Turbo problems

[jos]

Hi,

Bought a v.w. bora 6 weeks ago with 13000 miles on the clock - warning emissions light came on and the garage has informed me today that the turbo has gone

Has anyone else had a turbo go at such low mileage.

Totally gutted at the news today don't know which way to turn really as I purchased it from a second hand car dealer with a 30 day warranty

Any ideas or help please

Jos

[2moreski]

Take it straight back. How many miles have you done since you bought it?

The 30 day warranty is not necessarily the only protection you have, you may have rights as a consumer under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and an express warranty won't preclude the application of the SGA.

BUT....time is of the essence - you need to tell them straight away about the problem, stop driving it (or minimise driving it) and get it back to them.

Are they a decent sized outfit?

[jos]

hi thanks for the reply, I have informed them at first they didn't want to know but got advice from office fair trading and as you have said sale of goods act 1979 stands - well hopefully - they are now going to collect the car and have a look at it themselves.
Once again thanks for the help
Jos

[2moreski]

You'll have to be very firm with them. SGA is by no means a guaranteed lifeline for you as it would ultimately come down to whether a court felt you had the car long enough/had done enough miles for it to cease to be the dealer's problem. It is good news that they are taking it back though.

Ideal scenario is they either give you a full refund, or install a new turbo(make sure it's a NEW VAG turbo and not a re-conditioned one) for free (with a full warranty). If they accept responsibility under the SGA then it is YOUR choice as to which you agree to and NOT theirs - don't let them palm you off with a repair if you don't want it.

Next, you can make it clear to them that you can very easily lodge a small claims court application online very cheaply, and you would have no potential liability for the garage's legal costs, even if you lose (bearing in mind the consumer the courts will have some sympathy for you, and you have nothing to lose apart from your time). [Be careful about this option as you might **** them off and worsen your bargaining position - but bear in mind it is always a fall back position for you].

The next option might be to go 50:50 on parts with them supplying the labour BUT if they do this then you must get a decent warranty (ie a year) for their workmanship etc and make sure it's a new VAG turbo and not a re-conditioned one, as above.

Other tips

- Keep a record of every phone conversation you have with them. Only needs to be brief, but note name, time and any key points agreed/discussed.

- Watch them like a hawk - make them give you deadlines and don't accept anything but reasonable extensions to those deadlines.

- If you get your money back, buy another one from a VW dealer with the 12 month used car warranty - I was highly sceptical of it (thought it wasn't worth the paper it was written on) but I was wrong - it has been absolutely superb for me, new brakes all round (Discs and pads), new steering rack (solved problems similar to TdiBora Sam) and new bushes - still only 7 months into it.

Finally, did you HPI check the car, and check that the milleage was correct? This is a particularly uncommon problem at this sort of milleage and clocking, it seems, is all to easy now with digital odometers. It's about £15 to do an AA type check online and it may just throw something up.

I sincerely hope that the dealer is one of the good guys and they see you right, but in this climate and in the used car sales business, I'm afraid that along with the majority of good guys, there are some absolute toe-rags that opperate out of seemingly decent showrooms who have operated for a long time. It is all too easy for them to set up different companies to trade as a name and it's very difficult for trading standards to actually make anything stick.

Good luck - let us know how it goes.

[jos]

i have had the carback from the car people today. they coudnt find anything wrong, then theyve sent it to vw agent in manchester and they cant find anything wrong either. they also say it has never been on a machine before because it would be stored in the ecu. the car seems to be running great though . im just annoyed with our local vw dealer if its not the turbo because it cost me 100 pounds to put it on their machine and sending back and going to get it.thanks a lot for all your help.

[2moreski]

If they are right, and there is nothing wrong, then £100 is cheap for peace of mind!

If VW are wrong and there is something wrong then at least you potentially have some come-back against them if they failed to diagnose a fault which they should have detected etc. Hopefully you'll never get to that bridge.

Enjoy the Bora!