Brian D

Seriously, do not buy a car from here.

This is very long but it is very detailed and informative, and perhaps a lesson. I suggest you read it before buying a car here. In the beginning it seemed great. The car seemed to go well, looked nice enough, scratches and stuff were there of course, but I decided to buy it. He said that there was a slight slip in the clutch, so he said he would replace the clutch before he gave it to me which he said he did though it wasn't evident on the test drive and we went up a mountain... Howecer, despite asking numerous times over the coming months, he never sent me the invoice for that work. It was paid by credit card over the phone on the day I test drove it. He never explained at point of sale that it was a 30 day warranty over the phone either, I asked him about it when I collected the car. He never sent the invoice for the clutch replacement later, or when I requested them over the phone or again when I asked for it when I took the car back for repair which he refused to do, actually he would not even consider that there was the problem which was an obvious and serious one, more on this later. I also did not receive his terms and conditions until I went and collected the car from him the final time after he refused to repair it, so that Barclaycard could have a copy. Almost as soon as I bought it the Covid issue hit and the lockdown began so the car was hardly used, and he closed the garage and I couldn't get hold of him when the problems began. There was a coolant leak from day one but with the very light use due to lockdown and not being able to contact the garage and my mother dying of cancer, I had to get it sorted myself later. The problems with the car started just 15 days after the 30 day guarantee ran out. In one month I paid out £550 on three faults. First it was the condenser which was leaking and had to be replaced and the system then regassed. £197. At which time they also noticed that the wrong antifreeze was put in the car, blue and not red. Next the leak which was getting worse. It was the water pump which was leaking so I ended up having a timing belt kit changed as well as it is good practice £250. And then three days later the thermostat got stuck closed, probably because wrong antifreeze had been in the car when bought and had probably been mixed with red over time, making a jelly-like substance that can cause issues like this, and leaks. Another £108. So it was still losing water after this at a rate of 3/4 of a litre every 2 weeks which I planned eventually to try to fix. I still couldn't get hold of the garage owner because of lockdown so I had no choice other than to pay for these things myself. Had I known then what I know now I should have contacted Citizens Advice immediately instead of waiting like I did. Then about 2 months after I bought the car it began intermittently making a rattling noise, I thought it was because it was 13 years old, or a loose support on the exhaust. it then got really bad. I took it to a local garage where he tested it on the forecourt and asked if I was certain that the entire clutch had been replaced. I told him that I was led to believe that it had been but that I had never been given proof, so he said that he thought it was a gearbox issue and advised me to contact the seller. It was still a possibility that it was the thrust bearing so I contacted the now open garage. He refused to get the car brought him to put the problem right but he admitted it was still under guarantee but it was left up to me to drive my car 30 miles to him, leave it there, come home and then go back down when it was fixed - or to pay for a transporter to take the car there. When I called to see if it was fixed a few days later I was told that the clutch was 'fine' but there was an acceptable amount if play in the lay shaft bearing. I protested that any play in a gearbox where tolerances are so critical was unacceptable, especially on a car that was 60,000 miles under average (at 12,000 miles per year), and which had only 3 months ago had a new clutch put in it. The garage owner then went a bit short with me and told me that all old cars have noises, that he would "drive this car to Scotland and back - no trouble", and told me to: "fetch the car and if you want to fix it, scrap it or drive it afterwards, it's up to you, but fetch the car". The point here is that the 'noise' was obvious and obviously not a normal rattle from an old car. It was coming directly from the gearbox/clutch area and they could not have 'not' heard it. I phoned my local garage with a view on getting it fixed, and I told him what the problem was. He said the car is now not really as reliable to drive as they made out, it could cause more damage to the rear of the gearbox and it would be cheaper to get the gearbox replaced. But he advised that it would be expensive and a waste of money. He asked me the response from the garage from where I bought it , and then said that they are "fobbing you off". He also said why he believed the issue had occured, and that it was down to one of four reasons that stemmed from when they changed the clutch. Which I will not go into here but in my opinion he was certainly correct about one of them. He also said to contact Trading Standards and Citizens Advice and explained: "that all small garage owners will try to fob you off with a short guarantee, but they all know the law". He told me that the car is meant to be fit for purpose and reliable. He said even "wear and tear" is not apllicable here, for a car of this age and mileage, and the timing is really suspect given that the clutch had been worked on before I bought it. He also pointed out that I had already had a few problems with it and it was less than 4 months since I bought it". Citizens advice advised me to write to the garage owner. I was more than fair. I told him I'd not take the current look at the car as the last chance to repair, that I would leave the car there for him to fix it. Gave him all the legal information and even told him that depending on the outcome of the letter would not consider a claim for inconvenience. Inconvenience was considerable. I bought the car because my mother had just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. I needed it to visit in hospital and after lockdown to errand and look after her at home. I had to stop work as a minibus driver for this so had no other transport. It had already spent about 8 days in garages. By the time the gearbox issue began she had died and even when I used it when caring for her she only lived a mile away. After she died in June, as the executor to her estate I desperately needed the car. Well,after his "come and fetch the car"after refusing to even admit the fault. I went to pick up the car on Thursday 23rd and drove it 28 miles home. On Friday 24th I went on a trip to LIDL to do overdue shopping, on the way back home It began rattling again, then as I tried to get home did so even more loudly, then, 300 yards later, just a mile or so from my house it went really noisy and it broke down completely. Rattling like crazy even when in neutral. It had done just 42 miles since I was told it could drive to Scotland and back by the garage owner before you brought it home from his garage, and 30 miles of those 42 were coming home from there. RAC towed the car to garage - stated reason of breakdown? Catastrophic gearbox failure! This, from a car that had "nothing wrong with it", a car that he could "drive to Scotland and back - no problem". A car that he had there for a week and ignored the noises it was making and saying they were noises that "all old cars make". A gearbox lasts the life of a car. Clutches go yes, but gearboxes no; not in three months. This gearbox was working for 13 years, then the clutch was changed for me to buy it, and then it made a noise, around 3 months later it failed completely and utterly. Sorry but that is not a coincidence in my humble opinion. Gearboxes do not fail like that - not in three months. Barclaycard of course saw that I was legally covered because the car was not fit for purpose, neither was it the quality it should have been for a car that age and mileage. After considering all the proof I sent to them they refunded me the purchase amount and the £550 I had spent on repairs. They will now recoup this from the garage owner I assume. This process took about a year but finally was resolved. A Trading Standards advisor said it all when he phoned me. "I think he's dealt with Trading Standards quite a lot in the past, he knows his way around and knows what to say,". I would suggest you don't ever buy a car from this garage, but if you do, then pay by credit card, not cash. Also keep everything, all paperwork and keep written records and dates. He was nice enough as a person but did not do what he should have done with respect to the car he sold to me.