Help - bought a bad car.

Thanks for all the replies and thanks for not ripping into me for being a total fool as I feel bad enough.

One thing I did realise, if nothing else, is that it would not be a good idea to post the name of the garage, I really wanted to though.

We don't want to get the car fixed, we just want our money back. I have no idea how the Small Claims Court works but I imagine it has potential to be very expensive. However, I don't think we have much choice if the garage flatly refuses to give us our money back. Trading Standards did say that we would have a very strong case if it did go to court though, so I suppose that's something.

I was wanting (am still trying) to give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't know, but the whole issue with the buckled alloy wheel makes it very difficult to. I mean, once the car is up on a ramp it stands out a country mile. The dealers themselves (from looking at their website) do lots of different car work, servicing, MOTs and what have you, so I find it hard to believe they would miss both the dodgy gearbox and the buckle.

I'll go and take a photo of the engine bay now. Should I be concerned about any info that might be revealed in the photo, I mean any serial numbers or anything? Obviously I don't want to give any info that could come back to bite me at a later date.
 
To save any future headaches i'd just reject the car and press for the full refund. What happens when you come to try and sell it later on?
 
I imagine that the wrong engine/gearbox wouldn't always be the easiest of things to spot when buying a car unless you really knew what you were looking for. Most of it is covered with plastic and most people would only check the oil/belts.
 
shoot1st said:
I have no idea how the Small Claims Court works but I imagine it has potential to be very expensive.
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A rough guide to SCC costs can be found here

shoot1st said:
I'll go and take a photo of the engine bay now. Should I be concerned about any info that might be revealed in the photo, I mean any serial numbers or anything? Obviously I don't want to give any info that could come back to bite me at a later date.
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As Phil W said, lift the bonnet, take a few steps back and snap. Blur out your registration plate if you wish, everything else of use will be too small to read :)
 
I would not advocate posting it on a public forum, as said, bad idea. I was genuinly wondering, Especially as it means I can avoid it in future.
 
Pretty impressive to buckle a rear wheel like that so I imagine the original fix which you requested was to swap it from front to back.

When I bought a car last year I wanted a wheel wobble issue sorted before purchasing. I told the seller I had noted the tread depths and condition of the alloys so don't think about swapping them around! (It was just balancing that was required).
 
Tesla said:
Pretty impressive to buckle a rear wheel like that so I imagine the original fix which you requested was to swap it from front to back.
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Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw it too.

Right here's the engine bay, I've reduced the picture in size but I still have the original so I can redo it if it's too small (edit: please tell me if the picture reveals anything I don't want it to).

oegt1.jpg


The dealer told us all their cars are HPi checked and all come with one month warranty as standard, which was one of the main reasons why we decided to go for it.
 
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I wonder why they had to grind the gearbox, maybe they fitted one from a focus or cmax, a Fiesta isnt a car that you would bother putting another marques engine into, the engines are freely available for not much coinage.

I'd be checking the engines number and comparing them to the V5.

Out of interest what year is the car and how much did you pay?
 
Looks like a normal Ford Duratorq engine to me, so I'm not sure what the local mechanic is talking about with regards to the engine coming from another manufacturer :confused:
 
more than likely a re con or salvage gearbox from the same make and model just earlier or later where ford changed the locating lugs, you would like to find out if they or someone has fitted a earlier older higher mileage box.

may be worth seeing if there are any fault codes from a miss matched box
 
maccapacca said:
more than likely a re con or salvage gearbox from the same make and model just earlier or later where ford changed the locating lugs, you would like to find out if they or someone has fitted a earlier older higher mileage box.

may be worth seeing if there are any fault codes from a miss matched box
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A manual gearbox won't provide any diagnostic data, engine looks like a standard Ford diesel engine.

Have you checked to see if engine number matches V5 doc?
 
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