car dealer refused to help

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cjb44

Original Poster:

671 posts

117 months

Friday 29th April 2016
quotequote all
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".

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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suck it up - its a set of pads FFS


Weirdhead

87 posts

104 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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A set of pads is £20 on eBay

Why didn't you just chuck them in?

It's a consumable part and cheap as chips compared to the purchase price of your second hand car

PurpleMoonlight

22,362 posts

156 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Sorry, what is your beef?

That the MOT/service should have highlighted only 15% life left in the pads?


Cartloads

29 posts

204 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Totally agree it should have been spotted and dealt with.

But life is like this sometimes so suck it up and move on.

threespires

4,289 posts

210 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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3 months & 3000 miles since purchase.
I'm with the dealer on this one.

StuTheGrouch

5,714 posts

161 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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If I was the dealer I would not have been very polite at all.

It's a set of pads. They are very clearly a wear and tear item; an MOT doesn't guarantee that they will last until the next MOT.

If you're local to me then I'll change them for you (if you buy the pads).

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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I'm somewhere in the middle. There's no way the life of a set of rear pads is as short as 10k. They were clearly monumentally thin at this "service", and simply weren't checked. Urine is being extracted by somebody somewhere.

JustinP1

13,330 posts

229 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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About 5 years ago I bought a similar age car from a dealer.

Everything was great for the first few days, then, a warning light came on, and 50 miles later the engine just conked out.

First thing I did was to call the dealer, I was livid. The cheeky tt told me that once you buy a car dealing with consumable items were my responsibility. He suggested that I would have to pay to refill the fuel tank myself, and it was not his responsibility to supply a car with a full tank of fuel, neither was he going to contribute to refill it for me.


This story is clearly made up, but do you see the point I am making?

Once you buy a car, you are responsible for the consumable items. If those consumable items are in a safe condition then it was pass an MOT, and it is safe to drive it, and sell it to you. The dealer doesn't pay for, or contribute for consumables after 3000 miles.

Audicab

480 posts

246 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Surely you can't expect the dealer to pay for your consumable items 3000 miles after buying a 6 year old car. If pads were so important to you then you should have checked them at time of purchase, if very low then use as negotiation to get more money off.

Chris Type R

8,018 posts

248 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Suck it up, move on.

Alex_225

6,234 posts

200 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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A couple of hundred miles and they start doing that I'd probably agree and say the garage should have noticed but 3,000 miles is a fair few before they needed doing.

Yes it would be nice to think that you'd get more out of the pads than that having spent £12k on the car but it is used and the pads were (I assume) legal and functional when you first bought the car.

Bit of a pain but I don't think the dealer is being entirely unreasonable.

KungFuPanda

4,324 posts

169 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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If it happened to me, I wouldn't even have expended the wear and tear on my keyboard to type such a thread.

LunarOne

5,095 posts

136 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Sorry OP, but I'm with the others on this. I would not have even had the gall to ring the dealer asking for a contribution, although I might have wondered if the MOT tester was really that thorough. It is possible that the pads were well within spec when the MOT was done. If you often drive in a hilly or mountainous area, or you tow, then the pads can wear much faster than you expect. It's just one of those things.

Butter Face

30,192 posts

159 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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All that for a £70 set of pads? Blimey.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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dingg said:
suck it up - its a set of pads FFS
/thread

Muzzer79

9,806 posts

186 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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The dealer agreed a service and MOT. The pads had enough life not to fail the MOT and a service means service-related parts - he's under no obligation to replace pads?

Anyhow, it's £70. Replace and move on.

Impasse

15,099 posts

240 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Reject the car. yes

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 29th April 2016
quotequote all
Muzzer79 said:
The dealer agreed a service and MOT. The pads had enough life not to fail the MOT
Unless the pads can be clearly seen without taking the wheel off, they can be half a mile from dead and they'd pass - the MOT mostly just checks the actual functioning of the brakes.

Muzzer79 said:
and a service means service-related parts - he's under no obligation to replace pads?
I'd certainly expect any "service" half-way worthy of the name to pull all four wheels off and check the pads.

Muzzer79 said:
Anyhow, it's £70. Replace and move on.
Agree there, though.

andburg

7,214 posts

168 months

Friday 29th April 2016
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Please see all responses above.

The squeeling suggest its time for replacement so there may still be a lot friction material left, it does not suggest the pads are now completely worn to the metal. Some pads are designed to do this, an may only have been 50% worn at the time of purchase. Add on the fact that the dealer did not do the MOT/service himself so is not responsible for what is or is not written on the MOT certificate and it becomes even more apparent.