Used car with some issues...
Discussion
Hi everyone,
Looking for some advice on a recent car purchase. I bought a 2004 Daewoo Lacetti about two weeks ago for £900 from a dealer in Glasgow. I don't know a great deal about cars but it seemed ok to me. However , a few days after buying it, the engine management light came on, and also I noticed the brakes were grinding. I'm not too bothered about the brakes as they are consumable parts, so I put it into a garage that day to have the pads changed and find out why the engine light was on. The garage called me and said the car had several serious problems, not just related to the engine light. He replaced the back pads as I asked him to, but also turned up the following faults:
Crankshaft sensor fault
O2 sensor fault
Driver front tyre below legal limit
Both rear tyres perished
Front brake discs worn thin
Both strut tops have play and noisy
Front and rear brake pipes in very poor condition
Drivers front ball joint has play
Drop link has play
The garage advised me not to use the car until I had these faults seen to. My question is, given that the car only cost £900, do I have any comeback on this? I'm not looking for a refund, I really just want the car fixed as it's a nice car. However I'm now in the situation where I can't use the car, and I can't afford to get all these things fixed right now. I accept that a car for that price is going to have some faults (which is why I haven't mentioned the fact the central locking, clock and remote fuel filler cap don't work) but I would at least expect a dealer to sell a car that wasn't dangerous to drive. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks in advance.
Looking for some advice on a recent car purchase. I bought a 2004 Daewoo Lacetti about two weeks ago for £900 from a dealer in Glasgow. I don't know a great deal about cars but it seemed ok to me. However , a few days after buying it, the engine management light came on, and also I noticed the brakes were grinding. I'm not too bothered about the brakes as they are consumable parts, so I put it into a garage that day to have the pads changed and find out why the engine light was on. The garage called me and said the car had several serious problems, not just related to the engine light. He replaced the back pads as I asked him to, but also turned up the following faults:
Crankshaft sensor fault
O2 sensor fault
Driver front tyre below legal limit
Both rear tyres perished
Front brake discs worn thin
Both strut tops have play and noisy
Front and rear brake pipes in very poor condition
Drivers front ball joint has play
Drop link has play
The garage advised me not to use the car until I had these faults seen to. My question is, given that the car only cost £900, do I have any comeback on this? I'm not looking for a refund, I really just want the car fixed as it's a nice car. However I'm now in the situation where I can't use the car, and I can't afford to get all these things fixed right now. I accept that a car for that price is going to have some faults (which is why I haven't mentioned the fact the central locking, clock and remote fuel filler cap don't work) but I would at least expect a dealer to sell a car that wasn't dangerous to drive. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks in advance.
It was £900. And honestly some of these problems should have been apparent on the test drive if I'm honest.. you didn't notice the noisy brakes or the bald tyres or (given the list suspension related things picked up) that it handled like the QE2? 
Did you actually inspect the car at all prior to handing over the money?
I personally would be extremely surprised if you had any recourse with the people you bought from, but all you can do is ask.
Did you actually inspect the car at all prior to handing over the money? I personally would be extremely surprised if you had any recourse with the people you bought from, but all you can do is ask.
That sounds like a list of advisories on an MOT for a 10 year old cheap car, things will be broken or worn the engine management light is probably the only thing that you could try and go after as you expect a car to have a functioning engine or it is listed as a none runner / spares or repairs.
Engineer1 said:
That sounds like a list of advisories on an MOT for a 10 year old cheap car, things will be broken or worn the engine management light is probably the only thing that you could try and go after as you expect a car to have a functioning engine or it is listed as a none runner / spares or repairs.
I agree. EML faults need chasing up, along with the illegal tyre if it was illegal at point of sale.The rest are just worn items that don't seem to have failed yet. For £900, you'd be best running it into the ground.
How bad are the other tyres? Could be worth swapping with some cheap, part worns for piece of mind.
Also, when is the next MOT?
I think under £1k it's a 'scrapper' in law so you've little comeback. At least that was the advice I got on a £700 Subaru with a cracked head/block t'other year.
From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
Hooli said:
I think under £1k it's a 'scrapper' in law so you've little comeback. At least that was the advice I got on a £700 Subaru with a cracked head/block t'other year.
From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
Depends what the ad said, doesn't it? If the car is advertised as a runner, does it really matter that it was £900?From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
OP - do you have the original ad to hand?
Wow that was quick, cheers for the replies. Yes I did inspect it, however my inspection is probably not up to the same standard as yours - I know my way around engines after a fashion, but unfortunately the engine light wasn't lit when I test drove it. I did notice it wallowing round corners, but tbh I assumed it was just the sort of car that did that - my last car was a Citroen so this still feels like a sports car in comparison. I have to admit to my shame I didn't look at the tyres before I bought it. TBH I don't mind paying for the brake pads/discs and tyres as them's the breaks when it comes to cars. It just seemed like a whole lotta things to go wrong with one car that was described as in good condition, but I suppose I'm to trusting in people!
Any oldish car inspected can come back with a list of faults. A bit of play here and there is to be expected and may or may not be dangerous.
Find out what needs to done now and what you can put on a "to do" list. Have immediate stuff fixed.
If they do a DIY car maintenence course @ the local college enrole.
Even if you do not start to repair your own cars, it will give you some confidence and knowledge when talking to someone who can. Running old cars can be a right royal (expensive) pain in the arse, it helps if you can do the basics.
Find out what needs to done now and what you can put on a "to do" list. Have immediate stuff fixed.
If they do a DIY car maintenence course @ the local college enrole.
Even if you do not start to repair your own cars, it will give you some confidence and knowledge when talking to someone who can. Running old cars can be a right royal (expensive) pain in the arse, it helps if you can do the basics.
EML is probably going to be either or both of the top two problems listed, I think I'd be looking more at the brakes, tyres and drop links than anything electrical for now, long as it's got an MOT for a while that'll give you time to save for fixing the o2 sensor. Could always take one off a scrap car and see what happens, probably cost you a tenner and an hours time. Brake pipes wont be expensive
At this price point I'd be tempted to go for part worn tyres (our local scrappie does then for £10 fitted each on 13 and 14s). Suspension parts, you'd be looking at new ideally but again that shouldnt cost that much to sort.
Fixable in entirety I'd have thought for a few hundred quid if you're thrifty
At this price point I'd be tempted to go for part worn tyres (our local scrappie does then for £10 fitted each on 13 and 14s). Suspension parts, you'd be looking at new ideally but again that shouldnt cost that much to sort.
Fixable in entirety I'd have thought for a few hundred quid if you're thrifty
funkyrobot said:
Hooli said:
I think under £1k it's a 'scrapper' in law so you've little comeback. At least that was the advice I got on a £700 Subaru with a cracked head/block t'other year.
From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
Depends what the ad said, doesn't it? If the car is advertised as a runner, does it really matter that it was £900?From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
Hooli said:
funkyrobot said:
Hooli said:
I think under £1k it's a 'scrapper' in law so you've little comeback. At least that was the advice I got on a £700 Subaru with a cracked head/block t'other year.
From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
Depends what the ad said, doesn't it? If the car is advertised as a runner, does it really matter that it was £900?From your list, the sensors will be the cause of the engine management light & the rest sounds like normal wear on what was always a cheap car.
I have seen some bizarre threads on here lately though that seem to state that cars bought from dealers have no comeback. There is obviously more to this than a simple statement and each vehicle has a multitude of parameters (price paid, mileage, age etc). However, the advice given on here sometimes contradicts advice given previously.
I guess it's all down to how well you treat the dealer, how well they treat you and how willing they are to co-operate. There are customers who can expect too much and dealers that really do try to rip people off.
Hooli said:
I think under £1k it's a 'scrapper' in law so you've little comeback. At least that was the advice I got on a £700 Subaru with a cracked head/block t'other year.
-snip-
That's not the law at all.-snip-
The closest the law comes to saying that is that the (in my words) the cars condition must match the cars price.
In practice however, the sort of dealers who deal in <£1k cars aren't normally the type to help out a customer, and will probably tell you to bugger off.
Edited by Snowboy on Thursday 20th March 09:33
allangf said:
Wow that was quick, cheers for the replies. Yes I did inspect it, however my inspection is probably not up to the same standard as yours - I know my way around engines after a fashion, but unfortunately the engine light wasn't lit when I test drove it. I did notice it wallowing round corners, but tbh I assumed it was just the sort of car that did that - my last car was a Citroen so this still feels like a sports car in comparison. I have to admit to my shame I didn't look at the tyres before I bought it. TBH I don't mind paying for the brake pads/discs and tyres as them's the breaks when it comes to cars. It just seemed like a whole lotta things to go wrong with one car that was described as in good condition, but I suppose I'm to trusting in people!
When is the MOT due? Any dangerous and illegal defects will obviously need to be sorted before then. However, anything that throws the EML and doesn't stop the car won't need attention until the next MOT (if you wish to go down that route). 
sam303 said:
I make it a rule not to buy cars in Glasgow. Sorry OP that's really not a helpful comment, but nor is it merely a jest. I've bought two cars in Glasgow, one from a dealer and one privately, and kept them 6 months and 3 months respectively - the two shortest ownerships of my life.
Haha I would love to make that rule, unfortunately living in Glasgow makes it a bit uneconomical to do otherwise. Although thinking about it, the two cars I bought elsewhere (one in Blackpool, one in Skegness) only lasted a couple of months each so maybe it's not just buying them from Glasgow, maybe the car just has to be within the city boundaries to fall apart...I'm not sure about Glasgow.
But I would say that if spending under £1k you're better off going privately than from a dealer.
At that price the dealer margins are pretty tight.
It's probably a car bought for Under £500 from an auction or taken as a trade in.
It's been cleaned, filled with air freshener, had a few fluids topped up and had any failure codes reset.
The idea of having some dealer security and soga reasurance is enticing. But in practice at that price point the dealers are all a bit rough and even if you can prove a soga case it'll be hard to get money out of them.
The fact a dealer will flog something with illegal tryres probably tells you all you need to know about the dealer.
But I would say that if spending under £1k you're better off going privately than from a dealer.
At that price the dealer margins are pretty tight.
It's probably a car bought for Under £500 from an auction or taken as a trade in.
It's been cleaned, filled with air freshener, had a few fluids topped up and had any failure codes reset.
The idea of having some dealer security and soga reasurance is enticing. But in practice at that price point the dealers are all a bit rough and even if you can prove a soga case it'll be hard to get money out of them.
The fact a dealer will flog something with illegal tryres probably tells you all you need to know about the dealer.
The only thing I see wrong are the sensors. Everything else are consumables especially on a car at that age.
Investigate cost to replace sensors then a polite phone call to the dealer may get a little comeback. It may turn out that you'll have to pay a few hundred quid to a tame mechanic but you'll probably end up with a pretty decent car with lots of life left.
At that price point it is always galling to spend a sizable percentage of the car's value on repair costs in one hit but that's motoring. If everything else on the car is in good nick it may be worth it.
Investigate cost to replace sensors then a polite phone call to the dealer may get a little comeback. It may turn out that you'll have to pay a few hundred quid to a tame mechanic but you'll probably end up with a pretty decent car with lots of life left.
At that price point it is always galling to spend a sizable percentage of the car's value on repair costs in one hit but that's motoring. If everything else on the car is in good nick it may be worth it.
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