View Full Version : car/ legal advice!
right quite a complicated one so hear me out, last June I bought a second hand car from BMW. at the time I had a lot of issues with the car, some minor body work blemishes etc... that took numerous return visits to get fixed. I also wasn't happy with the service history of the car as the only stamp it had in the book was for an oil change at 30k and when the car was 5yrs old. now they assured me it had a full service history and there computer records showed it was serviced fully by them and the book just hadn't been stamped. for all my hassle etc.... and me complaining a lot, I got 2 free services.
now fast forward 1 year and my car goes in to be serviced. now the week before I had a sudden reduction in power in the car and the engine making very strange noises. so I asked them to check it out. turns out the full timing assembly is ruined and needs replacing and other bits and pieces totalling £1600!!!
I asked why an engine that has a full BMW service history needs so much work done on a engine that's only done 42k miles! they said it looked like it hadn't been serviced properly (I referred them to the full BMW service history) and they also mentioned general wear and tear, which I responded it's only done 42k miles and to try again!
so I have phoned BMW direct to complain as there is obv something wrong with the car and I think it's due to the service history, or lack of! it turns out the car was first serviced in 07 after the car was 3yrs old (the service intervals are 2 years or mileage dictated, which ever comes first)
so BMW don't seem to be doing much, the garage are completely ignoring the problem. now what I want to know is, what can I do? basically a car was sold to me as having a full BMW service history, it doesn't, I'm now incurring rather large bills to put this right! should BMW be picking up the tab? should the garage? could I hand the car back to the dealer and ask for a full refund due to them mis-selling the product in the first place? or am I going to just have to suck it up and pay my hefty bill to have my car running properly?
sorry for the lengthy post but I'm stuck and need some advice from fellow petrol heads!
454697819
26-07-10, 10:53 AM
I think Miss rep applies here...
Possible small claims against the dealership.
Biker Biggles
26-07-10, 10:54 AM
I remember your thread last year and I think said you should reject the car as misdescribed then.Not sure what you can do now other than try to get BMW to help you out to avoid any nasty publicity.
how did you pay ? if it was with credit card or some sort of finance I would check them out first as there is some sort of consumer protection.
Sounds a pretty crappy situation, similar to one that I had in when buying a second hand Laguna.
Did you buy from a BMW dealer or a private dealer?
All used cars from a dealer have to be sold with a 6 month warranty. However, you have owned the car for a year so I imagine this is null and void.
The timing belt/system will have been mileage or age serviced... normally 70k or 5 years. If the car was 5 years old when you bought it then this should have been replaced if it genuinely had a full service history. There may be some aspect of comeback there.
Unfortunately without getting expensive legal advice and going through time consuming small claims court etc there is very little you can do.
My Laguna was in reality a complete nail. An ex lease car the dealer had probably bought at auction. Never properly serviced and more than likely abused for its entire life, had been in a serious rear end shunt which only became clear after purchasing it. Everything kept failing on it, the warranty was worth less than the paper it was written on... infact it had a £300 excess and a maximum payout of £600.
In the end I cut my losses, bodged the car back together, (having spent £1k+ and sold it for a massive loss.
I've never bought anything used since as I clearly suck at it.
Have a look at sections 48A - E inclusive Sale of Goods Act 1979.
yes I did have a thread on other issues with the car last year, but the dealership assured me the car was fine and there would be no issues with it! obv a year down the line here we are again!
yes it was bought from a BMW dealership, and currently has finance on it. it is still running, all be it quite poorly, but I do think I'm jut going to have to trade it in and take what I can from it!
I'm waiting to hear back from BMW customer services as they were contacting the dealer on my behalf, but I kinda just want rid of it all and never to have to deal with this specific garage ever again innmy life!
wchelpdesk@whatcar.com Send them an e-mail and they will get back to you with some helpful information on where you stand and whether you have a legit case against the dealership, they may even fight your corner for you if your lucky. I have contacted them before about a problematic dealer and they were helpful and responded fairly quickly to my e-mail.
So you paid for the car even though they couldnt provide a FSH for the vehicle. Why? If it says it has a FSH then i want to see the stamps and paperwork. Anyway thats by the by, a difficult one, but if it does come down to the fault of the BMW service, then yes they should be liable. They do have utterly amazing ways of getting out of things though as a mate of mine found out. He ended up having to buy a recon lump due to the incompetance of one of thier 'Tecnicians' but it was soooo hard to prove he just bit the built and sold the car just after. He now owns a ford. His words were at least i expect a **** service :lol:
if i get this right its now a 6 year old car, correct?
Biker Biggles
26-07-10, 03:42 PM
I just re read your old thread and it seems you knew the issues,tried to sort them with the dealer,but were ultimately satisfied with being fobbed off with a couple of free services as compensation for the missing history.---------??????
yes car is now 6yrs old, and needing the timing assembly re-newed and the eccentric rod and levers? it's all on a breakdown they gave me.
yes a year ago I did accept what they said, they assured me it had a full service history and was perfectly legit etc.. the reason I done this was because I had just had an accident and my last cage was written off, needed a new car quickly and I had had enough crap over getting the body work sorted! I'll just need to see what comes of it, but looks like it'll be getting punted and I'll be having to cover my losses!
what model of beemer is it? my e46 has done 55k and is sweet as a nut - beemers shouldn't fart about like the one you've been sold, especially if they have been serviced as they claim yours has.
may be worthwhile asking a few questions on this site, i've used it and they are pretty helpful -
http://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/
its an e46 I think. it's a '04 3series compact.
I've still not heard from BMW customer services or the dealer. there getting another phone call tomorrow.
very much doubt youl end up with any sort of good outcome with this, at the end of the day its 6 years old and cars do go wrong now and then.
i agree they shouldnt have sold it as having a fsh if it didnt, but then again you shouldnt have taken their word as gospel without a stamped up book or receipts. even if it did have a fsh it wouldnt automatically make it bulletproof.
sorry if i seem a bit blunt but thats the way it is.
my advice would be to take it to an independant garage, tell them to have a good look round it and see if anything else needs doing, ask them to quote you to do what already needs doing (dont tell them the dealer said 1600 quid!!) and deal with it from there.
good luck
Not that this is any help to you but this is something I read on another car forum recently...
I was talking to mate of mine today who is looking to buy a car (nothing exciting sadly) and he asked me to look at an ad for him. Looking through the ad it said the car had "FSH".
So what do we take that to mean? To me, it means "Full Service History".
When my mate called the garage selling the car, apparently it turns out on their ads it means "Franchised Service History" and the car only has a partly stamped book at that.
Seems like a sneaky way of a garage getting away with the FSH bit without actually lying...
caz650s
28-07-10, 07:31 PM
Have you got a copy of the original add stating it had a full service history ?
That may help,
I work for a main Subaru dealership & we will stamp the gaps in the service book as long as we have a record of it being carried out on our system .
it was bought as an approved bmw from a main dealer, one of the criteria for it to be an approved bmw is it has to have a full service history. the problem is, i shouldnt have accepted what they said to me a year ago. i should have just handed the car back to them then, but they assured me it was fine, and here i am a year later with the problems.
i think im onto plums. plus the garage or bmw customer services are not getting back to me any more. think i may just have to cut my losses! we live, we learn!
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