Car dealers

Page 1 / 2
cheeky52, Sep 13, 4:45pm
hi all I have just recently brought a car from a dealer in Christchurch when I test drove the car I noticed a noise coming from the front left wheel area I told them about this noise and they said they would look inot it but after about 2 days they said it passed its wof and couldn't find anything that was causing the noise so I picked up the car and the noise was still there so I took the car to another mechanic for a second opinion and they found the left front shock abshorber was stuffed and sway bar bushings were shot so I said to fix the problems but now I want to know my rights on this issue any help please regards neil
h.e, Sep 13, 4:47pm
Stop the repairs. Take the car back to the dealer and get them to repair. If your mechanic repairs it it's your bill
franc123, Sep 13, 4:56pm
As above, the dealer isn't obligated to pay for repairs that you have organised. Its their problem not yours, there is always a reason for unusual suspension noises, 80% of the time its component wear, the rest is normally caused by impact damage, foreign objects like stones caught where they shouldn't be, or fasteners working loose.
tony9, Sep 13, 5:08pm
Get the details of the problems in writing from your second opinion. Photos would be good.

Take them to the dealer and ask for the problems to be fixed. If he refuses, or does not commit to a fix in a reasonable time (a couple of weeks should be enough), ask for your money back.

If he refuses, go to the district court and ask about the Disputes Tribunal, they will help you.
cheeky52, Sep 13, 5:19pm
thanks guys im afraid the car is fixed now by the second mechanic but I will still go see the car dealer and try to sort something out with them I hope
franc123, Sep 13, 5:27pm
You better take the invoice and the old parts with you and hope it was actually a defect that should have failed WOF, and that they might be reasonable. Don't fancy your chances otherwise, not being rude but you went about it completely the wrong way. It would have been better to have not accepted the car in the first place if it was clear the issue was still there and taken it straight back, or better still agreed it should have been repaired first and got it in writing on the offer and sale agreement.
cheeky52, Sep 13, 5:41pm
thankyou it is a lesson hard learnt I think
cheeky52, Sep 13, 5:42pm
the noise was mentioned on the agreement also
kazbanz, Sep 13, 6:38pm
Be VERY careful how you approach the dealer. The issue was relatively minor and your legal responsibility was to return the car to them for repair.
If you go in all guns blazing then the likely response would be to advise you to enjoy sex and travel.
If you go in and say hey I found the cause of the noise. Heres the invoice. What do you want to contribute?
That will give you the best chance of something happening.
ozz1, Sep 13, 7:18pm
as kaz says. be polite. cheerful and ask what is the best way to sort this problem. ?. worst you can expects is either no. or 1/2 costs.

example. had customer come in last week. quite stroppy. " hey bought a seat off you 9 months ago" and its just failed its 2nd wof". seat is sitting in the boot of another car. lower bolt/nut is broken. point out to customer. "thats a pretty fresh looking break. as you can see by shiny metal" but hey give me a couple of minutes and will see if we have another. if so . you can have for $30. we go 1/2s?". or I will get it repaired at no cost.?" easy 15min repair. so i go off 4 min later come back. and hed driven off. ?
i was polite and willing to help him. but sometimes you just cant with some folks. maybe he just expected a free one.?
sharchew, Sep 13, 8:32pm
Could you tell us who the car yard is so we dont buy a car from them. And who done the warrent we cant have dickheads like that putting warrents on faulty cars
kazbanz, Sep 13, 9:08pm
hang on a minute--What is the vehicle exactly?
What EXACTLY does it say on the VOSA about the noise?
because if it says something like "customer is aware of (for example) squeaking noise from right front of car and accepts the car in that condition " then you don't have a leg to stand on.

I have to say I genuinely do not understand why you drove out of the yard at all with the fault. From my POV the deal should have been--Yep I'll buy the car but Im not taking it until the noise is fixed.
PLEASE understand Im not having a go at you. I just genuinely don't understand the deal that was done
carbomike, Sep 13, 9:36pm
Hi All
I would like to know if there is a ' Monitoring' authority who controls motor car dealers. I have been looking for a Porsche 997 and recently one appeared on the Turners Website. I checked it out and it was a disaster in that the car had been repossessed, had not been serviced since 2011 and was in a bad state of repair. Lo and behold - a dealer who trades on trade me bought it and added $20k to the purchase price ($68,800.00) and is pretending that there is nothing wrong with the vehicle. When asked if the car had been well maintained he said it had been recently service - crap!
Someone is going to buy the car and in a few months be face with HUGE repair bills. Surely this practice cannot be allowed to go on?
Or is it Buyer Beware and everybody who knows the truth SHUT UP!
tony9, Sep 13, 9:45pm
No problem with any of the above, the fact that the car is repossessed is completely irrelevant.

Also, as it is a dealer and the car appears to be advertised in serviceable condition, then problems a few months out are going to be sorted by the dealer - if they are not then the CGA would protect the new owner.

A car like that, it would not be hard for a potential buyer to find data during research. Maybe the dealer is looking for a decent markup to cover the risk, or far all the work he had done to get it up to a fair condition.
clicker5, Sep 13, 9:46pm
Hi Carbo - I actually saw that car! It was on auction for $45k - $50K and has just been sold for $68,800.00 - a cool $20 in a few days.
I noticed that the car had been left in the sun and the ALL the radio knobs and climate control knobs had perished. Only one of the keys actually worked and when you inserted the correct key the car shouted "SERVICE" at you.The seller must have one of those computer goodies that re-sets the service indicator - I am sure that is illegal.
carbomike, Sep 13, 9:50pm
Hi Tony9 - the car was advertised on the same day it was purchased. no time to make any fixes.
clicker5, Sep 13, 10:09pm
Hi Tony9 - Actually the fact that it is repossessed is highly relevant - It means that if the previous owner could not meet the repayments he was hardly likely to get the car serviced correctly at Porsche ($5k at a time)
tigertim20, Sep 13, 10:13pm
So, its ok to assume that a dealer is dodgy, and ok to advertise that assumption as fact because an unknown, anonymous poster on a message board has posted THEIR side of ONE problem?

a problem that they never actually gave the dealer an opportunity to remedy becuase they went elsewhere instead of back to the dealer?

that seems harsh.

remind me not to do any dealings with you!
cheeky52, Sep 13, 10:29pm
hi when I picked up the car a 07 Subaru 3.0r the dealer said the wof place couldn't find anything wrong with it but he did say that yes there is a noise there and if it gets worse then he would fix it
franc123, Sep 13, 10:39pm
So, its now fixed and you've been invoiced by the repairer, what was deemed to be causing the noise?
cheeky52, Sep 13, 10:44pm
a faulty bilstein front strut
cheeky52, Sep 13, 11:12pm
which I thought should of failed the wof
franc123, Sep 13, 11:15pm
That's a tricky one, unless there was an obvious leak of fluid from it if its a fluid shock, or it was damaged or worn in the stem and clearly no longer dampening properly then really it wasn't a safety issue, just a noise issue. These problems can be very hard to track down with workshop tests if it cant be reproduced doing either a manual or machine test with a shock tester. You are just going to have to explain the situation in a pleasant way and see what they say. Good luck with it all.
kazbanz, Sep 14, 12:15am
So what does it say on the VOSA about the noise?
westwyn, Sep 14, 1:16am
Actually, I can speak with a little experience here- with exotica, the fact is has been repossessed has little or no bearing on whether it's been serviced properly or not. Owners of high-priced cars like the mentioned Porsche either will, or won't, look after their cars. I've seen exotica that has been traded in with virtually no maintenance or care whatsoever- kerbed wheels, scrapes, cigarette burns etc- from owners who simply don't care about such things. And I've seen plenty of freshly repossessed exotics that have the still-warm full service records and history sitting in the glovebox.

A much higher proportion of that sort of gear is financed than you might think. A bad owner is a bad owner whether or not they've paid cash for it, or they have it ticked up.

"Repossession" is an oft-used phrase to cover off a multitude of scenarios. Often a company failure, or liquidation, or redundancy can instantly change the financial position of the owner, who in many cases immediately contacts the financiers to re-arrange asset ownership and terms- often the best way is to liquidate the car which technically is still repossession. Another reason is failure to maintain insurance (usually a DIC or speeding infringement) which is an instant red-letter moment for a financier, who has the right to immediately secure the asset.

I have no knowledge of the case you mention.

BUT- how certain are you that the dealer either (a) factored in a full service to the price of the deal, to be done at point of sale for the new owner, or (b) managed to obtain the missing service history from the main agents to prove maintenance WAS undertaken (records the general public cannot obtain due to privacy issues).

And yes, when it comes to selling exotica, a $20,000 gross mark-up is about right. Once you factor in the $10,000 over-trade (which is common at this market level), the $3-4000 majn agent service, the CGA risk factor to be costed in and probably the cost of selling, sound like about right to me!