Car a write off, 2 months after warranty expired

[DemBonesDemBones]

I am utterly frantic about this situation and have no idea what I can realistically do.
We bought a car at Christmas. It was a used car and we got 6 months warranty.
The car broke down on the way home from work on Thursday. The garage have just called to say that there is a hole in the cylinder block and the turbo has been starved of oil. The repair will cost at least 10.5k. The car is only worth 13k.
I'm looking online and feeling sick that it looks like we can't claim for this on our insurance. Surely that can't be right?!
Thanks for reading my petrified garbling. If you have any thoughts/experience/legal knowledge I would so appreciate a nudge in the right direction.

Not a lawyer or an insurance broker but I would be surprised if you can claim on your insurance, that tends to be for accident or theft.
As for your warranty- 2 days over you might have a case but 2 months is very unlikely.

I could actually cry. We've been doing so well, have cleared about 13k of debt from living on nothing since Christmas. I feel like it's all been for nothing.

Not sure why you’d think you can claim for mechanical failure on your car insurance?

All is not lost though, it will be significantly cheaper to get a good used engine fitted. Have a hunt around for marque specialists in your area and ask their opinion.

Car insurance is primarily to ensure any damage you do to other people or their property can be compensated. Comprehensive cover adds damage to own car as well as fire theft etc.

Breakdown insurance that will cover repairs to engine damage etc is an altogether different kettle of fish.

Eight months is a very long shot for any responsibility attaching to the selling dealer unless they were negligent on a significant scale or told untruths about car's service etc history.

What make/model? Some engines, eg Peugeot/Citroen diesels used in other makes too have history with oil starvation as strainers get clogged.

As above shopping around for cheaper solutions like a rebuilt/exchange engine is probably going to be the only practical option..

What make/how old?
My car conked out a few months ago and needed a new relay board. The main dealership basically said ‘there aren’t any in Europe currently, we have no idea when we can get one’ which meant I was without car for an unknown amount of time. I found a second hand one at a tatters yard, picked it up that day and it was sorted.
Not the same, but similar. There will be a way - and second hand will be the way.
Don’t panic!

Thank you so much everyone! The problem we are running into is that no garage will fit an engine they haven't sourced-and we've had 3 quotes around the 10.5k mark. For the first time we took our car finance and they are actually being very sympathetic and we're working to try and find a mutually acceptable solution.

I will update!

And sorry the make is a Land Rover. My dream car after 20 years of driving absolute bangers...I'm currently searching for an old banger

Which Landrover is it? Have you tried a specialist landcover garage, my experience is that they are usually better with make than more general garages. Or in the worst case scenario they may be able to offer you the best price to buy it off you in its current state.

They are lovely vehicles but can be a nightmare

And sorry the make is a Land Rover

And there’s your problem. My guess is it’s a Disco 3 or 4 with the notorious SDV6 engine? You’d have to be crazy to buy one.

@Shade17 yep.

@Betteroutdoors that's a good tip, I'll have a look.

@DemBonesDemBones sorry I haven't read the full thread but we had an issue with our car turbo and I got in touch with the Honest John website to get advice as I thought we'd have a bill of around £5k coming our way, and they advised that if the fault was developing during the time then there could be an argument that the dealer had to pay out or sort the fault themselves. In our case we did challenge the dealer (independent rather than branded) and they agreed with our challenge and paid for it to be put right. Might be worth seeking advice in a similar way?

Balls. The crankshafts are made out of chocolate and fail without warning. Even if you put a used engine in it there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again, the failure rate is comparatively high.

@Shade17 it's not turned out to be a dream, that's for sure!

There’s a great YouTube channel called LR TIME and he has some brilliant hypotheses on the subject of these engine failures. Not that helpful I realise but might be interesting to you.

The cheapest option to you might be selling as a non runner. If it’s an otherwise nice car someone might want it to do the work themselves.

LR have an absolutely horrific reputation for reliability - when I first read this thread I did think 'I wonder if that's a JLR product...'
I'd sell it on eBay as spares or repairs (there's a lot of companies that buy them, do the repairs in house then sell) and buy something a bit more reliable.

They're genuinely terrible vehicles for the most part.