GERARD B

Terrible car. Faults masked, broke down,

Fuel Gauge faulty - ran out of fuel Brake warning light on - back brakes worn to excess Dashboard display cuts out Horrific water ingress - inside the car is soaked Oil light coming on Driving home from the garage the brake warning light came on. After owning this car for 48 hours it ran out of fuel leaving me stranded but showing over half a tank on the gauge. I called the garage. They told me they were aware of the brake warning light fault, it's just a faulty connection, they had checked the actual brakes which were fine and I have to expect things like this with an older car. Being a mechanic of 40 years and knowing the trade, this gave me alarm bells and the impression I was dealing with someone who would make excuses and get aggressive if necessary rather than repair the car to a decent selling condition. Of course the brake warning system should be functioning correctly but this guy is arguing it. Regarding the fuel gauge I would have to return the car and leave it while they fixed it. As a mechanic, I decided to fix it myself. Here is what I found. The rear brakes did not have a connection fault they were in fact worn out. The inner brake pad will always wear out faster than the outer pad but the outer pad is easier to check. The wheels show no signs of being removed recently to allow for a full brake inspection. The fuel gauge - I guess they didn't know about it, neither did I. But buying a car with a 3/4 tank of fuel and then running out is unexpected expense. The car needed new senders which was quite expensive.. Water Ingress - this is the bit that annoyed me most as I believe it was known about and masked over. What I mean by that is there was a huge puddle under the passenger floor mat that MUST have been known about when vacuuming and prepping the car. The water stank of staleness and this was masked over with what appeared to be a full bottle of aftershave. Once that had evaporated the car is left with a strong stagnant odor that can not possible be overlooked. Fixing the fault is a major operation involving stripping out the interior, seats and carpets to dry them out. Finding and fixing the ingress is not always so easy either... So far I have sealed the sunroofs and no better. Tomorrow I am having the windscreen removed and resealed. I hope this fixes it. If it does not I will need to strip out the dashboard to see where it is coming in. Dashboard display works fine when the car is cold but fades and disappears as the car warms up. This is possibly due to the car being left sodden inside affecting the electrics. Either way, again, they used the car when it was hot so should have picked that up. The car had an oil change before I collected it but the oil light soon stated coming on when I was going around corners. I had to top the oil up by 3.5 litres to get it to the right level. Overall I appreciate it was a cheap car, but from a dealer forecourt it should not have had these faults it was palmed off on me with. I am just glad I can repair it myself rather than having to deal with them again.