car dealer refused to help
Discussion
In early January this year I purchased from an indepedant dealer a 2010 Freelander 2 valued at £11,999 this included a fresh MOT,service and three months warranty. During a journey on wednesday this week when braking I heard a scraping noise from the rear of the car and my suspicion was a worn brake pad, on reaching home I removed one rear wheel and confirmed that indeed one brake pad did not have any material left and I had metal to metal contact; the car has done 3,000 miles since I took delivery!
I telephoned the trader and told him the story, I then got a long spiel about how good his service agent was and MOT guy and that brake pads only last probably 10,000 miles and therefore this would fall in line with the wear rate; he was very sorry but he could not do anything for me. Now I have been round cars for over 50 years and I am not naive enough to accept this, I told him that I would expect new pads to last at least 20,000 miles on a sensibly driven vehicle and that for them to be worn out in 3,000 miles they must have been exceptionally low when the car was serviced and MOT'd, at the very least I would have expected to see an advisory on the MOT. However he was having none of it and although I suggested he might like to make a contribution to the cost of the pads he refused point blank and embarked on another spiel at which point I lost the will to live.
I took the car to my usual servicing garage who did an emergency job for me and indeed one pad had no material at all and was bright where it had rubbed on the disc, the other three pads had a maximum of 1/32" of materail, the hand brake was also found to be overtight; they also confirmed that in their opinion pads should last longer than the dealer had said and indeed it should have been picked up on the MOT.
Now am I being pedantic here, I agree the cost of the repair at £70.00 was not big in the great scheme of things but I feel the dealer should have offered some reimbursment and I have a concern about the service the vehicle received and was it sold to me in a dangerous condition; although to date nothing else has raised it's ugly head. What this has taught me is that when purchasing a used vehicle it would probably be wise to check a few essential things (other than oil and water) and not trust the servicing agent. I am not sure whether there is a way forward now in this dispute or should I just "suck it up".
I telephoned the trader and told him the story, I then got a long spiel about how good his service agent was and MOT guy and that brake pads only last probably 10,000 miles and therefore this would fall in line with the wear rate; he was very sorry but he could not do anything for me. Now I have been round cars for over 50 years and I am not naive enough to accept this, I told him that I would expect new pads to last at least 20,000 miles on a sensibly driven vehicle and that for them to be worn out in 3,000 miles they must have been exceptionally low when the car was serviced and MOT'd, at the very least I would have expected to see an advisory on the MOT. However he was having none of it and although I suggested he might like to make a contribution to the cost of the pads he refused point blank and embarked on another spiel at which point I lost the will to live.
I took the car to my usual servicing garage who did an emergency job for me and indeed one pad had no material at all and was bright where it had rubbed on the disc, the other three pads had a maximum of 1/32" of materail, the hand brake was also found to be overtight; they also confirmed that in their opinion pads should last longer than the dealer had said and indeed it should have been picked up on the MOT.
Now am I being pedantic here, I agree the cost of the repair at £70.00 was not big in the great scheme of things but I feel the dealer should have offered some reimbursment and I have a concern about the service the vehicle received and was it sold to me in a dangerous condition; although to date nothing else has raised it's ugly head. What this has taught me is that when purchasing a used vehicle it would probably be wise to check a few essential things (other than oil and water) and not trust the servicing agent. I am not sure whether there is a way forward now in this dispute or should I just "suck it up".
Gosh what a lot of abuse, not what I would expect from PH forum and was it really necessary.
To those who gave constructive comments/critiscism/agreement and links to sites that gave factual information, I thank you for your imput. To those who made supercilious comments I must assume you are used car dealers.
I believe this topic was exhausted a long time ago and for me it is done.
To those who gave constructive comments/critiscism/agreement and links to sites that gave factual information, I thank you for your imput. To those who made supercilious comments I must assume you are used car dealers.
I believe this topic was exhausted a long time ago and for me it is done.
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