replacement
can you please advise on this, I have issued a further complaint to the financial ombudsman regarding this issue
Thanks
Deane
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