Trading in a car with faults.......

[Barny9339]

So our car is with a main dealer getting diagnostics at the moment, and we have heard from them it needs a new clutch (suspected) and most shocking a new engine - this was unexpected and very much out of our price range to fix!

I am just wondering if we were to trade in with W B A C or even a main dealer on a new car , do they called said main dealer and check if theres any work advised for that car? Is that such a thing?

Obviously I am wondering if theres any comeback for us trading it in , potentially knowing it needed the work doing

As I said the clutch was expected from driving the car, the engine is not. The car drives absolutely fine so am against shelling out and getting a new engine anyway.

I traded my bashed up car recently at VW. They didn't even turn the engine on. It was a wreck to be honest but they just wanted a sale.

ok so main dealer has quoted £1900 alone on labour costs. still waiting for quote for engine and clutch but i suspect it is £4000- £5000 repairs.

W b a c will make us a loss of around £2000 on our outstanding loan for the car, so i have some thinking to do.

I work at a main dealer and we get loads of cars traded in with faults

The salespeople just walk round the car and check for damage, they don't drive it but are meant to

Let them do an appraisal and don't say anything

I'd say a car with 60k miles and only 5 yrs old needing a new engine suggests it's not fit for purpose. Can you go back to the retailer or manufacturer?

Why don't you take it to an independent specialist? my VW one charges me less than half the hourly rate the VW main dealer does and will use OEM quality parts instead of VW over priced ones.

Engines can be destroyed in 54kmiles, esp those that run a wet timing belt but as yours runs fine with no weird noises... unless he has stripped stuff down, how would he know that the engine is xxxx'd ? sounds like he is going off diagnostics only.

A clutch shouldn't be more than a few 100, at 54k, you shouldn't need a new dual mass fly wheel (if its got one) thats where the cost comes in.

As for trading it in with faults, would you like to buy a car from someone who did the same as you re thinking of doing?

What car is it? Some models of cars do have dodgy engines.

I thought these buy any car sites actually ask you whether an engine warning light is on when they buy it.

If you take it there and they turn it on and the engine light shows up how is that going to work.

I'd get a second opinion.

According to Arnold Clark last time my car was in I was driving a death trap. I took it to my local independent garage who fixed a couple of minor issues for about £60.

They said a few things AC said would maybe, perhaps show as advisories on my next MOT (they didnt) & they said my timing belt needed replaced - it didn't it needed a slight adjustment which took about 1 min to do.

Don't make an decision til someone else has looked at it. I find it hard to believe your engine needs replaced yet you haven't noticed any problems with it

I don't think the OP has said she has a EML on...

Can you say what make and model it is? I can't believe a 5 year old car with that milage could need a new engine. I'd be very wary that the dealership are having you on tbh. I'd be getting an independent report on the state of the engine myself before doing anything

Crankshaft end float is controlled by thrust washers. Totally obtainable, completely replaceable. Trouble is, fewer and fewer garages have the skills to remove and strip down an engine and even if they do, the man hours to replace cheap parts could still mean costs in the £thousands, so "we need to replace the engine" may (annoyingly) still be the way forward. Definately worth a second opinion though!

Land Rover or Jag is my guess.

If you like it I would look for an independent garage. Do not use a main dealer once the warranty is up, our local Land Rover dealer actually sends the engine rebuilds to our local garage on a farm as they don't have the skills to do them.

I have a 40 years old car with 187k that doesn't need a new engine, it's bullshit or there as a fault from manufacturer.

But to answer your question trade in asap!

I couldn't morally sell it privately if I knew or suspected major problems.

But I'd have no problem in part exchanging it at a garage or WBAC or similar. The offer a low PX price exactly to cover "unforeseen" problems, hence the large margin between the price they offer you and the price they'll sell it to the future customer. It's a kind of in-house insurance - most cars won't need much if anything spending on them, so that covers the few which do, either to cover costs of rectification before retail sale, of they likewise, just pass it on through the trade, often downwards to small private garages for whom it's cheaper to do major repair work.

We sold our car several months ago. It had a major water leak through the heater system. We'd already spent around £2k on a new blower fan, and various failed attempts to stop the water leaking in. (Known problem with that make and model apparently!). The garage warned us that the circuit board(s) were showing water marks and that it was only a matter of time before a circuit board would short/blow and that would be another £2-£3k for repair/replacement.

We sold it to a local reputable garage who offer "cars bought for cash" just to get rid of it. Price he paid matched WBAC. He put it on his forecourt at twice the price he paid us, i.e. £8k against the £4k WBAC value. Fair enough. That margin more than covers him for warranty repairs if it fails under the 12 month warranty, or he may have done a proper check himself and already rectified it prior to sale. Likewise a buyer should have it checked over by AA or similar who'd also be hoped to spot the problem (blatantly obvious by looking under the bonnet as there are water stains everywhere and the sound proof/insulation padding is soaked through, not to mention wet internal car mats!!). Not our problem if neither the garage nor future buyers bother to give it a good look over!

If we didn't have morals, we'd have sold it privately ourselves for probably £7k, but we just couldn't do that to someone, just to make us a bit of profit!

I've only used WBAC once but the check they did was absolutely minimal. My car's gearbox was knackered. I trundled my car to WBAC stopping 4 or 5 times on the way, even though it was only 1.5 miles from my house.

I had been to the car wash and it looked good on the outside but was absolutely not road worthy.

The guy looked at it for less than 5 mins and gave me the price I'd expect if it was working properly.

I was happily surprised.

Is it a Land Rover OP?

no not a land rover !

i think we will W B A C it - as @taxguru everything you say makes sense.

i would not sell it to someone morally like myself who couldnt afford it - wbac make millions each year i suppose, and they are not giving me a great price - im still going to lose roughly £2500 on my bank loan - but thats better than £4/£5k on this car which has given me no end of issues since buying it only last year (!)

Timing belts don’t need “adjustment” either it need replacement based on time/mileage or it doesn’t. Your service book should detail what the intervals are.

I traded in a car a few weeks ago and it had the engine management light on. They never even mentioned it. I'd just trade it in at a garage.

If you are going to buy another car, I'd say have a look at Cinch. They gave me nearly double what WBAC or anyone else offered for my banger. Yes, you probably pay a bit more for the one you are buying but they deliver it to your door, take away your old one, you get a 14 day money back no questions asked guarantee and a 90 day warranty.

I had a similar issue on an old car, I took it to another garage to check the clutch only and waited to see if they mentioned the engine too. They didn’t. I honestly think it is a big scam sometimes.

Less than 54k and they say it needs a new engine? I'd be getting a second opinion, the £1900 labour costs would be 31 hrs at the garage I use.
I've had a new engine in a work vehicle at 200k and including buying the engine I was £4500.

Well whatever they did took about 1 min & most certainly didn't replace the timing belt. Bottom line is as I was saying to OP was the dealers were saying there was something wrong with the car that wasn't. 18 months later still no sign of it needing replaced but AC would have & charged me parts and labour

There won’t be a “sign” of it needing replacement. I suggest checking the interval otherwise you might end up needing a new engine! As for the OP, they’ve obviously found excessive end float of the crank during the clutch replacement, this wouldn’t necessarily cause any symptoms especially if it’s only just out of spec. It will probably get worse and eventually lead to engine failure.

Get the clutch done done by an independent garage. Main dealers are notoriously expensive and the only reason is they use "genuine" parts - that's only relevant if your car is less than 3 years old and still under manufacturers warranty.

Don't get the engine repaired. Get a second opinion on that - I think they're trying to pull a fast one. Either that or they're trying to get you to buy another car from them because "the finance will be cheaper than repair".

Honestly, they're trying it on.