Advice please, stuck with a lemon on Finance.

[Roverload]

Hi all my mother bought an 09 Ford Focus 1.6 tdi using car finance from carloans4u last November. The car has been nothing but trouble since the start, we've had DPF failure and ad blue refil costing in excess of £1000. Battery packed up, bonnet switch which kept setting the alarm off, the boot won't open and now it's puffing out clouds of white smoke. Originally I thought it was the turbo but expecting something more sinister. I don't know what possessed her to do it but she elected to spread the payments over 6 years. She's since become self employed and as a result no financial company will touch her with a barge pole. She cannot afford to fix it again if it's anything else other than the turbo (new cartridge only £75). Is there any way out of this hell for her at all? I understand we can't sell it until the finance is settled. Any advice would be much appreciated as the dealer has dodged us since the start and we don't know what to do. Help!

[Alg123]

Bloody fords. Fun to drive, well the focus is. But absolutely ste otherwise.

[Liquid Tuna]

You can sell it, you'll just need to settle the finance, which you may not achieve with the sale price.

What mileage is the car?

[VolvoT5]

Buying a 5 year old diesel car on a 6 year finance plan, ouch. Most likely too much time has passed to reject the car as being unfit for purpose now. You could try and sell it to clear the finance but it is highly likely more money is owing than the car is worth.

Best bet is try to find a reasonably priced local garage and get it fixed.

[Hamish Finn]

Remember the agreement is between the buyer, the supplying dealer and the finance company. Three way agreement.

If the dealer is not honouring any warranty (or perceived warranty), then speak to the finance company. Explain what has happened.

[Ozzie Osmond]

VolvoT5 said:

Best bet is try to find a reasonably priced local garage and get it fixed.

^^^ This. There's no easy way out. Need to get as much value as possible out of the clunker.

[catman]

Alg123 said:

Bloody fords. Fun to drive, well the focus is. But absolutely ste otherwise.

Yeah, some con trick that, all those millions sold too...

Tim

[jimmyt1202]

Hamish Finn said:

Remember the agreement is between the buyer, the supplying dealer and the finance company. Three way agreement.

If the dealer is not honouring any warranty (or perceived warranty), then speak to the finance company. Explain what has happened.

The dealer is only liable for 6 months iirc

[MG CHRIS]

Its not so much the car more the choice of engine the tdci engine are the worst diesel engine of all time built by the French why ford ever decided to use them is beyond me.

[dudleybloke]

Adblue refill is a consumable that you can do yourself for a couple of quid.

[Roverload]

dudleybloke said:

Adblue refill is a consumable that you can do yourself for a couple of quid.

Not as straight forward as that I'm afraid, it's a nightmare to get to, then you need a decent computer system to programme into the car the amount of adblue you've put in it, it has to sinc up. Our problem stemmed from a faulty fuel cap sensor that's supposed to work out how much fuel you've put in so it knows what ratio to mix the adblue. It emptied the tank in days long before we bought it resulting in every scheduled re-gen failed. Even though the car was doing 900 miles a week on motorways.

[loose cannon]

Adblue in cars ffs well I never sorry carry on

[dudleybloke]

Roverload said:

dudleybloke said:

Adblue refill is a consumable that you can do yourself for a couple of quid.

Not as straight forward as that I'm afraid, it's a nightmare to get to, then you need a decent computer system to programme into the car the amount of adblue you've put in it, it has to sinc up. Our problem stemmed from a faulty fuel cap sensor that's supposed to work out how much fuel you've put in so it knows what ratio to mix the adblue. It emptied the tank in days long before we bought it resulting in every scheduled re-gen failed. Even though the car was doing 900 miles a week on motorways.

Bloody hell. They dont make anything an easy job these days do they.

[feef]

MG CHRIS said:

Its not so much the car more the choice of engine the tdci engine are the worst diesel engine of all time built by the French why ford ever decided to use them is beyond me.

The DLD-416 used in this car was built in the UK

The DLD engines were a joint venture between PSA and Ford and are used in PSA group cars, Fords, Minis, Mazdas and volvos and are made 50/50 between Ford (plants in Dagenham and India) and PSA in France

This particular engine is UK made

[Alg123]

feef said:

The DLD-416 used in this car was built in the UK

The DLD engines were a joint venture between PSA and Ford and are used in PSA group cars, Fords, Minis, Mazdas and Jags and are made 50/50 between Ford (plants in Dagenham and India) and PSA in France

This particular engine is UK made

Says it all then really. I wouldn't trust some tw@ from dagenham to change my wiper fluid, let alone build me an engine.

[SidJames]

Sorry, you didn't buy a "lemon", your mum bought a crappy oldish car on finance that nobody should have allowed her to take. An extended warranty taken out as well. (May not help, but thought I'd ask.)

How much has she got outstanding on it?

I fear she will be out of pocket.

[Roverload]

SidJames said:

Sorry, you didn't buy a "lemon", your mum bought a crappy oldish car on finance that nobody should have allowed her to take. An extended warranty taken out as well. (May not help, but thought I'd ask.)

How much has she got outstanding on it?

I fear she will be out of pocket.

I believe she is 8 months in to a 6 year contract.

UPDATE: Turbo has gone completely as a result of the inlet manifold coming up, some chunks of carbon made their way to the turbo and messed it right up. The garage who have the car advised a new inlet manifold and a new turbo. With labour we are looking at another £1000 ish bill. Again, alot of computer stuff needs to be done which pushes the price up. A dealer told me today another fault with the 1.6 that causes turbo failure is the oil feed to the turbo, apparently its too small and gets blocked easily, sump has to come off for that. Unsure if this has also been a factor. He then told me Tha neither he or any other respected dealer local to me will touch them with a barge pole as they always come back broken.

[davepoth]

How many miles has the car done since it was bought?

[TooMany2cvs]

Roverload said:

She cannot afford to fix it again if it's anything else other than the turbo (new cartridge only £75).

Even if everything else was properly sorted at the same time as the new turbo (which it won't be if the penny-pinching is THAT strong, allowing the turbo supplier a really easy get-out from any warranty claim), a £75 "new" turbo is going to be the cheapest, nastiest, most half-arsed "reCON" going. eBay, by any chance...?

900 miles per week = 45k per year. Multiply that by the length of the finance, and that's 270k on top of whatever it had when she bought it.

Edited by TooMany2cvs on Wednesday 26th August 20:28

[George111]

Roverload said:

UPDATE: Turbo has gone completely as a result of the inlet manifold coming up, some chunks of carbon made their way to the turbo and messed it right up.

I don't understand this and I'm not sure it would even be correct if I did.

A turbo usually fails when the bearings fail, a recon turbo for a common car is usually £300 or so exchange and fitting doesn't take very long for a competent mechanic.