Leah T

sold car with faulty failure

I am saddened to write this review as on meeting Callum (the web car site owner) I liked him a lot and believed him to be a nice person and I think this is the first time in my life I have ever thought something is bad enough to write a review. I purchased a mini from this business (found them via autotrader who I am also making a complaint to) in June of last year, I get the train to work so wasn't driven very much but within the first month of having it it developed 'engine overheating'' warning and engine began to lose power - my knowledge of cars is fairly limited but given it had barely been driven I found this worrying so contacted Callum and he came and took the car away as it was within its 3 month purchase warranty. The car was returned 4-5 weeks later and callum reassured me that it was fixed and that the head gasket had been faulty and he had fixed it and would email me the mechanics summary (this never happened and I have chased him for this since but with no reply). The car was not driven very much at all over the next few months due to covid lockdown but when I started to drive it again in February again the engine overheating warning came on again. I took the car to mini this time as I had lost some confidence in Callum after he had failed to fix it previously and had not sent me the mechanics summary. Unfortunately the Mini Garage people advised me that the car's engine needed replaced entirely but more worryingly, the engine that was in the car was NOT the car engine that was registered to the car (despite the car being sold supposedly with a full service history?). So this was very worrying. Mini garage people also reported the car engine was covered in paint (not sure why this was). I, of course, contacted Callum immediately to ask him to take the car back and provide me with a refund or to at the least repair it as it is the same issue that was clearly at fault during the warranty period). Callum did not take my calls, did not respond to my voicemails asking for him to please call me to discuss and responded via text just saying that he didn't know it was not the right engine for the car. He told me in text he would get back to me after speaking with her father but he never did. I am now left in a situation where the quote to repair the car by mini is £8500 (to replace the engine) and the car can not be driven or sold as it is not working. This has left me really upset - I have started legal proceedings to recoup the money paid to the web car site and I want to raise awareness to other potential buyers to beware.