Major fault- Dealer saying write off

[StescoG66]

If my recent experience with my sons Corsa is anything to go by, it could come from an unlikely source. In his case it was cracked seam sealer in a box section where the wing rail meets the A pillar - a box section the bloody scuttle drains into!!!!!!. My money would be on something similar, maybe at the wheel arch. Another thing worth checking is the plastic membrane behind the door card.

Worth checking if there are rubber grommet under the sills - they could be chock full of water and it’s them running in to the cabin. I filled a kitchen basin with the water in the Corsa sill. Remove a grommet and see what happens.

[irc]

Leaks are weird. I found a pool of water in the tyre well of my Superb. Cause - the lense of the third brake light at the top of the tailgate which also houses the washer jet had cracked. Water (or screenwash) was running from there down inside the tailgate then into the boot. Light unit replaced and problem solved.

[BertBert]

I've had some success in the past with "captain tolley's creeping crack cure". Worked well in the tailgate area of a Rover 25.

Other than that I've generally had very little success in finding and curing leaks.

[OutInTheShed]

freedman said:

Car has recently been serviced, by Volvo. Service was part of their deal when buying the car

So the painful 35p/mile includes depreciation and servicing?

You might want to quibble about numbers but the car is clearly a wrong 'un and I'd be keen to see the back of it.
Lots of people find 12k miles costs them four grand or whatever in bills and depreciation.
The figure does not seem wildly out of line with what you'd pay leasing a car and doing 12,000 miles over several months?
They are under no obligation to give you that 12,000 miles for free.
The buyer could propose a lower figure.

I was asking an open question, what kind of figure is 'normal' what would other people expect?

It would be a lot to a shed driver who took a car from 130 to 142 kmiles, it might be cheap to a Porsche driver going from 6 to 18 k.

[Petrus1983]

I haven't read the whole thread but was the car driven through flood water?

[Wh00sher]

Petrus1983 said:

I haven't read the whole thread but was the car driven through flood water?

freedman in the first post of the thread said:

The car has not been driven through a flood, at least in the current ownership.

[freedman]

Petrus1983 said:

I haven't read the whole thread but was the car driven through flood water?

Not in his ownership, but even if it had previously the issue wouldnt return after being dried out, which it has

[Petrus1983]

freedman said:

Petrus1983 said:

I haven't read the whole thread but was the car driven through flood water?

Not in his ownership, but even if it had previously the issue wouldnt return after being dried out, which it has

Thanks for this. I've just left a role as a loss adjustor for a big insurance company - and a flooded car is an instant write off (even at quite high values). In this circumstance I'm a bit at a loss. The insurance won't cover mechanical breakdown.

[johnboy1975]

OutInTheShed said:

So the painful 35p/mile includes depreciation and servicing?

You might want to quibble about numbers but the car is clearly a wrong 'un and I'd be keen to see the back of it.
Lots of people find 12k miles costs them four grand or whatever in bills and depreciation.
The figure does not seem wildly out of line with what you'd pay leasing a car and doing 12,000 miles over several months?
They are under no obligation to give you that 12,000 miles for free.
The buyer could propose a lower figure.

I was asking an open question, what kind of figure is 'normal' what would other people expect?

It would be a lot to a shed driver who took a car from 130 to 142 kmiles, it might be cheap to a Porsche driver going from 6 to 18 k.

I'd say it would be worth a couple of grand less, plus they have the potential problem of selling it again. Could it be sold with an "approved used" warranty if the fault couldn't be replicated?

I'd also be very keen to get rid. A bit pissed off that it's cost me 4 grand, but if you'd kept it 3 years you'd probably be down 8 or 9 grand.

And I'd be mightily relieved that it's not cost me 20k plus, which your son must have been staring down the barrel of at times

[OutInTheShed]

johnboy1975 said:

I'd say it would be worth a couple of grand less, plus they have the potential problem of selling it again. Could it be sold with an "approved used" warranty if the fault couldn't be replicated?

I'd also be very keen to get rid. A bit pissed off that it's cost me 4 grand, but if you'd kept it 3 years you'd probably be down 8 or 9 grand.

And I'd be mightily relieved that it's not cost me 20k plus, which your son must have been staring down the barrel of at times

Exactly.
Unless I had a coherent case for saying the per mile deudcution is unfair, the going rate is say 20 not 35p, I'd be pleased to be out of it.

So, can anyone provide any info on how the 'fair' mileage deduction is agreed?

[zasker]

I’m not sure there is an industry wide figure. We’ve just rejected my wife’s Evoque, which was around 12 weeks old and had done 1250 miles. The dealer said they used a percentage to calculate the value which didn’t seem to include the mileage. He also said this was the figure they used across all their brands. It was around £3100 less than we paid for it, haggled and he knocked £600 of this. He also gave a £3000 discount of the replacement vehicle so we ended up paying around £1000 less for the new car than the first car, so overall it has cost around £1000 but we’ll have a 24 plate car v a 73 plate car so not to bad an outcome.

[andburg]

OutInTheShed said:

Exactly.
Unless I had a coherent case for saying the per mile deudcution is unfair, the going rate is say 20 not 35p, I'd be pleased to be out of it.

So, can anyone provide any info on how the 'fair' mileage deduction is agreed?

where is the going rate 20p?

the lowest I'd consider agreed would be the 25ppm rate the government say business must pay for mileage on a personal vehicle over 10k miles a year. That does include fuel so in theory could come down some

based on mileage rates (45p for 10k then 25p for 10) minus 15ppm for fuel 12k miles is about £4000

[havoc]

andburg said:

where is the going rate 20p?

the lowest I'd consider agreed would be the 25ppm rate the government say business must pay for mileage on a personal vehicle over 10k miles a year. That does include fuel so in theory could come down some

based on mileage rates (45p for 10k then 25p for 10) minus 15ppm for fuel 12k miles is about £4000

Mileage rates include servicing, which the OP said was included in the purchase package.

So knock £500 off that figure.

[andburg]

point is £4k isn't a rip off ridiculous number pulled from the cosmos its pretty much nailed on the government's rate per mile for business use of a personal vehicle minus the advisory fuel rate on the same mileage

[Ian Geary]

On diagnosing leaks, I found one in my car where water would breach a gasket, then pool for a certain period before breaching another.

Hard to spot with a hosepipe test. (Through the aerial onto a sort of internal shelf in the roof space / boot with other raised grommets protecting wiring, like some sort of childs water based fiddle toy - slow clap GM)

Talc powder is helpful to trace them.


On the 12p per mile - ultimately the guy has had use of the car - (albeit damp one) and would seem unreasonable to expect to get the use of it for free during their tenure.

Edited by Ian Geary on Wednesday 20th March 20:48

[freedman]

Second inspection carried out by the Finance co tech, who turns out to be the same person who inspected it the first time!

He verbally reported that the car is not fit for purpose and could be rejected as they could not trace the issue and he believed it existed at point of sale

He also found additional issues with water ingress to the offside rea light area

Just have to await his report and the finance companies response. Hopefully car goes back and he can negotiate some good will off the mileage charges

[Mad Maximus]

freedman said:

Second inspection carried out by the Finance co tech, who turns out to be the same person who inspected it the first time!

He verbally reported that the car is not fit for purpose and could be rejected as they could not trace the issue and he believed it existed at point of sale

He also found additional issues with water ingress to the offside rea light area

Just have to await his report and the finance companies response. Hopefully car goes back and he can negotiate some good will off the mileage charges

Crikey. It’s issues like this that make me glad we have protections.

[MightyBadger]

Canon_Fodder said:

So it seems that the issue is that the the garage think the OP's mate has driven it through a flood.

It really needs an expert indy inspection to try to refute that

Seeing as the lights were full of water at purchase and wasn't a crusty old car at the time the only sensible conclusion would be previous owner drove it through a flood. Now they are lifting carpets and inspecting it and finding the old dirty water that the pervious owner did nt dry out completely?

Sounds like the dealer is pulling your pants down.

[OutInTheShed]

MightyBadger said:

Seeing as the lights were full of water at purchase and wasn't a crusty old car at the time the only sensible conclusion would be previous owner drove it through a flood. ....

Not true at all, there was a spate of IIRC Mondeo lights which sometimes filled up if you left the car parked in the rain.

There have been various examples of poor design, like the MG ZT, where the heater air plenum chamber tended to flood due to leaves blocking the drain, should you be so unreasonable as to park it with sight of a tree. The plenium contained the 'body computer'.

I've heard of cars falling foul of an oik with a pressure washer.

[Greendubber]

OutInTheShed said:

MightyBadger said:

Seeing as the lights were full of water at purchase and wasn't a crusty old car at the time the only sensible conclusion would be previous owner drove it through a flood. ....

Not true at all, there was a spate of IIRC Mondeo lights which sometimes filled up if you left the car parked in the rain.

There have been various examples of poor design, like the MG ZT, where the heater air plenum chamber tended to flood due to leaves blocking the drain, should you be so unreasonable as to park it with sight of a tree. The plenium contained the 'body computer'.

I've heard of cars falling foul of an oik with a pressure washer.

Quite.

My 1 series had water ingress to the rear lights after 6 months into ownership from new. All sorted under warranty fortunately.