Advice Please. A female customer of mine buys a 2002 vw beetle with only 150k on clock 5 weeks ago she has several cars and has

alan1111, Mar 26, 7:21am
A female customer of mine buys a 2002 VW Beetle with only 150k on clock 5 weeks ago. She has several cars and has only driven the VW 3 times and a total of 460 ks. On Saturday she was driving through Kinleith Forest and blew a heater hose, she had 2 Logging trucks behind her and could not pull over for 800 meters as not safe too. She has totally stuffed the engine as she pulled over oil light came on also.
She did not buy a warranty but i feel she should be covered by CGA and FTA car dealer said no. Bare in mind only 460ks traveled and only 5 weeks. You're thoughts please.
henderson_guy, Mar 26, 7:25am
My first thoughts, is 800m of driving with a burst heater hose will not destroy an engine, and will not bring on an oil light. I would suggest that the heater hose is a symptom, rather than a causation. But yes, I would most certainly be phoning the dealer pronto.
alan1111, Mar 26, 7:30am
I hate the cars with only lights to say temp normal and then red to say hmm in trouble.
My thoughts too on 800 metres like she said but a $9000 car and traveled only 460km and 5 weeks after purchasing. Surely must be covered by something.
poppajn, Mar 26, 8:08am
I,d say the onus is on her,
motorboy2011, Mar 26, 7:23pm
the dealer is responsible for the fault, ie the hose. nothing else. even if she had boughta warranty they would tell her to jump, as she continued to drive.
intrade, Mar 26, 8:25pm
i am with handerson guy 800 meter wont destroy no engine the oil light is on when it is out of oil or the engine has stoped. so there is a big chance that the engine is either not stuffed or she drove 18km with no water or longer.
also a 2002 beatle is just a golf and golfs used to have the most warnings of any cars even my bora that is 2001golf sedanhas a water level sender in the expension bowl , so something is not sounding right if it was driven 800 meters only from the hose blowen then it be porkies been told by mechanic who diagnosed it and wants to get rich on the job. so id get a secound opinion from a trusted place.
hpaul, Mar 26, 8:39pm
I think you can probably add another '0' to the claimed '800'.
kcf, Mar 27, 12:45am
Yup, more like she drove a good distance with the water temp reading through the roof, and didn't notice anything until the oil pressure light came on.

I'd say she doesn't have a great case, as while the car has suffered a random failure (it happens), the actual *damage* has been caused by her having kept driving it with no water until alerted to the problem by the engine committing suicide by bearing failure (or suchlike).
alan1111, Mar 27, 4:29am
I can see this turning nasty thank god i really have nothing to do with this. The VW is not in my workshop i aint even seen it, she was just asking for my opinion.
Cheers for the replies.