Is there anything I can do about this used car situation?

[Haylstones]

I bought a car from a garage last month. Beforehand I contacted them by email and they said it would come with 3 months warranty. Fast forward to today and I've been told it needs work worth £500 done pretty urgently. I've checked the documents I got when I bought it and there is no mention of a warranty , I didn't even think to check before now. I've emailed asking about it but don't expect much response from them.

I can't afford to have this done having spent almost £4000 on the car a few weeks ago but am not sure what, if anything I can do about it.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I haven't broken the news to dh yet so anything I can come up with to soften the blow would help enormously. I feel so foolish

This looks useful

Thanks. That is really useful so i will bookmark it in case I need back up. I think the fault counts a s a serious defect so it should apply to me.

I thought all cars bought from a commercial dealer had to come with 3 moths minimum warranty. Don't give up keep persuing, good luck!

er 3 months not 3 moths (they're an optional extra )

I knew what you meant

Something very similar happened to a collegue and she persued the garage through Trading Standards and the small claims court on the basis that the car was not fit for purpose. It was a long fight, which she gave up when the garage went out of business. To prove her point, she also took her car off the road and had to buy another one (she bought an old banger for a couple of hundred pounds, which proved to be far more reliable than the "new" car).

I just spoke to someone at the garage and they said the car does have a warranty but it only covers work done in their garage for 3 months and after 1 month I still have to pay 50% of the cost. They won't entertain the idea of contributing to another garage's work.
On the positive side I just spoke to another garage and they quoted £200 for the same work- when I told the garage this they sai it doesn't sound like either of the people I got quotes from know what they're doing

I don't know what to do now. The garage is 90 minutes drive away, I have no time to go there and I might end up paying half of it anyway. I'm not impressed

what needs doing op?

When i got my car the warranty covered certian parts for 3 months ie cam belt, clutch, not wear and tear type bits ( tyres and stuff!).

After that it was 50% then 25%. Had to be done there. Of course had i found it cheaper somewhere else after the 3 months i would have taken it elsewhere.

It's shock absorbers. Only one needs replaced but they advise changing both at the same time. I just told dh and he was surprisingly nonplussed by it so I feel a little better about it (Ok, I did cry a bit but its just so blimmin annoying)