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Good evening all.
I hope everybody is well? I am a new user and I need some advice if possible?
To give you some background, in November 2014 I was offered a dream job on the caveat I needed a car as part of my employment contract.
In December and in haste I must add (idiot I know!!); I purchased a 2008 reg ford focus Turbo Diesel with 92k miles on the clock. It was purchased from a local car front for £5000 but on a hire purchase agreement. Within the first week I had to take the car back to have the glow plugs looked at, the windscreen replaced as they had sold it to me with a cracked windscreen. I couldn't see the crack at first as the car had a blue visor across the top covering the crack!
At the time the biting point on the clutch seemed a little high and I kept stalling it. I didn't think much of it as it was the first diesel I had owned and initially put these problems down to my rusty driving.. In April after a few electrical faults I decided to look into the clutch problem a little more and discovered the dual mass flywheel and clutch were in fact faulty and showing signs of a pretty hard life.
Long story short, I complained to the finance company as the dealership are a joke. The finance company sent out a "independent engineer" and I also paid a company to carry out an full inspection. My complaint was dismissed so I went to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The adjudicator working there has recently been looking at my complaint and first and foremost she certainly is no mechanic! Reason I say this is she completely mis-understood my inspection report. The car has a failed power steering pump, an engine oil leak, some sort of mis-alignment issue which obviously causes the tyres to wear out quickly. She has stated the worn tyres have caused mis-alignment which in turn have nackered the steering rack and caused an engine oil leak!!!!!????? My inspector noted all of these as individual issues but he has in no way classed them as the same event.
The real crux of the issue is the dual mass flywheel/clutch. Both my report and the finance companies report has found the clutch and flywheel to have been faulty at the time of purchase. However, she has said because of the cars age and mileage at the time of sale essentially wear and tear was to be expected so I should foot half the bill. She also says the engine oil leak and power steering issues happened some 6-7 months after the sale the finance company cannot be held responsible. My engineer however says given the age of this car it is not likely this car should have all these problems regardless of the mileage. One or two problems maybe but not all these issues. The ombudsman also simply wrote off the electrics as wear and tear and reasonable as part of the cars age?
Shall I just swallow this and accept 50% for clutch a flywheel? I am just annoyed as I would not have bought it had I been a bit more clued up on the problems.
Any help and advice is much appreciated.
I hope everybody is well? I am a new user and I need some advice if possible?
To give you some background, in November 2014 I was offered a dream job on the caveat I needed a car as part of my employment contract.
In December and in haste I must add (idiot I know!!); I purchased a 2008 reg ford focus Turbo Diesel with 92k miles on the clock. It was purchased from a local car front for £5000 but on a hire purchase agreement. Within the first week I had to take the car back to have the glow plugs looked at, the windscreen replaced as they had sold it to me with a cracked windscreen. I couldn't see the crack at first as the car had a blue visor across the top covering the crack!
At the time the biting point on the clutch seemed a little high and I kept stalling it. I didn't think much of it as it was the first diesel I had owned and initially put these problems down to my rusty driving.. In April after a few electrical faults I decided to look into the clutch problem a little more and discovered the dual mass flywheel and clutch were in fact faulty and showing signs of a pretty hard life.
Long story short, I complained to the finance company as the dealership are a joke. The finance company sent out a "independent engineer" and I also paid a company to carry out an full inspection. My complaint was dismissed so I went to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The adjudicator working there has recently been looking at my complaint and first and foremost she certainly is no mechanic! Reason I say this is she completely mis-understood my inspection report. The car has a failed power steering pump, an engine oil leak, some sort of mis-alignment issue which obviously causes the tyres to wear out quickly. She has stated the worn tyres have caused mis-alignment which in turn have nackered the steering rack and caused an engine oil leak!!!!!????? My inspector noted all of these as individual issues but he has in no way classed them as the same event.
The real crux of the issue is the dual mass flywheel/clutch. Both my report and the finance companies report has found the clutch and flywheel to have been faulty at the time of purchase. However, she has said because of the cars age and mileage at the time of sale essentially wear and tear was to be expected so I should foot half the bill. She also says the engine oil leak and power steering issues happened some 6-7 months after the sale the finance company cannot be held responsible. My engineer however says given the age of this car it is not likely this car should have all these problems regardless of the mileage. One or two problems maybe but not all these issues. The ombudsman also simply wrote off the electrics as wear and tear and reasonable as part of the cars age?
Shall I just swallow this and accept 50% for clutch a flywheel? I am just annoyed as I would not have bought it had I been a bit more clued up on the problems.
Any help and advice is much appreciated.
