...blown. Do I have legal rights? I bought a 1999 VW Polo 1.6 'Open Air' from a Trader for £1350 in September this year, advertised in Autotrader. I had just sold my car as my financial situation was such that I needed to down-size my expenses.
I have driven only approx. 300 miles in the car, 120 of which were on the day of purchase to get home. Last week whilst picking up my girlfriend from town, the car started misfiring badly, and so we chugged the 2 mile journey home. Fearing the worst I decided it best to not drive it anymore until a mechanic could get out to look at it, the earliest he could see it was yesterday.
First off he checked and swapped the spark plugs which seemed to do the trick and the engine stopped misfiring for about 3 mins. The plugs were being coated in water and/or oil, so after a compression test to all the cylinders, cylinder numbers 2 and 3 were still misfiring.
He checked all the usual bits and pieces, HT leads, Distributor, Water Pump, hoses etc etc, until finally after managing to remove the coolant bottle top (was overtightened) he discovered thick brown/copper gunk and severely correded particles caked around the inside of the bottle. He performed a 'sniffer' test to test for the presence of oil in the coolant tank, and sure enough the blue dye turned green.
He confirmed head gasket failure, and he showed me the thick mayo sludge under the oil cap.
So the cost of repair? Well, the mechanic quoted between £500-£600 to replace gasket, skim head and flush the cooling system BUT he stressed that once this job is underway, it is 'possible' that further, more severe damage may be found resulting in a cost of close to the £1350 I paid for the car.
So, I guess my question is this:
Do I have any legal right to request a replacement/repair/refund from the trader or is this wishful thinking? I am currently not working, and I simply don't have the money to pay for the repair, which could potentially double if it's discovered that the engine is cooked also.
I have since noticed that the dials on the dash are not sitting true behind the plastic screen, and there is also a very small dried up fly in there too. Perhaps my 74000 mile polo is a 174000 mile polo.
The car came with almost a years MOT, and had a new cambelt but hardly no history (last 2 MOTs) I did an HPI search all ok, so for a little run about I decided to take a chance. What a mistake!
Having seen the crap inside the coolant bottle and the mayo gunk in the oil, and now the speedo issue, I feel that I've learnt a very harsh lesson indeed. A repair bill as expensive as what I paid for the car in just six weeks.
Is there anything I can do or do I just take this one on the chin?
Thanks for reading.
I have driven only approx. 300 miles in the car, 120 of which were on the day of purchase to get home. Last week whilst picking up my girlfriend from town, the car started misfiring badly, and so we chugged the 2 mile journey home. Fearing the worst I decided it best to not drive it anymore until a mechanic could get out to look at it, the earliest he could see it was yesterday.
First off he checked and swapped the spark plugs which seemed to do the trick and the engine stopped misfiring for about 3 mins. The plugs were being coated in water and/or oil, so after a compression test to all the cylinders, cylinder numbers 2 and 3 were still misfiring.
He checked all the usual bits and pieces, HT leads, Distributor, Water Pump, hoses etc etc, until finally after managing to remove the coolant bottle top (was overtightened) he discovered thick brown/copper gunk and severely correded particles caked around the inside of the bottle. He performed a 'sniffer' test to test for the presence of oil in the coolant tank, and sure enough the blue dye turned green.
He confirmed head gasket failure, and he showed me the thick mayo sludge under the oil cap.
So the cost of repair? Well, the mechanic quoted between £500-£600 to replace gasket, skim head and flush the cooling system BUT he stressed that once this job is underway, it is 'possible' that further, more severe damage may be found resulting in a cost of close to the £1350 I paid for the car.
So, I guess my question is this:
Do I have any legal right to request a replacement/repair/refund from the trader or is this wishful thinking? I am currently not working, and I simply don't have the money to pay for the repair, which could potentially double if it's discovered that the engine is cooked also.
I have since noticed that the dials on the dash are not sitting true behind the plastic screen, and there is also a very small dried up fly in there too. Perhaps my 74000 mile polo is a 174000 mile polo.
The car came with almost a years MOT, and had a new cambelt but hardly no history (last 2 MOTs) I did an HPI search all ok, so for a little run about I decided to take a chance. What a mistake!
Having seen the crap inside the coolant bottle and the mayo gunk in the oil, and now the speedo issue, I feel that I've learnt a very harsh lesson indeed. A repair bill as expensive as what I paid for the car in just six weeks.
Is there anything I can do or do I just take this one on the chin?
Thanks for reading.