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REPAIR RUMBLE
I bought a ‘faulty’ car from major dealership – now I’m facing a hefty £4,000 bill
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A DRIVER claims he has been left with a £4,000 repair bill after being sold an allegedly faulty car by a major dealership.
Matthew Harris, from Peterborough, Northamptonshire, alleges that his VW Tiguan had a range of pre-existing, and even potentially dangerous, faults when he bought it in June last year.
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Mr Harris was sold the car second-hand by Big Motoring World, a large dealership chain centred around London, the South East and the East Midlands.
The vehicle was sold with 55,413 miles on it, just over 1,000 miles after the MOT.
Mr Harris claims that after driving it for only around 600 miles, he began to feel a "grinding" when using the brakes and that the car began to overheat.
He told The Sun Online: "I spoke to big Motoring World and they said to put it in my local garage to see what's wrong.
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"I put it in there and within a couple of days they found that the car had a blocked DPF (diesel particulate filter), that the rear tyre was barely road legal and that all four brake discs needed replacing.
"That was going to cost around £3,500."
Mr Harris claimed that he went to Big Motoring World with this estimate but was told that they could not repair his motor at one of their service centres due to a "technical issue".
Instead, he was allegedly told to have the car fixed by the local garage and to contact his warranty company.
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But a couple of days later, he says the garage found a further issue with the turbocharger, pushing the bill up to £4,750.
Indeed, a report from the garage, seen by The Sun, showed that the driver's side rear tyre was worn down to 2mm, just above the minimum legal tread depth of 1.6mm.
Likewise, mechanics found that the brake discs were "heavily worn and corroded" and there was "excessive play" in the turbo.
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The report concluded: "We believe that these faults were present at the time the vehicle was purchased by the customer and have not developed over 576 miles [since he bought it].
";For example, brake discs do not wear heavily over 576 miles."
However, Mr Harris claims that the warranty company agreed to pay £1,155, leaving him liable for over £3,600 of costs, which he feels should be covered by Big Motoring World.
He further alleged that the dealership brand ignored his emails consistently, before eventually offering only £406 towards the bill.
He went on: "They said because they use reconditioned parts, they could have fixed it for that much.
"I rejected that because I had to hire a car for £400 as well, so I'm £4,000 out of pocket with the repair bill."
The disgruntled driver then staged what he called a "peaceful protest" outside the Peterborough branch, which he claims led to a threat of legal action, before receiving a call a few days later with an offer of £1,600.
Matthew explained that he rejected this new amount as he wants the full cost to be covered by Big Motoring World.
He protested: "All I want is the garage repair paid and my hire car paid.
"I'm not asking for damages or anything, just what I've paid for the car.
"But then they threatened to take me to court again."
Big Motoring World denied the claims and said it had not found fault with the car before it was sold.
It said the tyres were “completely legal” when it sold the vehicle and denied any issue with the brake discs, DPF and turbocharger.
But the firm told The Sun it had now agreed to pay Mr Harris a total of £2,780 to cover most of the works.
The firm said: “The tyres were inspected by our technician visually, and there was no need to change the tyre. Despite this we agreed to pay for a brand-new tyre to be fitted.
“The vehicle passed our brake test which is carried out on a rolling road the same as an MOT brake test. There may have been some corrosion, but the discs, pads and braking performance performed within the safety guidelines. Despite this, we accepted Mr Harris’s request for the rear brakes and authorised the work to be carried for brake discs and pads for both the front and the rear, but Mr Harris declined the payment.”
Regarding the issues around the DPF, the firm denied there was “excessive soot content” and said it operated “as it should”.
The spokesman added: “There were no warning lights or issues at the time of the Big Motoring World inspection and no fault presented itself to warrant further inspection.
“The independent inspection noted a fault code with the NOX sensors, which was authorised, repaired, and paid out for at the cost of £1,080.”
The firm also denied a fault with the turbocharger and said Mr Harris “had the turbo unit replaced without making us aware of any issue”.
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Big Motoring World said it had offered Mr Harris a total payment of £2,780 to cover the tyre, brake disc and NOX sensor replacements and repairs.
It said it would not pay Mr Harris £1,000 for the turbocharger to be fixed nor an additional service Mr Harris “decided” to have carried out.
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