Warranty & Crank Woes

[afrofish]

Hi Everyone.

Unfortunately my beautiful Chimaera went to the garage last week with a broken crank. Thankfully I took out a warranty with the independant dealer when I bought the car...

or so I thought!

Unfortunately the dealer 'forgot' to take out the warranty on my behalf and now is offering to repair the car in his own garage.
I want the car repaired at a specialist TVR garage as I would have been entitled to if the dealer had taken out the warranty but he is refusing this option (because it would cost him a lot more money).

I do have the original invoice stating that the "XXX" 12 mth aftermarket warranty is included in the sale.

I have taken legal advice and my options appear to be to ask for a full refund (and leave him with the broken car) based on Misrepresentation of sale, or to seek the repair route. If I do go for the refund option I need to prove that the warranty was a key element of my decision to buy the car. Can anyone think of a way to do this?

On the other hand if I follow the repair route I need to prove that a non-specialist repair would lower the value of the car before I would be able to force the dealer to use the specialist I chose. Can anyone suggest any way to do this also.

Lastly has anyone got any experience of this themselves or any advice they would like to give.

Thanks for your time,

John.

(P.s. No details given for obvious reasons.)

Edited by afrofish on Monday 25th September 17:46

[Griffter]

How long have you owned the car?

For what it's worth (thankfully I've never been in a similar situation) I'd say:

"I do have the original invoice stating that the "XXX" 12 mth aftermarket warranty is included in the sale." is enough to prove the warranty influenced your decision to buy the car. Regardless of that your contract of sale clearly included the warranty in its terms. The dealer has not fulfilled his part of the contract.

Frankly, if any ('paper' - ie 'breakdown insurance') warranty actually covered a crankshaft failure on a 5+ year old TVR I'd be amazed. On that basis I'm tempted to say let him repair it, and be glad you aren't arguing with the warranty company over whether or not it's covered.

Good luck.

[afrofish]

Thanks for the feedback Griffter.

I do realise I might have had some trouble getting the money out of the warranty company but acording to their sales documentation it would have been covered.

Ohhhh I've got a headache

[catretriever]

What size engine is it afrofish? If it's a 500 then you are going to have a tough job finding a replacement part.

[moosetvr]

Afrofish
I used to do repairs for these companies when I was a service manager, and they cut cost at every opportunity i.e. put old engine oil back if has done less than 2000 miles etc etc (no not a joke!!). If the garage that sold you a car is competent (have a chat with the mechanic who will be doing the job perhaps) it may be easier for all parties concerned to let the garage fix it for you. After they have fixed it make sure they then give you 12 months warranty starting from the date you get it back.
Good luck
Moose

[bigblockmark]

Let him repair the car as suggested,but insist that he buys you a full 12month warranty that will cover any possible future engine problems after rebuild.Make sure he registers it this time.
Mark

[afrofish]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Unfortunately it is a 500 catretriever lets hope it doesn't slow things down too much.

Aside from the desirability of the specialist doing the repair I have an additionnal issue at present. When the car went wrong I contacted the specialist in question who have kindly collected the car and taken it to their workshop.

The dealer has made it clear that (as far as he is concerned) transporting it to his workshop should be at my cost which is unacceptable. Whoever collects it would have approx a 75 mile trip (ignoring getting there in the first place).

Following a few more enquiries with legal advisors my current plan of action is to draft a letter requesting for the repair to be carried out at the specialist at his cost and request a reply within 14 days. If he fails to reply I think I will go down the legal route to achieve the same end.

Thanks again for all the help so far, I'll keep you posted on my progress.

[v8 racing]

The guy that you bought the car from has he worked on the tvr 500 engine before? the main reason i ask is because a general garage wouldnt be able (or unlikely) to be able to carry out the repairs, there are balancing issues with cranks, you have to use vandervell bearings or machine after market ones down etc.. the cranks are specific to tvr not land rover, there are also 2 types of crank large and small journal i think the right way to go with this would be to get the guy you bought the car from to pay for the parts and get the indepent to build the engine for you, i know you are going to have swallow some money yourself this way, but as mentioned earlier i cant believe this would have been included in the warranty, and you could end up paying for everything and if that is the case expect a bill for around £3000 good luck with it

[dickkark]

Regardless of your opinions of the garages ability,and I am not defending anyone but some car dealers are genuine.
I used to inspect cars for warranty and insurance companies a few years back,to check for undeclared mod`s/unroadworthiness/repair qualities etc,been through this scenario many many times and there are as we all know some shocking dealers/garages out there.
But you must give them a chance to repair it first,if its a satisfactory repair(you are well within your right`s to refuse if you can prove it`s not been repaired right) then all well and good but if not you have every right to demand a refund or what ever you decide,
but demand a bloody decent loan car.

Edited by dickkark on Monday 25th September 22:54

[Boosted LS1]

Yes, the garage in question can always delegate the repairs to a specialist if they get stuck but they are entitled to the opportunity of doing it themselves. IMO they'll need a specialist!

Boosted.

[catretriever]

afrofish said:

Thanks for all the help guys.

Unfortunately it is a 500 catretriever lets hope it doesn't slow things down too much.

ah! In that case, my advice would be to push for a full refund, get your money back and start looking for another chim.

I am currently in the middle of an engine rebuild having suffered a broken crank in my Griff 500. The engine work is being done my an outfit that has a truly great reputation, so no worries there ( does that get me a discount?). However,the lack of stock parts coupled with my laymans knowledge meant it took me a long time to suss out the best way forward with this, and as a result I have now been without the car since May and don't really expect it back until the end of October.
I decided to go for a rebuild as it was a case of 'better the devil you know' for me, but for you just embarking on TVR ownership I think you could seriously do without the aggro.
I'm sure the dealer sold you the car in good faith, these things do just happen unfortunately. However, it was his mistake to not take out the warranty and in my opinion it should be him who has to wear the consequences...not you.

best of luck

Matt

[s7paul]

As a prospective Chim 500 owner (early next year I hope), do either afrofish or catretreiver know what caused the crank breakage in their cars? Also, does anyone know whether the 500 engine is more susceptible to this than the 450? And finally, afrofish, I hope you get yours sorted satisfactorily.

[catretriever]

Hi Paul,

like I said, I'm a layman, so I can't give you much meaningful info. I think it is indeed true that the larger the engine the more susceptable it is to this problem. The reason being that the larger capacity engine leaves less room for the crank to move in, which means that the crank journals have to be smaller. More torque coupled with less physical material in the crank means that the chances of it breaking are increased. Having said that, the engine design did change slightly over the course of production, and later 500 engines were fully cross-bolted as I understand it.
It's worth noting that I had already upgraded the camshaft in my engine, which may have been instrumental in the crank snapping. Or there may just have been a flaw in the crank that meant it reached the end of it's life that bit quicker than normal.

Sorry if that's all a bit vague, no doubt someone will be along in a minute with something more useful