Peter

Careful when buying a car from Walters!

Where do I start? Myself and my wife who was 35 weeks pregnant at the time we purchased a Ford Kuga from Walter’s garage in April this year. Due to our family expanding we were looking for a bigger car that would last us years. How wrong were we! In total the car was in our possession for a total of 88 days before we were told the car needed a new engine! The problems first occurred at the beginning of June when we having problems with the car initially starting. We straight away contacted Walter’s to inform them of this problem. We eventually got the car recovered back to Walter’s garage on Monday 9th June and was told there was an issue with the spark plugs which they replaced and was told we could pick the car up on the Wednesday afternoon. Fast forwarding a couple of weeks later we had the same issue where the car wouldn’t start. We decided to take the car to Kwik Fit on the 8th July to get a free battery check and was told that they couldn’t find any issues with battery however, our coolant reservoir was empty. After filling the coolant up myself I noticed it was still going down which indicated further issues. With that in mind I reported this to Walter’s on 10th July by this point we were conscious of time as we were due to drive the car all the way Paris on the 10th August for a planned family trip. We were told by Walter’s that due to the time of year and staff annual leave they were unable to look at the car until 21st August which would have been after our holiday. Due to having a newborn baby and a young child we didn’t want to run the risk of driving the car long distance knowing there was something wrong. We decided to take the car to a local car garage on 25th July and paid £75 for a diagnostic test and after further investigations we were told the car had a cracked cylinder which was leaking water/coolant into the engine and that it was recommended that we took the car to a Ford dealership. We then took the car to a local Ford dealership on Monday 28th July where we had to pay out £105.00 for another diagnostic test which confirmed the cracked cylinder, CV boot split causing grease to leak out and a worn tyre. The dealership quoted a total cost to repair of £6,500. As we had taken an extended 3 warranty with Walter’s garage, the dealership put a claim through to the warranty company Evolution which was refused as the warranty company exclude cracked blocks and cylinder heads on page 10 of the warranty (email proof received from dealership). We then went back to Walter’s to relay this information the same day and was told by Debbie in sales that the dealership should not have contacted Evolution the warranty company as they knew the claim would be refused and had now made our warranty ‘void’ but due to their ‘close’ relationship with Evolution, Debbie would try and retract the claim and for some reason Evolution agreed to overturn the claim even though they stated that in their warranty they do not cover cracked cylinders! As the warranty was only covered for up to £2,000 when we advised Debbie that due to the issues occurring within the first 3 months of purchase and under the Consumer Rights Act there should not be any cost to us to repair the car. The response we received was ‘we would like to think we are on the same page and come to some agreement’ in other words Walter’s were not prepared to pay the outstanding cost for the repairs (minus the £2,000 from the warranty). During this time the car was still in the forecourt of the dealership so we had to arrange for the car to be recovered back to Walter’s garage on the 30th July. Due to the ongoing dispute and being advised that Walter’s would not look at the car until 21st August, we had no choice but to pay £500 to hire a car for our trip away. At that point we were £680.00 out of pocket and with no car. When we raised this with Walter’s they stated that it was our decision to pay for these diagnostics tests/ hire a car and would not be refunded by them. Yes we appreciate it was our decision however, if we had not have acted sooner and had not found out about this serious underlying issue with the car, who knows what would have happened driving the car abroad with two young children. After many phone calls with Walter’s and my wife in tears, Walter’s advised that they may be able to source us with a car in the meantime to only be used locally while they carried out their checks on our car. The car they were offering to lend us was a Ford Focus that the company was using as a run around for their own personal use. We decided not to take this offer due to the unsuitability with having two young children who both use car seats. Walters somehow managed to carry out their own diagnostic test before the 21st August the original date they advised the car would be looked at. Invoice sent to us from the warranty company on the 11th August where Walter’s had quoted £5,304.00 (this did not include the repair for the CV boot split which the dealership identified). On the 7th August we received an email from Debbie giving us the following 3 options: Option 1 – Buyback We can buy the car back for £8000, which reflects the market value depreciation since your original purchase of £9500. The warranty and paint protection is non-refundable. Option 2 – Repair We can proceed with a repair by replacing the engine with another used engine. (In which we were told this would be timely and as previously mentioned was told this would come at a cost to us) Option 3 – Trade-In You have the option to trade in your current vehicle for a different model. We currently have a Renault Grandland (DU19 VJJ) available, with a changeover cost of £1,000. This would include a free 3-year warranty for free. After hours of carrying out our own research and seeking help from Citizens Advice, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 it clearly states that if a fault is found within the first 6 months of purchase it is assumed by law that it was there at the time of purchase and the burden of proof falls with the dealer/seller to prove it wasn’t. It also states that a repair/replacement should be carried out at the expense of the dealer/ seller with no costs to the consumer. Although Walter’s provided photos of the checks they carried out which none of them had any date stamps on this did not prove that the fault wasn’t there prior to us purchasing the car as research carried out confirms that cracked cylinder blocks will not show up on fault codes. Other research carried out shows a previous owner took the car in for a service due to the same cylinder misfiring which the garage assumed it was the spark plugs (the same assumption as Walter’s). Evidence shows the owner returning multiple times in a small period of time with the same problem as well as losing coolant. Another red flag was finding out that the previous owner was only in possession of the car for 5 months or less. After weeks of communication with the managing director Adam Walter’s we felt due to the unreasonable options we were given and the time we had already lost with being without a car for so long, we had no choice but to negotiate a refund figure and eventually agreed on the figure of £8,500. With a total loss of £2,800 within the space of less than 3 months. Adam proceeded to deduct from the full refund price, claiming that depreciation can be based on the current market value and the price of a hire car for 3 months which are both false and unjust. I spoke with Citizens advice and was told deductions should only be based on “Usage of the vehicle in the time that we’ve had it, meaning pence per mile. I offered 45p per mile (higher end of the scale which is based on business use). As we had only done 1538 miles since having the car it should have been a total of £692 deduction from the £9500 which we paid for the car minus the warranty payment and paint work protection fee that we were told was non refundable. Lastly I would like to add that Walter’s have still gone through with using our warranty which we paid £500 for and non refundable to claim the £2,000 to repair the car we no longer have to then sell on. We appreciate people taking the time out to read our very lengthy review. We felt it was important to include every detail of our experience with Walter’s Motor Group and express how much stress and financial strain this has caused to myself and my family for the last 3 months and we hope that if you do decide to purchase a car from Walter’s you do not go through the awful experience we have had.