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disaster with Alfa purchase!

Just read this and I am gutted for you but pleased nobody was hurt.

Whilst there is sound advice about the legal side of things, I would hasten through a VOSA informed inspection on this vehicle.

Apart from giving you more evidence if things go pear-shaped, it should also prevent this dangerous vehicle from being sold on to another unsuspecting customer.

In addition, it might just be the last chance saloon for the garage - you have no idea if they have previous or how many other vehicles they have for sale in similar condition.

..... I think this is the right time to look at leaving your good lady with the Picasso and getting an S-Class :)
 
SilverSaloon said:
ok - garage has said that they want to see/inspect it before a refund is given. We have stated that we are rejecting the car and want a full refund - he says if its unroadworthy then they will give us one, but initially wanted the car back to fix/look at the faults. we dont want the car anymore as we've lost confidence completely in its safety & not interested in any repair work done by them. (work i suspect that would be done by the MOT station who MOT'd it :eek:)
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Hi Derek,

As you may know I have a good understanding of the law on this. however as has been said the law in Scotland may be slightly different.

You may want to take it a little easier on them as being stubborn may just cause more aggrevation.

In my experience "AA Guys" love to stick their oar in and make things sound worse than they are in the hope of a little tip for being so helpful... im not saying this is the case but...

Even if the car is unfit for purpose, In this country you HAVE to give the dealer opportunities to rectify any issue.. they do not have to give you a refund unless they want to in the first instance.
Although it may cost you thousands to repair these items, to the dealer it will all be in a days work.

What i would do is the following:

- Get the VOSA inspection done... If the MOT garage is somehow related to the seller then this alone will give them sleepless nights
- This will give you and independent report which you then will have to give to the dealers for them to sort out all the issues in a timely manner.
- If they then cannot or do not sort the issues out then you have a case for a refund.
- Obviously send all of this in writing to the dealer. Dont get angry with them and dont be rude.. it will get you absolutely nowhere, be firm but nice.

If you want to chat about this, just ring me.

p.s. remember all cars go wrong and need maintenance at some points... Alfa's probably more than most... Its not an excuse for the obviously shoddy preperation but i wouldnt be put off the car just for some items that need sorting.
 
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thanks.

I have just checked the documentation and the MOT station who passed it is the garage itself. (they have two branches and the MOT station is the other branch).

i've checked on the MOT website for the advisary that i was told when we picked it up there was no advisaries but upon looking at the certificate - there is and we were not given the extra sheet of paper.....

advisary is slight play in pin/bush on both sides of car (the bit that the garages have said should of failed on) and a nail iun the rear tyre which i didnt know about until now - no mention of the severe cracks in the tyres.

part of me thinks if they fix all these issues without cost to ourselves we still have the car we wanted in the 1st place. i guess if we get a proper inspection done and they fix everything then maybe thats a better route..... i dont know. they may prefer to refund as they were already moaning about having not much profit left in the car after all the work we agreed for them to do was done prior to purchase (i drive a hard bargain!) i can also see where Jay is coming from with the AA guy - they inspected a car years ago for me and i proceeded with the sale and it turned out to be a fantastic car & only time it let me down (shortly after purchase) wasnt even mentioned in their report...

anyway, back to this car!.... its now in a secure place and wont be moved until i see the garage.

will report back with updates
 
I'm sorry to hear this is a purchase thats gone sour. You were very enthuiastic about the car at the meet @ Stirling. If the work is done to a satisfactory level then you will have the car you thought you bought and its reasonable still, at this stage to expect this to be done. However the shenanigans of this retailer putting iffy MOTs on the car does beg the question will it be done to a satisfactory level. If they offer the refund take it as there are plenty more fish in the sea.
 
Good luck Derek, Jay's advice is spot on for England. The garage has 3 opportunities for rectification before rejection becomes your right in law (subject to proving the car still has faults rendering it unfit for purpose).
The garage will know this so "negotiate" over what they offer.
These Alfas are known for suspension and mounts issues so hopefully parts should be plentiful.
Put a call into your regional consumer advice line and they will log the issue and give you a ref. no. They will also tell you if the garage has previous.
Send any correspondence recorded delivery and if you are going down the rejection route and it is possible to take the car back to their premises do so and leave them with keys and the problem.

You are luckier than me in that the dealer is looking like he will play ball, mine left me hanging making it perfectly clear I could whistle (fight it all the way through the process and money claim online) if I wanted to reject it.

If only they were all like Jay!
 
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It wasn't an R-reg Alfa 156 in burgandy/maroon? 2.0 twin spark, wooden steering wheel, cloth interior, ~106k on the clock?

My mate traded one in in Edinburgh a few months back, it was a dog when he traded it in, i think he only got £200 for it!
 
wigs_1 said:
It wasn't an R-reg Alfa 156 in burgandy/maroon? 2.0 twin spark, wooden steering wheel, cloth interior, ~106k on the clock?

My mate traded one in in Edinburgh a few months back, it was a dog when he traded it in, i think he only got £200 for it!
Click to expand...

Correct. It wasn't.
 
Hey wigs 1 TVM the heads up. If it was this wee beastie you bought SilverSaloon it gives you an idea of the mark up!! So get stuck in, get your lady sorted. Magic Forum this. The all seeing eye as it were.
 
first off,sorry to hear of your troubles-hope you get the result you want.
having owned a 156 from new,and having it serviced at the correct intervals,all i have needed is a lambda sensor,tyres and pads. also i would just go for my money back,as the belts on these need changed every 36k and chances are this has not been done!! alfas do get a bad name, but this is mainly due to poor upkeep,not dodgy build quality. personally i would go down the indy engineer report route and reject the car. good luck!
 
straight-six said:
first off,sorry to hear of your troubles-hope you get the result you want.
having owned a 156 from new,and having it serviced at the correct intervals,all i have needed is a lambda sensor,tyres and pads. also i would just go for my money back,as the belts on these need changed every 36k and chances are this has not been done!! alfas do get a bad name, but this is mainly due to poor upkeep,not dodgy build quality. personally i would go down the indy engineer report route and reject the car. good luck!
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hi

the car isnt what wigs_1 is talking about. the car in question is a top-spec late 52 model.

belt was changed 10k ago and seems to have had good servicing in the past.... i think its the previous owner who has let things slip.

we are visiting garage later.

a look on autotrader doesnt find any similar spec alfa's that compare unfortunatly.

will update with what is decided later today
 
spoke to garage thismorning - only with the minor partner - it doesnt appear they are playing ball here, and basically he was saying they want to take it back to the MOT station who did the bad mot for inspection as they only have our word for it. we say no way are they getting the car back before VOSA has seen it unless they are willing to refund. OK, no problem, we'll get VOSA's word for it. We have already told them that they can take a look at the car on our driveway to see the obvious issues with it that are quite obvious when its jacked up, before they agree to anything, which i think is fair enough, otherwise we'll leave it up to VOSA.

so it may well have to be through the official channels unfortunatly. apparently the main guy is back around 4pm so will go see him then.

yes we would consider another alfa - we like the cars and dont expect it to be trouble free, however i expect it to be safe if its just been MOTd, which is the only issues we have with this one. the fact its an alfa doesnt really make a difference to the issues we have with it - any car could suffer the same problems

over the weekend i was mellowing and considering a fix (if they did it and it was inspected independently afterwards and checked out OK) as wifey really loves(D) the car. i checked out the price of parts and it comes to around £300. however they are starting to yank my chain now....
 
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update - refuses to give us a refund, but has come up with a solution....

plan is for us to take it to an independent garage (we will take to local guy who has done work for us in the past on the merc & citroen) who will assess and list the faults.

the garage who sold the car will then fix these issues - apparently he says he will fix anything that renders the car unsafe as he will have to do this for re-sale anyway, so may aswell do for us even though he has no money left in car.... (dunno how true that is!!)

then my local garage will then re-check to see if work is done well etc

he also says he will/may (still to discuss) extend the warranty on it for 1 year instead of 1 month.

sounds reasonable & we get the car we wanted in the 1st place - and probably in better known condition than getting a refund and buying another "unknown" one elsewhere..... what do you reckon?

i guess nothing is set in stone though until we have the proper report from our garage with the extent of things required as he started to moan when we stated we wanted 2 new rear tyres of a reasonable brand (its a fast car) - but it needs them so thats what it needs!!

any advice as to what precautions i should take before handing the car to them after getting the indi inspection - video/photo of dodgy bits?

cheers

Derek.
 
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1 month warranty... im pretty sure thats illegal.

As to the work, as long as he does it then thats fine... you will need your garage to check it after.

I dont think you can specify good tyres.. as long as they are rated for the cars top speed and weight.. all is ok.
 
That all sounds like a fair and reasoned response to me.

After all if it were not for the faults you would have been happy with the car, so hopefully now you'll have a fault free car to enjoy :)
 
jaymanek said:
1 month warranty... im pretty sure thats illegal.

As to the work, as long as he does it then thats fine... you will need your garage to check it after.

I dont think you can specify good tyres.. as long as they are rated for the cars top speed and weight.. all is ok.
Click to expand...

yeah i dont mind that, but dont want really really cheap brands. they are dunlops on there now so i think its reasonable to assume i'd want similar brand as new tyres???

the warranty was 1 month or 1000 miles, whatever came sooner.
 
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