To cut a long story short, my son brought a Focus for £15,500 and within 5 weeks of having it, it overheated and went into limp mode. He contacted the dealer and was told to contact the warranty. He contacted Warrant Wise and they arranged for the car to be transported to our local garage. The garage diagnosed that the head gasket had blown. A form was sent to warrant wise with the cost of the repairs, they said they would only pay £600 of the £1500 bill. He then contacted the car dealership as he should not be anything for a fault on a car when only purchased for 5 weeks.

It was agreed the repairs would go ahead however when the garage went to roadtest the car after they had put a new head gasket in, the car smoked excessively and the garage said that the car needed a new engine. The guy from the dealership is now refusing to do anything about this as he says the garage should have had the engine pressure tested. i am no mechanic so dont really understand why that would be needed if a new head gasket has been done

my son is still without a car 6 months later, he has paid for the insurance and road tax for all that time and we are at a stalemate with the dealership refusing to do anything, the warrant wont pay for it.

 

i have called round roughly 8 solicitors to give us some advice and i am having no luck,

can anyone please give us some advice.

thank you in advance

Citizen's Advice.

Look on Martin Lewis' site too for advise.

I'm not sure what the terminology is, someone will be along to tell you shortly.

If the car was bought with a credit card or finance you can sue the finance company.

If it was paid for with cash then you will have to take the dealer and repair garage and warranty com pany to small claims court.

If you can't use the vehicle, SORN it and change the insurance to fire and theft only so you can insure another vehicle whilst you are waiting to be sorted.

I'm very sorry, I hope you get it sorted. Don't buy another Ford. I won't

18 minutes ago, Julie1905 said:

It was agreed the repairs would go ahead however when the garage went to roadtest the car after they had put a new head gasket in, the car smoked excessively and the garage said that the car needed a new engine. The guy from the dealership is now refusing to do anything about this as he says the garage should have had the engine pressure tested. i am no mechanic so dont really understand why that would be needed if a new head gasket has been done

The engine should have been checked properly BEFORE the new headgasket was fitted.  That's what's causing the problem here.  The garage did an awful lot of unnecessary work changing the headgasket when there was another engine fault.

As above, you can SORN the car if you can keep it off road.  No need to pay for tax while it's not used.  

Legal stuff isn't my area, others on here will be able to advise on that.

49 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The engine should have been checked properly BEFORE the new headgasket was fitted.  That's what's causing the problem here.  The garage did an awful lot of unnecessary work changing the headgasket when there was another engine fault.

As above, you can SORN the car if you can keep it off road.  No need to pay for tax while it's not used.  

Legal stuff isn't my area, others on here will be able to advise on that.

the garage is saying they could clearly tell the head gasket had gone as it had blown across 2 cylinders so there was no need for a pressure test

4 minutes ago, Julie1905 said:

the garage is saying they could clearly tell the head gasket had gone as it had blown across 2 cylinders so there was no need for a pressure test

Typical garage complacency unfortunately.  Just because the headgasket has 'clearly' failed doesn't mean there aren't other problems as well.  Really shouldn't just chuck another gasket on without making sure the engine is all good first.

20 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Typical garage complacency unfortunately.  Just because the headgasket has 'clearly' failed doesn't mean there aren't other problems as well.  Really shouldn't just chuck another gasket on without making sure the engine is all good first.

Thank you, just dont know what to do for the best, dont know if the garage he brought the car from should be sorting it out or if the garage is at fault and thats why they wont sort it out. 

1 hour ago, Julie1905 said:

Thank you, just dont know what to do for the best, dont know if the garage he brought the car from should be sorting it out or if the garage is at fault and thats why they wont sort it out. 

Both, if you take my advice