Warranty claim / conflict of interest for garage

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Fri 31 Jul 2009 19:17
Warranty claim / conflict of interest for garage - greengeorge
Earlier this year I bought an approved used car which came with a years manufacturers warranty. I remember that the sales person mentioned that the previous owner was a member of their staff, a technician from the work shop.

When I bought the car she had covered just over 52000 miles. In order to qualify as a used approved car it had to have Full Service History and pass a rigorous inspection specified by manufacturer.

I soon noticed (during the specified weekly checks) that it was using a oil necessitating topping up weekly and this has steadily got worse to the point that having covered just over 5000 miles (bringing the total mileage to just over 57000) it has consumed just under 7 litres of oil, or to put it another way about 1 litre every 750 miles.

I took it into a more local manufacturer?s garage and they quickly diagnosed heavy breathing. In fact, with the engine running, if you removed the oil filler cap it did and still does a (depressingly) good impression of a steam train with smoke and oil spitting several feet up in the air. It also does the same if the dip stick is removed indicating it is likely to be blow past the pistons as opposed to valve guides. The technician immediately identified the engine needs stripping down to diagnose the fault. They showed be the level of breathing they would call acceptable on the same engine type and the difference was stark.

As the car was still within the first 6 months of my ownership I was advised of the obligation the supplying garage have to me under the sale / supply of goods act, so contacted them. They recovered the car and diagnosed the fault as a blown turbo which was changed under the warranty and they had cleaned the various oil pipes which had become blocked over time causing the heavy breathing. They said the technician found the level of heavy breathing to be normal; which surprised me and did cause me some alarm but I was reasonably happy as they said they had tested it for 300 miles and it was not using any oil. Brilliant!

The car was returned to me and I was disappointed to find it is still using oil and it is still using more than a litre of oil every 1000 miles and it was breathing as heavily as ever? In fact the other day whilst climbing a hill on a dual carriageway it produced so much blue smoke that I would hardly see out of the rear view mirror and the car lost so much power I thought it was going to fail. Friends have also commented ion blue smoke coming from the exhaust, which I have noticed myself at the wheel.

I rang the service manager of the supplying garage who immediately arranged for the car to be taken in early next week. He mentioned that the technician was surprised that it was using oil still.

I am concerned that there may be a conflict of interest for the technician(s) involved and possibly wider within the garage itself. Remembering what the sales person had said about one of their technicians being the previous owner I checked the V5 and identified the car had been owned by that person since 2005 and I rang the garage and was able to confirm that the previous owner does work within their workshops.

Since I noticed the oil consumption from the start of my ownership, it is reasonable to presume a qualified mechanic would have known of this, which was probably why he sold it on; I rather suspect he was offered a good trade in at that garage and failed to mention the problem. The sales manager told me that they spent a couple of thousand bringing the car up to scratch for the approved used scheme which I think is unlikely as the car only cost me £5000.

My concern is that the previous owner will know that the garage will not be impressed if he knowingly passed them a pup in order to get a better deal for himself and that if this problem is identified as being pre-existing the warranty will not pay and the garage is liable under the sale / supply of goods act. It is therefore in his self interest to find no problem with the car to protect his own interests?

What do I do?

I am minded to wait and see what they find and if they dispute there is a problem and then advise them I will:

1. Get another of the manufacturer?s garages to give me a second opinion (third if you include the first garage?s prognosis);

2. Mention I believe there is a conflict of interest and that I will advise the Manufacturer of this situation.

3. Start an action under the sale / supply of goods.

What would you advise?
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