Warranty issue - stand and bang or move on with my life?

Mr Badger

Mr Badger

Mr Badger

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2009
Posts
11,203
Bought a used car from a dealer advertised as being great condition with service history and 30 days warranty. After 3 weeks the battery won't hold a charge to start the car. Got it tested in a garage and they confirmed that it is definitely reached the end of its life and that the battery must have been on the way out for a while as it wouldn't get to this state overnight. Contacted the dealer who has responded that car batteries are a consumable and not covered by the warranty so is not prepared to offer anything at all towards the cost. I understand their point, however not best pleased with having to start spending money on the car so soon and within the warranty period.

Choose your path:

1) Stand and bang/post bad reviews/threaten legal action/letterbox.
2) Stop crying, just buy a new one and get on with your life. It's only a ******* battery for God's sake!
3) Make an actual sensible suggestion...
 
Batteries are generally not covered - check wording but mine excludes batteries, tyres and a couple of other things by name. (EDIT: interestingly on my last purchase there is a limited warranty on brakes - up to 1000 miles).

Personally I tend to replace the battery anyway on a used vehicle if it is a **** brand or more than a few years old with a Varta silver one (I do a lot of driving where having reliability is ideal).
 
Last edited:
Yeh agree with the above, batteries aren't covered, i've had to replace a battery soon after buying from a dealer.
 
Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Yeah battery either check yourself when inspecting, or put up with it IMO
Click to expand...

Though 99 times out of 100 they can check for a failing battery in advance - any decent dealer could/would do it as a check and replace if likely to fail soon. When I bought my pickup I wasn't very impressed by the servicing by the place who sold it and took it into a Nissan dealer for a once over and the service manager actually said to me the battery was "fine for now but first proper cold weather would likely see it struggle" and he was right.

Ultimately though it is rarely covered by any warranty on a used car but worth trying as the better places won't knowingly sell a car with something imminently failing but if they aren't interested you have little comeback.

If within 14 days could just reject the car on principle LOL which might twist their arm. Can't do that after 3 weeks though.
 
Last edited:
aye get the battery but just a thought are they allowed to sell it with only 30 days warranty , i was led to believe it was 3 months, and one of the local garages i used to do work for surprised me the other day by saying you had 6 months to return a faulty vehicle of course no doubt with cost etc?
all seems a bit of a minefield to be honest.
daughter has decided that shes keeping her galaxy bought just over 6 months ago and has resigned herself that she may need auto box repaired in the future (through up a valve problem , went back to dealer (with list) and came back supposed to have been fixed ...........
 
Batteries along with a million other things are classed as consumable and don't qualify as a warranty item.
That said, I would expect the trader/dealer to replace it under good will as it failed in under a month, but sadly there's plenty of penny pinching out there.
Just chalk it down to one of those things and check Euro car parts to see when they have a decent discount on a new batteries.
 
presumably the alternator seems fine ? with the long days and warmth wouldn't have thought even an ageing battery would be too stressed.
 
jpaul said:
presumably the alternator seems fine ? with the long days and warmth wouldn't have thought even an ageing battery would be too stressed.
Click to expand...

When the battery was tested they said that the alternator was charging it, but the battery was definitely at the end of its life.
 
JonRGV250 said:
Batteries along with a million other things are classed as consumable and don't qualify as a warranty item.
That said, I would expect the trader/dealer to replace it under good will as it failed in under a month, but sadly there's plenty of penny pinching out there.
Just chalk it down to one of those things and check Euro car parts to see when they have a decent discount on a new batteries.
Click to expand...

I bought my pickup from a VW commercial dealer and amongst other things it transpires they simply reset the fault codes indicating a serious problem with the EGR before sale... (had it back in to them for the EGR to be replaced under warranty anyhow so didn't save them anything). Complete opposite end of the spectrum with a Qashqai from a Nissan dealer - they even did the brakes and pads despite they'd have probably lasted another 1000 miles maybe (though whether I'd get the same treatment if I wasn't a regular customer I dunno).
 
Surprising about the VW (main?) dealer, as usually things like that and the Qashqai brakes will be done under whats called main dealer standards, which is a set of rules set by the manufacturer.
And by that I mean, if brake pads or tyre's are below and minimum thickness/depth, then the workshop will automatically replace them without asking permission from the sales manager.
When I was at Mercedes, the used car prep costs were astronomical, and whilst great for the customer and our workshop bonus, the used car profit was zero to minus.

Completely off topic, but I took a call yesterday from a customer wanting a hub/bearing replaced.
I asked why and it turned out he'd bought a car from some sort of dealer and upon driving it the front wheel had very nearly come off.
Further into the conversation it turned out that the car has massive spacers on with the standard wheel bolts which weren't long enough and had stripped the threads and fallen out (he also said one had snapped).
He took the car back, and I kid you not, they removed one bolt from the other wheels and fitted them to the loose wheel and sent him on his way.
The car is due in tomorrow and it'll be interesting to see the state it's in.
Main dealers are expensive to buy from, but in my many many years working for them, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that happening.
 
Last edited:
JonRGV250 said:
Completely off topic, but I took a call yesterday from a customer wanting a hub/bearing replaced.
I asked why and it turned out he'd bought a car from some sort of dealer and upon driving it the front wheel had very nearly come off.
Further into the conversation it turned out that the car has massive spacers on with the standard wheel bolts which weren't long enough and had stripped the threads and fallen out (he also said one had snapped).
He took the car back, and I kid you not, they removed one bolt from the other wheels and fitted them to the loose wheel and sent him on his way.
The car is due in tomorrow and it'll be interesting to see the state it's in.
Main dealers are expensive to buy from, but in my many many years working for them, I've never seen anything even remotely close to that happening.
Click to expand...

The scary thing is how many cars like that are we sharing the road with :s
 
Yea, from backstreet dealers who buy a lot of cars at auction and sell them unchanged.

The laws for selling unroadworthy cars needs to be far stricter and chase the dealership owner personally instead of the business.
 
Last edited:
Consumer Rights Act here is your friend, warranty doesn't really come into it as the CRA most likely is better than any warranty. Depending on how much a new battery is it may not be worth your time and effort to try and get the seller to buy you a new one especially if they aren't going to play ball.
 
Car no longer works within 30 days, tell them you'd like to start the ball rolling in rejecting the the car and returning it for a full refund.

Don't think this would actually apply to a failed battery but if you want to be a pain it may be enough just to get them to roll over for an easy life.
 
Would go down the suck it up and replace yourself with an item of your choosing i.e can choose a higher quality one, brand your used to.

Even if you got the garage to change it, there going to go down the cheapest route possible to change it so might not end up with something with a particularly strong shelf life anyway or poor quality unit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom