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Thu 18 Aug 2016 19:10

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - tomsy

Hi all,

ok so i bought an 99 jeep grand cherokee from someone down the road from me about 2 months ago.

The mot was up for renewal so he put it through with only the backbox needing replacing and a bulb. The seller paid for it and i bought the car the next day thinking as its passed an mot with no advisories at all it would be fine.

The jeep was supposed to be for work so i had a custom spray job done on it and signed up that week after only literally driving it to the shops and back. (i did test drive it before buying obviously and all seemed ok maybe the steering a bit wobbly but thought nothing of it at the time as it had just gone through the mot)

Ok so after having the spray job etc i was using it for about a month and loads of issues started coming up. there was knocking and whining from various areas and the cars abs light came on and the digital display kept flashing randomly with coolant sensor bad. the cars handling was terrible and it became a battle to steer....all the time.

i took it to a local garage i use all the time this week and explained the issues. I get a call next day from them that the car has a list of issues that half were MOT failures at current state with many other problems!

list of problems below

abs light on , o/s front abs sensor broken & abs ring broken-mot fail

o/s rear trailing arm excess corrosion-bush coming through-mot fail

n/s sill holes covered by fibreglass close to front wheel-mot fail

split pin missing from o/s front lower ball joint nut-mot fail

n/s front brake pipes excessive corrosion- mot fail

o/s suspension spring mounted incorrectly-fouling on axle-mot fail

lift in n/x front upper ball joint and slight lift in o/s front upper and lower balljoints

rear shock absorbers corroded and noisy

both front and lower control arms-one possibly upside down

auxillary drivebelt excessively worn/split- may require replacement of idlers/tensioners etc

battery insecure-mot fail

suspect coolant level sensor fault

both axles noisy- would require futher investigation

sunroof and steering pump faults not investigated

As you can see this is thousands of pounds worth of repairs which would be ridiculous to justify.

Now i want to know how the hell can the mot station allow this car to pass 2 months ago??? The seller said he'd only used the car for a year and sounded pretty genuine about everythingand also not knowing anything about cars....or a great play actor..

so now i'm left out of pocket with a car the garage said would be incredibly unadvisable to drive. They couldnt explain how it ever passed and not even putting any advisories down, even though the exhaust and bulb were replaced???

So any idea how i can try and resolve this as i feel ive been cheated by either the seller but more the mot station.

any advice?

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Thu 18 Aug 2016 21:18

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - RobJP

Here is the relevant form to complain about an MOT you think should not have been issued :

www.gov.uk/government/publications/complain-about-...t

The notes make it very clear that you can only complain about an MOT for non-corrosion matters within 28 days of the MOT being issued. Corrosion matters it is 3 months.

As to your problems, a lot of them are not MOT matters, and you should expect faults and problems with a 17 year old car. In particular a 'noisy' axle or 'noisy' shock absorber means absolutely nothing. As to a problem with a sunroof ... well, it's 17 years old, not new. Time to be a bit realistic.

I think you bought a 17 year old vehicle, expecting a lot for (probably) very little money (noticeably, you don't say how much you paid for it). A small amount of research would have shown you, quite clearly, just where the common problem areas are :

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/jeep/grand-cherokee-...d

(or possibly, as a 1999 car, this one)

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/jeep/grand-cherokee-...d

The second of those, in the 'what to watch out for' section, states that it was the least reliable car in 'Which', the highest warranty repair costs according to Warranty Direct, and was one of the most expensive off-roaders according to 'Which'. Again, bottom of Reliability index in 2004, and mountains of other reported problems.

So basically, you bought a 17 year old car, and they were terrible when 2-5 years old, and you somehow expected it to be wonderful.

The private seller owes you absolutely no liability at all.

The MOT testing station owes you absolutely no liability at all - their only possible problem would come from a VOSA audit after VOSA have inspected your vehicle. But they owe you nothing - you were not their customer for the MOT.

Edited by RobJP on 18/08/2016 at 21:19

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 00:15

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - tomsy

Im very aware that some of those problems i issued are old problems sunroof etc, i was just copying what the garage reported.

Anyway this was more about all the mot failures that the garage said after literally a month of driving the car. How can the mot station not pick up on these major problems or at least a self respecting one would at least reported everything they found at fault. These problems havent just appeared within a month. They have been like this for much longer hence the immediate failures of things , not just a bit of wear. Dont you think that the mot station just ignored all of this or threw in a dodgy mot? It just p***es me off when the only advisory items were fixed but nothing else was reported when there was clearly some major problems. I know im not going to get money back but this is ridiculous to suggest it was a legit mot which has cost me my vehicle

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 07:21

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - Ian D

Did you check the MOT history using www.gov.uk › check-mot-history , some of these faults may have been present as advisories on previous MOTs. Has the car got any service history and receipts? How much did you pay for it?

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 10:28

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - FP

"... i bought the car the next day thinking as its passed an mot with no advisories at all it would be fine."

"... this is ridiculous to suggest it was a legit mot which has cost me my vehicle"

Herein lies the problem, I think. You took the MOT as complete evidence that the car was OK.

Yet your own account was that you test-drove the car, found the steering "a bit wobbly" and then a month later "the cars handling was terrible and it became a battle to steer". You mean it deteriorated that much in one month? More likely, I think, is that you ignored what you really knew was a problem and initially convinced yourself the car was OK because it had passed its MOT, before the reality sank in.

The MOT on your car may well have been badly done, but the following shows that the MOT is of minimal use in determining the condition of a car:

“The test relates only to the condition of the testable items at the time of the test. It should not be regarded as evidence of the condition of the items tested at any other time nor should it be taken as evidence of the general mechanical condition of the vehicle.” (from http://mottesting.org.uk)

It's an expensive lesson, I’m afraid.

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Fri 19 Aug 2016 10:50

Jeep Grand Cherokee - Car dangerous 2 months after sale - RobJP

Having a quick look through Autotrader, Grand Cherokees of that age seem to be £1000 or so.

Buy a knackered cheap car, expect a knackered cheap car.

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