What to do

[Nicoletta 0]

2007 Mini Cooper

Covered 3k since sale, 5 days before 6 months of ownership and a fault develops.

Loss of power, struggling to pull away at junctions. Customer doesn’t inform us until take it to an independent garage.

Estimate sent over - new timing (chain noise) never noticed or complained about by customer, plugs, coil packs etc, potential vanos fault.

Problem is during diagnostics garage snapped the dipstick. Car driven in by customer, now it’s a nonrunner. Customer blaming us, snapping dipstick was unavoidable according to the technician even though he has checked the oil weekly since purchase (25 times) never snapping the dipstick himself but fault was already present, we sold car unfit for purpose etc.

Customer’s daughter ran for 5 and a half months, 3k covered. Already bought her another car at the time this low power fault developed and now wants a refund after taking to a garage not us to diagnose, we went to collect told it’s nonrunner. He’s adimant still runs and drives. We just refused to collect.

Best route in these circumstances?

[Nick M.K. 574]

Hi, before the other boys and girls chip in would you mind adding a couple of words to introduce yourself and your business first. 

[Nicoletta 0]

I’m never very good at this. Nicoletta - Used Car Dealerships, 30 - 40 stock, midrange. Assume that’s what you mean?

[Nick M.K. 574]

I meant maybe a real company name or a location or even just "Hi, my name is Daniel (for example) a dealer from the Midlands and I have a small problem with a customer that I would love some help with..."

Even that would've been enough. 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Bloody Rude in my book. No introduction, no hi guys I would be really grateful if you could help... Boils my piss when newbies expect us to give up our time to help them when there’s not even a please or thank you. 

[sparky 274]

1 minute ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Bloody Rude in my book. No introduction, no hi guys I would be really grateful if you could help... Boils my piss when newbies expect us to give up our time to help them when there’s not even a please or thank you. 

Like. 

[Nick M.K. 574]

As they say in the movies: 

Lost me with "2007 Mini Cooper" 

27 minutes ago, Nicoletta said:

Best route in these circumstances?

Full refund + £300 compensation for the customer's trouble + £15 for a replacement dipstick. 

[NOACROSS 414]

Hi Nicoletta.

Excuse my sighs also and I’m struggling to answer another newbie one, but we do get a lot of this. 

What is your handover paperwork like? Pdi, New Mot etc? Any warranty paperwork? What did they sign for?

You may be better off joining Lawgistics  -invaluable in this circumstance but look up ‘fair useage’ maybe. Mini is a dreadful product at that age and chains are common  

The customer has to take care of ’their car’ and fair wear and tear is not covered  it good luck with that!

A good mechanic would have repaired the broken dipstick and you do have a right to inspect.

what do you mean ‘you sold the car unfit for purpose’? How exactly did you do this?

That’s about all I can contribute on a busy wet Wednesday. 

[Mojo121 229]

Can we start a pot up? Everyone with less than 50 posts who needs advice adds to the £50 advice jar and we all go on the slosh at Xmas?

[Nicoletta 0]

You know you are all abit mean to be honest. I didn’t get that reading through previous. Seemed like a nice bunch....Been reading this forum on and off since AutoTrader killed there’s. My apologises for not introducing myself. I see that must be a big thing but I didn’t realise...I’ve been reading different threads on here for a while. Never contributed or commented as every thing I would have said had been said. Never saw an introduction but maybe they wernt new. Didn’t realise. I tried to correct it, you can see that and then all this shit anyway.

Just joined today as had a dilemma over this, thought like minded people going through the same crap might have some opinions....thanks for the help tho and for being stand up gentlemen about it

Thank you for that. I’ve heard of them before. Didn’t really look into it, will give it a go now.

We provide three months excludes wear and tear - customer signs and dates.

As for not fit for purpose that’s customers words. Wasn’t broken when they drove 3000 miles over basically six months but he says it wasn’t fit at the time of sale due to the issues now. 

[Ocsltd 133]

3 minutes ago, Nicoletta said:

You know you are all abit mean to be honest. I didn’t get that reading through previous. Seemed like a nice bunch....Been reading this forum on and off since AutoTrader killed there’s. My apologises for not introducing myself. I see that must be a big thing but I didn’t realise...I’ve been reading different threads on here for a while. Never contributed or commented as every thing I would have said had been said. Never saw an introduction but maybe they wernt new. Didn’t realise. I tried to correct it, you can see that and then all this shit anyway.

Just joined today as had a dilemma over this, thought like minded people going through the same crap might have some opinions....thanks for the help tho and for being stand up gentlemen about it

Is it that time of the month again.... 

[Nicoletta 0]

Oh no, not yet. I could just go home and get this kinda shit. Don’t fancy it on here, thank you :-)

1 minute ago, Ocsltd said:

Is it that time of the month again.... 

 

[NOACROSS 414]

1 minute ago, Nicoletta said:

Oh no, not yet. I could just go home and get this kinda shit. Don’t fancy it on here, thank you :-)

 

Welcome. You’ll fit in fine! :0)

[Rory RSC 596]

Your PDI report will show dipstick was fine at point of sale. I would also be leading customer to put something in writing clarifying that they have checked the oil over the last 6 months and that dipstick was fine at this point. 

I would not entertain the broken dipstick after this many miles on an old car. 

[Tony911 79]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

As they say in the movies: 

Lost me with "2007 Mini Cooper" 

Full refund + £300 compensation for the customer's trouble + £15 for a replacement dipstick. 

LOL

[Mikey360 68]

If you didn't break the dipstick how can they blame you?

It's happened to a mate of mine on an old Passat, the orange plastic fell to bits when he checked the oil and the metal dipstick went down the tube, difference here is he didn't start the engine and called me for help!

If he broke the dipstick and then started the engine isn't that negligence?

[MattR 177]

Not sure how a broken dipstick makes it a non runner. The owner should have at least informed you, but dont think that is a legal requirement unless its on your order. There are plenty of similar situations on here, I think you need to consider what a judge might do if it went that far. its a problem within 6 months so unless theres some serious abuse taken place, I think you would still be responsible (in his eyes)

 

[Stalker 180]

Hi Nicoletta

If it was me, id be collecting the car and have a look at it.

If the dipstick has snapped - quite often this can be rectified easily by removing the filler tube and taking out the snapped part, alternatively if the snapped part has fallen inside the sump, don't worry about it just now and put a new dipstick in (the sump may need to come off to do the timing chain).

As everyone is already stating, its all about your PDI, MOT? PDI Sheet? etc... roll your sleeves up and fight back is the best advice really.

 

PS. Dont sell cheaper minis.

 

[Mikey360 68]

2 minutes ago, tradex said:

I'd like to help but maybe worth reposting from the start, I can't make head of the scenario. 

I agree! How many miles has it done? Service History? What did you sell it for?

[tradegirl 112]

1 hour ago, Nick M.K. said:

As they say in the movies: 

Lost me with "2007 Mini Cooper" 

Full refund + £300 compensation for the customer's trouble + £15 for a replacement dipstick. 

I'm pretty sure you're joking...aren't you??

Guys surely a car that has ran well for 5.5 months and done 3k miles is clearly "fit for purpose", and easy to prove that no issues were present at the point of sale? This sounds pretty cut and dry to me?

Even if the chain does go, it's the customer's fault if they keep driving the car to the point where it damages the engine. Having said that, can't expect Joe Bloggs to know what the beginnings of a noisy chain sound like.

[Arfur Dealy 823]

41 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

I'm pretty sure you're joking...aren't you??

Guys surely a car that has ran well for 5.5 months and done 3k miles is clearly "fit for purpose", and easy to prove that no issues were present at the point of sale? This sounds pretty cut and dry to me?

Even if the chain does go, it's the customer's fault if they keep driving the car to the point where it damages the engine. Having said that, can't expect Joe Bloggs to know what the beginnings of a noisy chain sound like.

Yes, its sarcasm.... 

 

 

[Nicoletta 0]

1 hour ago, tradex said:

I'd like to help but maybe worth reposting from the start, I can't make head of the scenario. 

 

Ok from the start. 

 

Sold car 20/04/18. 54429, for £3450. Regased the air con and new windscreen as part of that.  MOT done 19/04. No advisories. 

Customer comes back 15/10/18 with estimate for some repairs that need doing. It was loosing power in lower gears. Bought daughter another car so no longer needs it, wants it fixing to sell or some money back for repairs. We agreed amount, went to collect the car from the garage it’s at. Boys show up and garage informs us it’s a non-runner. Dipstick has snapped in engine.

Go back to the guy and obviously we are perplexed as to why it’s a nonrunner. It was only a loss of power and struggling to pull away at junctions. His wife informs us in writing that the garage while carrying out diagnostics snapped the dipstick, it was unavoidable and not their fault.

Confirmed with the man that the oil was checked weekly, 26 times during the time they had the car. So obviously dipstick was fine up until it went into the garage.

Garage reported timing chain noise and due to rocking has snapped the dipstick. No reports of noise from the engine at all. Timing chains when going make a real racket as we all know. 

 

Customer never formally rejected the car, misled us in negotiations in a buy back that it was running and now wants to blame us for not collect and breaking agreement as garage told him we were briefed to find any reason not too. 

They took a garage to a garage for diagnostics, drove it in and now it’s a none runner and somehow we are responsible for that. He won’t have it that the garage was negligent or responsible in anyway.

My point is how can we inspect the car now to diagnose the fault they had? The dipstick was snapped by another garage and now it’s not running. We don’t know what else they could have potentially done or what damage the dipstick snapping has caused. 

 

I hope thats enough. If not, I’ll add :-)

[David Horgan 564]

3 minutes ago, Nicoletta said:

 

Ok from the start. 

 

Sold car 20/04/18. 54429, for £3450. Regased the air con and new windscreen as part of that.  MOT done 19/04. No advisories. 

Customer comes back 15/10/18 with estimate for some repairs that need doing. It was loosing power in lower gears. Bought daughter another car so no longer needs it, wants it fixing to sell or some money back for repairs. We agreed amount, went to collect the car from the garage it’s at. Boys show up and garage informs us it’s a non-runner. Dipstick has snapped in engine.

Go back to the guy and obviously we are perplexed as to why it’s a nonrunner. It was only a loss of power and struggling to pull away at junctions. His wife informs us in writing that the garage while carrying out diagnostics snapped the dipstick, it was unavoidable and not their fault.

Confirmed with the man that the oil was checked weekly, 26 times during the time they had the car. So obviously dipstick was fine up until it went into the garage.

Garage reported timing chain noise and due to rocking has snapped the dipstick. No reports of noise from the engine at all. Timing chains when going make a real racket as we all know. 

 

Customer never formally rejected the car, misled us in negotiations in a buy back that it was running and now wants to blame us for not collect and breaking agreement as garage told him we were briefed to find any reason not too. 

They took a garage to a garage for diagnostics, drove it in and now it’s a none runner and somehow we are responsible for that. He won’t have it that the garage was negligent or responsible in anyway.

My point is how can we inspect the car now to diagnose the fault they had? The dipstick was snapped by another garage and now it’s not running. We don’t know what else they could have potentially done or what damage the dipstick snapping has caused. 

 

I hope thats enough. If not, I’ll add :-)

Whoever broke the dip stick caused the non running fault surely as its snapped and fell in the sump , some dork head must have started the engine at a garage , 

Third party interference in my thinking , sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one at your expense  

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

Yes key fact, The garage surely had indemnity against  Muppet tech`s ??   this is the root cause of there problem

By coming to you and  blaming you for there issue is like when the titanic hit the Iceberg and saying it was the icebergs fault

[Dave2302 387]

Have you actually tried to start this Car ??

As we all know there are Garages and then there are Garages, someone there could be trying to get it for fuck all and knows it only needs a cheap fix, may be nothing to do with timing chains etc.

I'd get it back to base and go from there, "without prejudice" of course