Help my friend

merlin

merlin

merlin

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
20,707
Location
England
A month ago she was looking for a car for £5,000.

I showed her the way of the Honda, she liked.

Two weeks later she arrives at work in an 04 plate Vauxhall Astra, petrol, low spec edition. FSH/MOT/TAX/RAC and warranty blah blah and "only" 50k miles etc etc but jesus - £5k!?

:(

Within first few days a few faults developed - firstly it randomly wouldn't start, then the boot wouldn't shut tight, then the central locking stuck on one of the rear doors.

Dealer fixed them.

However, yesterday the car went into limp to work mode. When she got in I went out and had a look - spotted straight away complete lack of coolant in expansion tank, lifting rad cap - mayo. Ugh oh.

Called dealer and they said get RAC to tow it to us - RAC guy came out and gave it the instant HGF!

Question - can she demand her money back? Dealer has given her a courtesy car whilst they fix the Astra but I think now might be a good time to actually shove the Astra up the dealers jacksie and get her money back under sale of goods.
 
merlin said:
A month ago she was looking for a car for £5,000.

I showed her the way of the Honda, she liked.

Two weeks later she arrives at work in an 04 plate Vauxhall Astra, petrol, low spec edition. FSH/MOT/TAX/RAC and warranty blah blah and "only" 50k miles etc etc but jesus - £5k!?

:(

Within first few days a few faults developed - firstly it randomly wouldn't start, then the boot wouldn't shut tight, then the central locking stuck on one of the rear doors.

Dealer fixed them.

However, yesterday the car went into limp to work mode. When she got in I went out and had a look - spotted straight away complete lack of coolant in expansion tank, lifting rad cap - mayo. Ugh oh.

Called dealer and they said get RAC to tow it to us - RAC guy came out and gave it the instant HGF!

Question - can she demand her money back? Dealer has given her a courtesy car whilst they fix the Astra but I think now might be a good time to actually shove the Astra up the dealers jacksie and get her money back under sale of goods.
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I would ask politely for a refund or an exchange of car.

What is the exact spec on the Astra? It may have been abused by previous the owners.
 
Chris344 said:
I would ask politely for a refund or an exchange of car.
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This.

In all honesty I'd have absolutley no faith what so ever in the dealer "fixing" the car.

They sold the car in that condition in the first place so what sort of botch job are they going to do in order to "fix" this issue?
 
I think it's a 1.4 petrol, but it could be a 1.6. Manual, 5 door.

It only had one lady owner & the car was bought from a Vauxhall dealer!
 
One lady owner and HGF, same happened with my n00b 206 buy :(

I'd be complaining that HGF failure can have unseen consequences on the engine block as it's overheated and therefore could have developing weaknesses. Probably very far fetched but worth a shot. A new engine won't be a viable repair option so they might just throw in the towel and refund hopefully.
 
People who ask for advice and then don't follow it are the scourge of the motoring enthusiast.

I think the only person who has followed my advice is my sister. Well done to her :)
 
Right, today we found her home insurance had legal protection cover built in so we got some free legal advice - they told us what to put in a recorded delivery letter - sale of goods act - formally rejecting the car etc.

The legal cover will actually pay for all the legal fees if they don't respond positively to the request for them to take the car back and legal action is required.

Was/is an Astra Life, pretty tidy looking actually (condition wise, not equip wise), but it's got some pretty big underlying issues.

Going to take a week or so but hopefully she gets her £5k back and then it's time to head the advice. Really why do 99% of people ask for advice and then immediately ignore it?
 
Good question, because people want self validation or validation of an idea, they've actually already decided.

Reminds me of many OCUK car threads.
 
Haha shes barking. Is it the new shape ones? I had my eye on a gorgeous 02 plate one with 70k miles on it for £3k, but I kid you not it was pretty much showroom condition, the only reason I didnt buy it was becuse this place slates the Astra and seems to adore the Focus.
 
Stellios said:
Haha shes barking. Is it the new shape ones? I had my eye on a gorgeous 02 plate one with 70k miles on it for £3k, but I kid you not it was pretty much showroom condition, the only reason I didnt buy it was becuse this place slates the Astra and seems to adore the Focus.
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Does not compute.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Does not compute.
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What doesnt? This place laughs at the Astra and seem to praise the Focus so when looking I found a lush Astra which im still slapping myself for not buying, but I only didnt buy it because here seems to hate them compared to the Focus. Yeah I know its probably overpriced, but trust me, there wasnt a single fault, anywhere at all.
 
The dash is made out of cheap plastics, in the sport model it looks like some barryboy has painted it silver using a cheap spraycan from Halfords.

I don't like how the normal astras drive, vs the focus things get even worse.

The boot loading area is poor.

I didn't get along with the seats.

The focus looks much better as a 5 door car the astra doesn't look right with more than 3 doors.


But if you based a car buying decision on what a forum might think about it more fool you, kinda stupid don't you think?
 
I'm not up on Astra's to know whether it's new shape or not, it's an 04.
Condition wise it was actually so good I was looking for signs of overspray but it all looked totally genuine. Just goes to show that tidy cars can still have been abused.

Anyway, god only knows how this car has lost every last drop of coolant and then fried itself, there was no signs of split hoses/rad damage etc.
 
You genuinely went to a garage, spotted an Astra, looked around it, poked a few buttons, checked the general condition etc & despite it ticking your boxes... you didn't buy it because OcUK Motors prefers a Focus.

I hope your all bloody pleased with yourselves, poor Stellios!
 
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