Hi, we purchased the above car from a small dealer approx 4 weeks ago for 14,500. We bought the car as a good model, some scratches and wear and tear from normal use, but reliable for its previous owner who was a friend of the dealer. We test drove it and it seemed fine. The dealer said the only comment from his friend was that it did need topping up with oil regularly, but on checking under the car there appeared to be no oil leaks. My husband said that he had read that these cars did guzzle oil so that was probably normal.

We have driven the car on a couple of uk holidays over the summer and have done about 1000 miles in the car, which had about 70,000 on the clock when purchased. To be on the safe side and to keep an eye on the oil usage in case there was a problem we have checked the oil twice in that time and both times the dipstick showed the oil almost on max. On holiday we did notice a funny ticking noise from the engine which we planned to get checked on our return.

The car suffered a breakdown end of last week and today the garage have said that the head gasket has blown (3k to get fixed), that there is virtually no oil in the engine and that the engine sounds very unhealthy and they believe there is an underlying problem with the car engine which caused the head gasket to fail and that they recommend a new engine at a cost of about 6k

I want to know where I stand with the dealer. I have advised him and he has asked that we have a proper conversation tomorrow when he is back in the office. My view is that either I want a full refund or for him to pay for a new engine, but I'm getting the feeling that neither of those options will be forthcoming.......

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks