Bought a car from ford dealer paid extended warranty, told them fault with gearbox, they said its fine, 6 months later it's broke...

unwashed potato! · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:10

Anyone know what right we have here?

Bought the car from official ford dealer, though it's not a ford car, I guess it was a trade in for them.

Paid for extended warranty to 6 months. It is an auto that we beleive had an issue from day one having it, where the gear change was jerky.

After a few months got it looked at under warranty. The garage said nothing wrong this is how it's supposed to be.

Jump to today and gearbox is confirmed as faulty as the issues got worse and now looking at £4(/£5k charge to fix.

Given we reported the fault to warranty firm and they said no it's fine, but clearly it wasn't, do we have any thing to work with here? The cost to fix is essentially 50 percent the value of the car

radderfire · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:20

What's the car?

What are the symptoms of the fault (in more detail)?

Who has now declared it faulty?

Expect the warranty firm to do anything they can to get out of paying you anything. They will say it's out of warranty now, which it is, and you don't really have a comeback. Really, you should have firstly rejected the car to begin with, and then secondly be more insistent there was a fault when they looked at it under warranty. Unfortunately from a legal standpoint, you probably aren't in a great position now, because you are out of warranty.

div0 · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:23

When did you purchase the car? How did the problem end up getting diagnosed, and by whom?

Scort · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:27

Not 100% certain, but if you reported the fault within warranty, then it should still be covered irrespective of the warranty expiring.

Not sure how accurate this is though...

unwashed potato! · 4 Jul 2025 at 20:37

radderfire said:
What's the car?

What are the symptoms of the fault (in more detail)?

Who has now declared it faulty?

Seat arona

Originally poor gear change in low gear, very jerky, but now the gearbox goes into emergency mode and sticks in d2. This is an automatic car.

Another garage has taken it and said this. Though I have a plug in obd and that said faulty clutch, and they've said the same thing, I can't be sure what they've done to confirm this over just assuming the cars error codes were accurate.

m_c · 4 Jul 2025 at 22:02

Legally you should have some warranty if you reported the fault prior to the warranty expiring.

However, if it's a clutch that has failed, then they are most likely exempt from warranty, as friction linings are classed as wear items and excluded from warranty, unless their failure has been caused by something else, which in the case of DSG gearbox (I'm assuming it's a DSG as VAG mostly use DSGs), could be a failed actuator/solenoid. However the issue is proving that.

I'd suggest seeing if there are any gearbox specialists nearby who repair DSG gearboxes, or even a good independent VW specialist, as any competent specialist should be able to give you a more accurate diagnosis/report, and then make a decision from there.

jpaul · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:05

Does the OBD data record anything historical during the time period in which you first complained ? ie. was the ford garage negligent in diagnosing & disclosing the problem then,
which would be an angle to claim under the warranty.

Malevolence · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:06

Might get more responses in

Motors

Two wheels, four wheels, general motoring stuff - talk about it here. For Motorsport please use The Motorsport Forum. Bikers please use the Biker's Cafe.

forums.overclockers.co.uk

radderfire · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:19

unwashed potato! said:
Anyone know what right we have here?

Bought the car from official ford dealer, though it's not a ford car, I guess it was a trade in for them.

After a few months got it looked at under warranty. The garage said nothing wrong this is how it's supposed to be.

Was this the Ford dealer that said there was nothing wrong with it?

When you say jerky from day one, how jerky? Was the car actually shuddering, i.e. its movement was affected? No automatic gearbox should be jerky, it does sound like a fob off.

I would take a look at the terms of the warranty and see what it says about transmission problems, to see what it covers. It will then be a case of preparing your case to convince the warranty company (which I'm guessing is not Ford but a third party) to pay towards repair. If you took it to their recommended repairer to being with, that's a good start.

Felon · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:25

unwashed potato! said:
Anyone know what right we have here?

Bought the car from official ford dealer, though it's not a ford car, I guess it was a trade in for them.

Paid for extended warranty to 6 months. It is an auto that we beleive had an issue from day one having it, where the gear change was jerky.

After a few months got it looked at under warranty. The garage said nothing wrong this is how it's supposed to be.

Jump to today and gearbox is confirmed as faulty as the issues got worse and now looking at £4(/£5k charge to fix.

Given we reported the fault to warranty firm and they said no it's fine, but clearly it wasn't, do we have any thing to work with here? The cost to fix is essentially 50 percent the value of the car

How long exactly was the time, from the date you purchased the car, to the first time you reported the fault and is any of this in writing? (this is very important, as the clock stops from the point where the problem is first reported).

Essentially, if the car has a fault and it's past 30 days from purchase but less than 6 months - you must give the garage an opportunity to fix it, if they can't fix it - you can reject it and get your money back.

The warranty doesn't actually matter that much here, because this is a statutory right under the consumer rights act; https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/rejecting-a-car/

(you might want to check your warranty paperwork in detail, a lot of extended car warranties that are not dealer factory warranties, have a lot of exclusions and normally quite low limits on the amount they will pay out on certain items, so make sure you check the small print.)

Was this purchased on car finance (hire purchase?) (this is very important)

IC3 · 4 Jul 2025 at 23:47

I would say, if the car isn't right, just refuse it under those grounds, maybe get a 2nd opinion from the cars dealer (in this case seat or any VAG dealer). I haven't heard of a single person yet, to get a nice quick stress free solution, best to act quick and just refuse it.

There's loads of helpful info on the MSE forums, I was in a similar situation and the templates from MSE helped me get 99% of my money back.

tom_e · 5 Jul 2025 at 06:56

Felon said:
Essentially, if the car has a fault and it's past 30 days from purchase but less than 6 months - you must give the garage an opportunity to fix it, if they can't fix it - you can reject it and get your money back.

The warranty doesn't actually matter that much here, because this is a statutory right under the consumer rights act; https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/rejecting-a-car/

From current experience this isn't always as easy as it should be, be prepared for them to make life difficult

BUDFORCE · 5 Jul 2025 at 08:31

Don't buy an automatic. Don't buy an extended warranty.

Felon · 5 Jul 2025 at 08:36

tom_e said:
From current experience this isn't always as easy as it should be, be prepared for them to make life difficult

True, I bought a car on finance a few years ago and the turbo blew up, it took about 2 months but I did successfully reject it.

It is a major pain in the ass, but knowing your back rights and options from the beginning can save a lot of time and pain.

muon · 5 Jul 2025 at 09:13

Why did you not report it to Ford, they sold you a broken car.

They will have to show the fault did not exist when they sold it to you as a defect if it occurred within 6 months.

If you are now only telling them 9 months down the line, you will have to show the problem existed when you bought it.

Nasher · 5 Jul 2025 at 12:41

If it's reported inside the warranty, it's still covered. They can't get out of it that easily.

Felon · 5 Jul 2025 at 17:46

Nasher said:
If it's reported inside the warranty, it's still covered. They can't get out of it that easily.

Probably not.

If you buy a used car ( 3+ or more years old, with no manufacturer warranty) and take out an extended warranty, that warranty will typically only cover certain things and contain a lot of restrictions. For example - it might only cover up to £1k-1.5k of repairs, so (as in this case) the repair is going to cost £5k, the warranty will only cover around 1/3rd of the cost. I'd be very surprised if a standard used car warranty would pay out anything close to £5k on a gearbox.

When you buy a used car, if the fault was present or developing at the point of purchase and it's a significant fault (such as a knackered gearbox), it's generally best to go back to the dealer and have them fix it - as per the consumer rights act.

m_c · 5 Jul 2025 at 19:39

Most third party warranty's aren't worth the paper that they're written on.
Usually full of exemptions (often for any known common expensive repairs), limited cost of repair/labour rate, and lots of garages just won't get involved with doing any work for said warranty companies, especially if you're not a regular customer.

muon · 5 Jul 2025 at 20:08

Nasher said:
If it's reported inside the warranty, it's still covered. They can't get out of it that easily.

The warranty provider easily could. They could say it was fine at the point they looked at it. You don't really have many protections against the warranty provider, only the T&Cs they sold their insurance on.

The dealer on the other hand is subject to consumer rights where goods must be reasonably free of defects. However, they also could reject and ask for proof based on the provision that says after 6 months, the consumer has to prove a defect existed at the point of sale. If they were notified within 6 months, the dealer must prove it didn't at the point of sale.

Jono8 · 5 Jul 2025 at 20:11

Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get very far with this.

Cars are so complex these days, and anything that majorly goes wrong always costs 4 figures these days, so I just spend more in the first place and get something that still has loads of manufacturer warranty on it.

Sure, if I got lucky I'd save money getting something older and cheaper, but one massive bill, and you may as well have got something newer.

Aftermarket warranties are often not worth the paper they are written on.