Advice needed regarding used car

[HennyPenny23]

Two years ago I part-exchanged my car which was becoming increasingly unreliable, and, with our annual holiday approaching, bit the bullet and bought a car online from Cinch. Landrover Discovery with 15,000 miles on the clock. In the first few weeks the battery failed and needed replacing, and the air conditioning also failed. There was a. loud rattling noise which three dealerships could not diagnose. Eventually Cinch gave me a hire car for the week we were due to go to Cornwall, and the fault was finally rectified.

In the two years since I've had the car I've put 10,000 miles on the clock. At the weekend the turbo failed and the car then broke down completely as I tried to take it in to the dealership. I've paid £250 for AA membership to get the car there, then another £230 for 'diagnostics'. I was told today by the dealership that it is a complete new engine that is needed and will cost between £15k and £30k.

I've been paying my PCP payment monthly for two years, but still have three years to go. The car was valued at £21k when I bought it, now I(prior to the engine problem) more like £14k.

I started off by saying to Landrover how disappointed I was that with 36,000 miles on the clock a whole new engine is needed. They said they have no liability because the car does not have a full service history. I took this up with Cinch - I have serviced the car twice at Halfords (not Landrover because it cost £1k each time). They say because it is outside of the warranty period there is nothing they can do. The finance company are raising a complaint but the onus is on me to 'prove' that the car was faulty when sold which I don't see how I can. Does anyone have experience of similar? Thank you!

They are correct that, as you have had the car two years, it is up to you to prove that it was faulty when you bought it and that the fault is not due to normal wear and tear, misuse or inadequate maintenance. You will need to get a report from an independent engineer if you want to pursue this.

Have a look around on FB groups to see if it is a known fault. Ford Ecoboost engines had a major flaw that they weren’t issuing a recall for but if you complained enough they replaced the engine for free. If others have the same issue you stand more of a chance.

If this was an issue when you purchased, it wouldn't have taken two years to break. Land rovers are not known for their reliability and the amount of people that have to buy a new engine at minimal miles is shocking but no one gets anywhere.

PCP may help you here but I'm not sure of the requirements.

I think you have three options.

1. Sell the car as broken and take the loss.
2. Fix it and it will never be the same again.
3. Fix it, sell it, take the loss.

@manontroppo Only if you were very lucky and your had full Ford service history. They are rarely pay out. A lot of people have had to just scrap their cars.

@HennyPenny23 There's absolutely no way a new engine would cost that. You'll be looking at £3k-8k tops (depending on the engine). That's crazy that the dealership would say that because it's wildly untrue.

No idea how i put that bullet point or why the others didn't follow through.

How old was it and what service did it have? At 15k it wouldn't have had that many missed?!

Not at all - my car was 5 years old and did not have a full Ford service history, I still got a brand new engine and the work done for free at a Ford dealer. I had to push for it but got it with little effort. I was prepared to fight quite hard because I was otherwise faced with scrapping a car that I had only had a couple of years, because a new engine would have been £6k once labour was included!

My local garage had no clue what had gone wrong - it took a bit of sleuthing on the Internet and the Ford dealer to diagnose.

I think you were supremely lucky @manontroppo from what I've read on Ford groups!

@manontroppo also think you were very lucky. The standard line is that it only happens when not maintained properly. Did it have full service from an independent?

Does your registration document have a previous owners name? New ones don’t because of gdpr but not sure when that came in.

Perhaps the old owner could provide info that could help you? It’s honestly quite unlikely (as they’ll be scared they’ll get the blame) but it might be possible that he/she knows something they are prepared to disclose.

You don’t need to use a main dealer to get services and remain ok with warranties, but the garage has to be italicised and I’m not sure if they need to use branded parts or if ones to an equivalent standard would do.

Main dealers always charge loads for everything. If you could get your engine done elsewhere that’s good it will be cheaper. But personally I’d take the loss and sell it on as it seems like it’s unlucky.

It’s a Disco 4 with the SDV6 engine isn’t it?

Exactly what I was wondering. There seemed to come a point where Jag Land Rover said ‘to hell with it’ and a lot of the later cars of both marques have serious issues.
I had a FL2 that never missed a beat, but what came after it is such a gamble.

sorry this is happening to you OP.

So you sold an unreliable car and decided to buy a Landrover??!!?

Anyway. If the thing driving at the moment flog it to WBAC and buy something Japanese instead.

It is a Disco 4. Not a clue what to do

Sorry to say it but you sold your unreliable car to buy one of the shittest cars on the road. Surely you knew of LR’s diabolical reputation?

If it’s with a main dealer then get it to a recommended local specialist. You will be needing another engine though and with a used one it’s possible you could experience the same failure again.

No I didn’t know of their reputation. I see the cars on the road and figure that consumers have rights when purchasing a vehicle for such a big sum of money. My previous car was unreliable because it was old, and everything was going wrong. I figured a newer car with a low mileage would be more reliable. Accepting that some things would go wrong, I would not expect an engine to blow up with 36,000 miles on the clock two years after buying the car.

Did you research? No, you absolutely would not expect a low mileage and newish car to need a new engine... unless it was a Land Rover.

And you do have rights but it happened a whole two years after you bought it which means it's nothing to do with the garage you bought it from.

Reliability Survey, the Land Rover Discovery was named the least reliable luxury SUV. Paired with the fact that Land Rover, as a brand, only managed position 31 out of 32 manufacturers, it's clear that there are some crucial reliability issues with both the make and model of this 4×4

Sorry for all the singular posts. I just googled Land Rover disco problems and that's the first two results.

Land Rovers really do have bad reputations - they are notorious for cars that break down. Unfortunately they’ve become a bit of a status symbol so people buy them without really researching them.

Like PP said, it’s been two years so that onus is on you. Proving that something was defective two years ago is tricky, and the only way I can think of is to keep the broken engine and have an expert look at it.

Do you have outstanding finance on it? If you do I wonder if you can hand the car back?

My only advice is to try and find a local consumer radio program or newspaper column who might try and apply some pressure. Where I live we have a local radio show who seem to do pretty well when tackling similar issues.

Discoveries have always had a poor reputation, if it isn't the engine, the wiring of the car packs up. I had a Land-rover Freelander, but I was lucky as mine was one of the last ones before they moved over to having the BMW engine, mine was bomb proof, yet ex sil one that was a year younger than mine was never out of the garage with some fault.