Used car failure, tale of abject misery

Nick · 2025-02-21T21:03:00Z

Here’s a epic saga for you, suggest getting a beverage and some nuts. September 24th 2024, bought a 21 plate Vauxhall Combo 1.5 Diesel to use as a bike carrier and micro camper, from a pretty big dealer near me (they have MG, Peugeot, Citroen etc). We have bought from them before, we bought an extended 12 month warranty. On Saturday 4th January we were driving along the motorway when it all went quiet, red engine light, engine completely dead, pulled over without drama onto the hard shoulder. Got towed home by AA who couldn’t diagnose the fault, we decided to come home as it was 9pm, snowing and we didn’t really know what to do. Friend comes down the next day, takes off oil cap, I turn ignition, he immediately diagnoses that the engine is not turning over and that the error codes suggests that the cambelt has gone. On the 7th January I call the dealer I bought the car from, spoke to the sales guy, he said I should bring the car in and because it is not running they will look at it immediately, no offer to come and collect. I couldn’t arrange to tow the car in until Saturday the 11th January, I drop off at their service department, they say that as it is a non-runner they will look at it asap and that they will call me back. Initially I get text messages: Text Mon 13th Jan at 12:37 Workshop: Your vehicle is now in the workshop with our technician and we will be in touch with further updates in due course. Text Mon 13th Jan at 14:05 Workshop: have you got full service history for this vehicle ? Nick: All the documents should be in the glove box, was sold to us by xxxxx 3 months ago with full service history + extended warranty Workshop: Perfect thankyou it will have to go to Vauxhall for the work but with the full service history it is special coverage Nick: What does this mean please? Workshop: the timing chain has snapped but Vauxhall will cover everything with full service history with their specialists Nick: Oh that's good news, thanks. Text Tue 14th Jan at 10:51 Nick: Can you let me know what will happen next, will Vauxhall be in touch with me directly, or will you be handling all that? Dealer Text Wed 14th Jan at 14:07 Workshop: we will handle all that don''t you worry Nick: Thank- you Text Wed 20th Jan at 15:48 Nick: Hi, good afternoon, just wondering if there is any news on the car? Workshop: haven''t had a call from Vauxhall yet I will chase it up in the morning for you Nick: Thank you I Text Wed 22 Jan at 15:09 Nick: Hi, was there any update from Vauxhall yet please? I Call 23rd Jan 16:43 I call to find out what is happening, I leave a message and someone promises to call me back, no one calls me back. I Call 24th Jan 13:43 I call again, this time I am told they are waiting on Vauxhall and someone would call me back. I Call 29th Jan 13:41 – I call again, I’m told again someone will call me back I Call 31st Jan 15:54 – I call again am told that they are still waiting on Vauxhall and someone will call me back, I ask them to please make sure they do as this is becoming quite stressful. Text Fri 31st Jan at 16:13 Nick: Hi - I was promised a call back today Workshop: just going through warranty at the moment I Call 3rd Feb 16:33 – I call again, leave a message I Call 4th Feb 15:09 – I call again, this time I am told that the dealer and Vauxhall disagree on what is wrong and they are trying to resolve this. We Visit 4th Feb – Wife calls in after work, gets told a similar message that they are waiting on Vauxhall and they disagree with the Vauxhall diagnosis (this means Vauxhall are not interested in repairing it). Dealer Calls 6th Feb 14:46 I get a call! They offer a curtesy car, which we collect on the 7th. They tell us then that it might take a while still, but they will call us each week with an update (they haven’t) They said they would recover the car from Vauxhall (a few hundred meters away) but they didn’t have a transport available and needed to arrange this, but that they would do the work as Vauxhall have refused. Call 21st Feb I call them and they tell me they are still arguing with Vauxhall about who will fix it (even though on the 7th they told me they would be fixing it), the woman I speak to says it’s her next task to chase Vauxhall and she will call me back, which she didn’t. It’s now been 41 days since we dropped the car off, their communication and customer service is beyond shocking and the story seems to have flipped between Vauxhall or the dealer fixing it. It’s probably related to this weakness in the engine design, which I guess is why the dealer is trying to get Vauxhall to fix it.I’m not sure why they haven’t invoked the warranty they sold me, unless they know it’s worthless? Do I have grounds, within the next 5 weeks (when we will have owned the car for 6 months) to return it and ask for a replacement or refund? I understand the dealer has to prove that the fault wasn’t there and will likely cite their worthless 200 point check thing. Pretty much fed up with the ...

Cougar

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a) I thought you said 1000 miles? and

b) 45p/mile running costs includes fuel you've paid for. Counter with a grand.

Posted : 28/02/2025 2:46 pm

hightensionline

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Posted by: doomanic

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I'd counter-offer at 15p per mile, 45ppm is far too high, although you did do quite a lot of miles in the short time you had a working van.

3.5K in 102 days? Average UK van mileage is 12.5K, so I'd say it's spot-on, towards a bit low.

Posted : 28/02/2025 3:03 pm

Nick

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Topic starter

Posted by: Cougar

↑

a) I thought you said 1000 miles? and

b) 45p/mile running costs includes fuel you've paid for. Counter with a grand.

No don't think I did, can't see that above.

I did consider pushing back for more, but I'm actually quite surprised they have agreed and I want to move on asap, sure £250 is a decent sum of money but fingers crossed I can get the refund into Premium Bonds this afternoon and win more on the draw 🙂

Posted : 28/02/2025 3:19 pm

hightensionline reacted

johndoh

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but fingers crossed I can get the refund into Premium Bonds this afternoon and win more on the draw

You need to have money in the NS&I account for a full month before it is eligible for a win. By then won't you have taken the money back out to buy a replacement vehicle?

Posted : 28/02/2025 3:30 pm

retrorick reacted

kimbers

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Hmmm, been looking at Combo Life to replace our nearly 10 year old Zafira, sounds like Ill be looking at something else!

Posted : 28/02/2025 3:43 pm

Nick

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Posted by: johndoh

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but fingers crossed I can get the refund into Premium Bonds this afternoon and win more on the draw

You need to have money in the NS&I account for a full month before it is eligible for a win. By then won't you have taken the money back out to buy a replacement vehicle?

Ahh, you're right, thought if I bought today they would be in the March draw.

Might take me awhile before I can face spending hours searching for cars.

Posted : 28/02/2025 4:09 pm

Nick

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And, I don't want another pre 2023 one, and not sure I want to spend 20k

Posted : 28/02/2025 4:27 pm

tthew

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I've got a Ford Connect with the 1.5 diesel engine. Has a normal dry cambelt and no particular design weakness I know of. Pre 2018 there wasn't even an Adblu system. Mines done 130k miles with only normal servicing and consumables.

Obviously corrosion is likely a longer term issue because it's a Transit.

When you can pluck up the courage to start looking obviously. I'm glad you got sorted to your (sort of) satisfaction.

Posted : 28/02/2025 4:50 pm

Nick

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Topic starter

Money's not in the bank account yet, which is annoying but entirely predictable.

I really appreciate everyone's comments, I don't hang around on STW like I used to, it's still a great forum though, cheers!

Posted : 28/02/2025 6:07 pm

Clover and tthew reacted

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