Sorry, what? "Audibly dying"? Perhaps an exceptionally good mechanic MIGHT be able to tell just from listening to a car that it's on its last legs but somehow I doubt the chap selling it (unless he's already had someone look at it) could.
Father got ripped off - what to do
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Sorry, what? "Audibly dying"? Perhaps an exceptionally good mechanic MIGHT be able to tell just from listening to a car that it's on its last legs but somehow I doubt the chap selling it (unless he's already had someone look at it) could.
A planet where we read the thread before commenting. The seller is a smug little rich **** with a nice big house, not exactly something that screams 1.2 Corsa. Like the first original responses estimated he is most likely a trader trying it on.
Anyone who has ever played GTA or heard a car would have been able to tell what a muller'd car sounds like, the OP's dad wouldn't have bought it if he could have heard it.
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Or it's his dad's house? Plenty of middle / upper class in late teens / early 20s that would have a poxy little corsa to avoid the several grand in insurance a bigger car would incur.
I think its clearly not a trader, most likely he lives at home with mum and dad like most people his age.
1.2 corsa, pretty ordinary first or second car for an 18-20 year old. Anyone who drives a corsa probably has little to no interest in cars and would have no clue what noises are what.
It's (seemingly) running fine, just a standard wear and tear replacement needed. Not sure you can get them on that count.
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All this is irrelevant, taking him to court and saying you 'bought it under duress' is a completely ridiculous suggestion and I cannot even see how it would work.
Exactly how does one find a car advertised for sale, make contact with a seller under their own accord, travel to visit the seller and then purchase the car under 'duress'? I am sure there are limited circumstances where something similar might happen but they will be rare enough for this not to be the court based sure thing your misguided opinion tells everyone it is.
This I do agree with and I said as much in my first post in this thread.
If this guy is a genuine private seller, this issue is closed - learn from it and move on, sure it's potentially ethically unsound (Though to be fair the majority of people sell old cars when they become unreliable so it's hardly unexpected and is why a) old private sale cars are cheap and b) You do homework first) but thats all it is.
If the guy is trading cars from his house then it's totally different.
I would have thought it's more likely a 20 year old living at home selling his cheap old 'first car' Corsa than a young professional dealer who's made his fortune and bought a huge house at the age of 20 from dealing in £1500 bangers.
He's a 20 year old with potentially questionable morals that knows full well he has no responsibility to the buyer after sale (bear in mind we've not been told timescale between sale and noises, maybe it WAS fine when he bought it? If it was a month ago maybe it wasn't making a noise at sale). Again, the 'private sale, buyers problem, tell them to get bent' is immediately posted by everyone here when someone posts saying they sold a car and now the tyre is flat, what should they do...
Sadly based on what I am reading here, your dad has been ****** and he is now ******. The world is full of people who will happily rip people off without a second thought and it seems that this may have happened here. The reason people get away with it is they are dealing with people who don't know better or who simply forget all logic and 'do the deal' because "he seemed like a nice bloke". The added issue is older people still believe they know best when in reality they often don't and it becomes a real embarrassment.
I had a similar issue some years back with my mum who took a TV to be repaired by a local TV repair shop and was ripped off for £120. The bloke did nothing, he was bent, which I established after I paid him a visit. His shop alone smelt bent and I would not have touched it with a bargepole but my mum thought he was a nice man and he had done a couple of TV's for friends. Put simply he took my mum for an idiot, something she is not, and played on the fact, he thought, that there would be no come back.
I got the money back through some 'collections' associates but he was scum and for me it became a point of principal that cost more to fix than the payment retuned, but mum got satisfaction and was none the wiser.
I hate scum, but sadly the country and world is full of it.
I had a similar issue some years back with my mum who took a TV to be repaired by a local TV repair shop and was ripped off for £120. The bloke did nothing, he was bent, which I established after I paid him a visit. His shop alone smelt bent and I would not have touched it with a bargepole but my mum thought he was a nice man and he had done a couple of TV's for friends. Put simply he took my mum for an idiot, something she is not, and played on the fact, he thought, that there would be no come back.
I got the money back through some 'collections' associates but he was scum and for me it became a point of principal that cost more to fix than the payment retuned, but mum got satisfaction and was none the wiser.
I hate scum, but sadly the country and world is full of it.
Pay for him to get it repaired if you can afford it/the debt, there's nothing else you can do but suck it up at this point really, the priority now is to make the car roadworthy before your dad tries to drive it and potentially ***** up the engine which will be much costlier.
These have a chain, Wear is pretty commonplace.
A rattle on start-up that goes away once the engine is running isn't "Too" much to worry about! (And is almost "Normal" for anything over 70,000 miles)
If it rattles all the time it is likely to be more urgent!
The job is listed as a 4.2 hour one but this is only a guide.
Noisy water pumps can sometimes be mistaken for worn timing chains (As happened to a friend of mine recently, By a main dealer no less!
)This is one of those "Suck it up" situations. Do the fix and enjoy an otherwise reliable little car! (As long as it isn't an easytronic!)
And just think yourself lucky it wasn't a late model Micra! (When the chains stretch on these it is a much bigger issue! and it is dead common too! )
If your dad is anywhere near Newcastle, we'll replace his timing chain and service the car for him, and you wil get change from £300.
My techs can do these in their sleep, it's a very common failure.
I'm sure you would have change from £600 from a main dealer, someone is trying to take him for a ride.
My techs can do these in their sleep, it's a very common failure.
I'm sure you would have change from £600 from a main dealer, someone is trying to take him for a ride.
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this is the same two mechanics that want to bill £700 for a new cam chain? take more quotes, its a Corsa.
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sounds a bit excessive for timing chain cost
When buying a car at this price you have to budget at least 500 quid to fix things.
It will have been self serviced, by a "family friend" who happens to be a mechanic, just not at all or somewhere in between.
In any case I'd be looking at all the belts pretty hard and thinking about replacing them, flushing the coolant and changing the oil. Next would be inspecting the tyres for signs of a cheapskate and replacing those if required.
It will have been self serviced, by a "family friend" who happens to be a mechanic, just not at all or somewhere in between.
In any case I'd be looking at all the belts pretty hard and thinking about replacing them, flushing the coolant and changing the oil. Next would be inspecting the tyres for signs of a cheapskate and replacing those if required.