Anyone know their stuff about MOT's

[leighton]

This query would better suit someone who is right up on their stuff or better still an MOT tester (no offence anybody).

A car I bought about 3 months ago (uunfortunately not a mini) has had a catalogue of issues and we've only driven it 1200 miles - thats one thousand two hundred MILES and in that time it's been back up the garage for 7 - 10 days already
As of now the car is sitting idle outside my house coming up to the fourth week after it's most recent issue when the engine dropped all it's oil while I was driving it home one evening and the cabin filling with smoke, I just thank the earth that my 5 month old daughter wasn't in the car at the time (then 4 months old)! As, you may imagine, we aren't best pleased and are now in the process of trying to give it back (with great difficulty).

Anyway, to the point. Whilst I've been looking at it alot recently (as it's the only thing I see when I look out the window), I noticed the bonnet didn't appear to be lined up right so wondering why, I looked around the front end of the car. Whilst doing this with the keen eye of my partners father, it was brought to light that the wing on the drivers side is also lined up differently in comparion to the passenger side. Example - the way it lines up the the 'A' frame with drivers side not being as fluent as the passenger side where it meets the upper pillars (if that makes sense?). We procided to look under the bonnet and noticed that the engine mount bracket (lower part that joins to body above suspension) has a tack weld which is unusual as all other welds are painted spot welds!!! The tack weld fairly recent but is rusty in colour, also there appears to be a hair line crack where the tack meets the car body which suggests to me the join isn't fully molded therefore causing weakness in the weld altogether.

Now, I have done a vehicle inspection check on it and there is no record of the car being in a bump although to us it is evident it has! The question I have is if the car had been in a bump to the point where the engine mount bracket has had to be (poorly) tack welded back to the car body, should the car of been recorded as being in a incident of such extent and shouldn't the car of been inspected for road safety by them people who check damaged cars for road worthiness once repaired? And, Shouldn't something of been picked up during it's MOT inspection as it may be deamed unsafe or something?

Also, if the car sales does the MOT and the MOT garage has the same postcode as the car sales (guessing they're on the same road, more than likely next door!), for what reason may I expect a difference in mileage recorded by them at the MOT garage and me collecting the car?
I ask because there was 6 miles more on it between them doing the MOT and me collecting it on the same day, and when I did, there wasn't even enough petrol in it to even start the engine!!

Thanks for the long tome to read and I hope someone can help me out - can't find anything on google.

[paul]

1st of all what car is it ?......oh and did you buy it from trade n save ?

Panel or cosmectic allignment not an issue with MOT

Who did the MOT ?
Had the MOT expired when u bought the car ?
How much u pay 4 it ?..the car that is
Unrecorded means pretty much unrecorded does not necessary mean it's been in a major bump...by the sounds of it probably has not.
If its been inspected...then it would have been recorded as a cat C or D which you would already have been made aware of if you have done your checks

If all else fails.........................scarp it ;D

Or at least have a bit of fun with it 1st like hammer it round a field until the engine blows up.....then perhaps drive it into the sea and leave the tide take it out........don't 4get to drop the oil out of it 1st as u may get done by the fuz 4 pollution.......don't 4get to video it and post it on u tube for us to see


Hope this helps

Aye perhaps your car will sail 3000 miles ?......thats three nought nought nought nought.....all the way to the kayman Islands !

If you decide to let it out to sea don't 4get to slap a SWM flag on it to spread the word

[irishstick]

i took my van for an mot a few years ago,
when i went to collect it it had 200 miles more on it, thats 2 zero zero,
i picked up the bill (£230) and the new mot,then told the guy i left my wallet in the car, (that old chestnut) jumped in the van and shot off!
i went back to the garage with an invoice for, £1 a mile and £30 worth of deisel, never heared off him again,, ;D ;D ;D ;D

[dai9fxey]

Can't give any advice on that subject Leighton i'm afraid.
But it sounds as if the car is "Not fit for purpose" so i think the Trading Standards should be contacted in the first instance.

[leighton]

Thanks for everybodies input so far. Paul, the car is a 2004 Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed which has cost a couple of grand, more than four and less than five so I don't think I'll hand it to the Kayman Islands quite yet - sorry.

Get ready, the car came from 'Trade Centre Wales', they done the brand new MOT on the day I collected it - as i said, there was a 6 miles difference on it too and no juice to even start the thing!

I am at the moment having lots of advice from Consumer Direct and their being great in fairness, doing everything legally, slowly, but legally! The finance company keep parring me off to TCW and TCW refuse to sort anything out - I can see court proceedings just around the corner!!
People, you don't understand how much I wish I went to Cardiff and spent the couple of more quid on a 52 plate Merc C180K I wanted. We only popped into TCW to look at the Merc C180K before deciding if there was any point of driving to cardiff to see the one we liked - but they didn't have any (we've got the car for you - my a**e) and we ended driving away a Alfa instead - had less problems with my 2.5 V6 Vectra which was 10yr old - none at all that will be.

Anyone interested, tell me how to post a photo on here and i'll put up the pics of that dodgy tack weld we found.

[leighton]

Right oh, here goes nothing - Hope the images come up ok (nice and big too). I feel that these tack welds are pants even by my standards who has had a dab at welding! I'n nowhere near an expert welder but reckon I could do better than this - remember, this is meant to help keep my 2.0ltr 150bhp engine steady!!!





What you think of that bad boy then?

[leighton]

BTW, thanks Phil for the uploading photo info...

[minilover]

Take my gobby missis with you to TCW, that will get it sorted

[leighton]

LOL - The two of us together should cause a riot in that case. Give 'em a nervous brake down, make 'em shudder then shut 'em down. Will never ever recommend or deal with the mungrols again!!

[minilover]

Before she became a coach driver she use to work in the C.A.B, she knows her stuff , pity it didnt work in pc world the other day, she ended up getting kick out with a life ban from the shop

[byron101]

threaten them with watchdog etc but definately get trading standards involved + maybe worth getting an independant inspection done which will point out any problems associated with the car + will also add to evidence if it does go to court. keep all dates, times + who you spoke to each time car went back + any phone calls made to them. get as much evidence as possible + try + get in touch with previouse owner incase they can shed any light on possible damage etc
hope this helps
byron

[leighton]

Boycie, you're a man after my own mind. I already have the names, dates and times I have spoken to who where - e.g - consumer direct, TCW, independant engineer, SVA, Transport dept and VOSA.

Every letter has gone by recorded mail containing every date, time, name, problems with car, actions I have been recommended by CDW etc. I am also stating the 'Sales of Goods act' and 'the supply of goods (implied terms) act 1973'. I have suggested that the car is not in fact what we were led to believe/ should expect! We have stated the car is not in a condition that reflects it's age and price or reasonably reliable - especially now with this being a major issue as far as we are concerned. I say this as within 11 weeks and 5 days (it had already been back to them for 7-10 days in that time) of owning the car, I had driven it 1200 miles and the car drops all of its oil??!! I have now thrown in about the safety aspect of the car as this issue filled cabin with smoke and I fear something else is going to go worng but next time it I will have my daughter in the car with me who is only 5 months old.

Besides all that mumbo jumbo - had an inspector come out the other day and just waiting to see what comes of it now. We are in waiting!!

Can't wait for the next chapter...

[byron101]

great, sounds like you on top of everything, if you don't mind me asking did you pay by credit card, cash or finance as i know if by credit card you also coverd. you should have them bang to rights as it not fit for purpose as the sale of goods act plus obviousely it not road worthy vehicle + would be questioning the mot side of it + generally putting the frighteners on them + of course promise them all the bad publicity under the sun etc. maybe even get in touch with local rag to see if they interested in running a story about it as it all helps your case

[minilover]

Also try the ferret in cardiff , they love TCW

[leighton]

Sounds all good, have contemplated going to court publicly, as in asking evening post if they want to run it!! Everything I feel stands in my favour - Cat knackered and had to be changed (by them), Boot latch wouldn't work whilst shopping so my misses had to hold the baby while I put shopping in boot via rear seat, had to be changed (by them), Engine management light came on days after cat went (whilst TRYING to find garage to do warranty work), rectified by them. Air con not gassed, was meant to be done by them but not done. Car keys seem to sump batteries - had to replace the two already (within 3 months??) and more recently, the car dropped all of it's oil whilst I was driving it and now we've noticed the tack weld (shoddy at that), pictured above on the engine mount bracket which doesn't look like it intends staying in place for a long time!

For all these reasons and my honesty, I am confident a judge will see my arguement and agree with me, ESPECIALLY as it is now evident that the car has been in a significant incident where someone has felt the need to weld bracket back to body and nobody seems to have record of it, i.e - DVLA, Police or even SVA!!!

Good luck to me eh? LOL.

Unfortunately boycie, I'm allergic to credit cards, they're worse than loans and I have enough of them!! The car is on HP at the moment and everything I have paid to date will be reclaimed with the possibilty of damages - this is an experience I want over and will not forget to soon. The next time I go look at a car, in my pocket will be a toothbrush, a fine one at that!

[minilover]

Did you take the car back to TCW within the first 28days?

[byron101]

try + get in touch with previouse owner on log book as i said previouse to see if can shed any light on what wrong with the car + if TCW were aware of the said problems
hope you get it sorted soon

[leighton]

Thanks contributors. I may just send a polite letter explaining my concerns with the cars history and the risk we feel it may hold in the future to our family! See what she comes back with, I'll even put a SAE in with it.

The problems probably started very soon after purchase, in fact, I think the first issue we had was even before our first payment...

I am at the stage where I am confident we have the goods to show that the car is more problematic than what is deemed exceptable for a garage to sell at the price they did! Lets see where it leads, need something sorted soon as missess's maternity is close to ending. I will phone CDW in the morning and get some legal adviice from them dudes, they tend to be very useful - must have me on their winge list now though - haha.

[byron101]

trade centre wales were on the ferret tonight with lots of unhappy customers + looks like they have very bad customer services who tell people they get threatend by watchdog + ferret every week + don't give a monkeys about them
i wont be buying from them as was thinking about it back last year

[leighton]

I will look it up on tinternet tonight - see whats said!

Have had alot go on in the last fortnight and at the moment, we are getting nowhere. But, and this is good, they picked the car up last monday (20th) for further inspection, dropped it off to me this monday (27th) and didn't knock the door but instead posted the keys throught the letter box. When I got home from work (misses was home all day), I went to make sure the car was locked, and surprise surprise, there's a dent in the car that wasn't there before and it's quite nasty. I complained as you would expect - they claimed it was already there, as you would expect. Also, the rusty discs were no longer rusty!!! Why would you need to use the brakes when it was towed onto a flat bed and should of been hoisted off with aid of a cable and then pushed around everywhere else??? HMMM, plus the brakes are pretty ineffective as the servo doesn't really work unless the engine was running, which it should never of been with no oil in it! ALSO - my drive, where they left the car, is higher up than my front door and you can see that under the car, there is no longer an undertray, at least 99% of it was missing - I complained about that too. They reckon that it's there and they forgot to put it back on, I told them that it was no good to me now as part of the undertray was still attached to my car and they have the rest of it - they denied it saying it was all there!!! They must of thought I was seeing things.

NOW THE BEST PART - actually, I'm not going to tell you incase anyone here works in their workshop and they'll be expecting some issues about it. Instead, I'll leave you with how I have 99% of goings on documented. Even down to the recording of my cars condition days before collection and recording of the flat bed driver putting the car onto the truck - at one point, you here a thud... he stops, looks under the car and leaves it roll forward again to re-align the wheels, and that's after he decides to get in his truck, leave my car door wide open, connected to the cable and ramps still down then starts the engine and drives forward a few feet... dragging my car with him - NICE! Unfortunately, the recording only sees the drivers side of the car and the dent is on the rear passenger - but we know that's where it happens and I suppose the angle and how far over to one side of the flat bed it is will help me out. Also the fact you can hear a noise and he stops to leave the car roll forward again helps my case???

I'm meant to send them proof but now I think I'm going to take it to the police with the other issue I ahven't told you about on this thread and make it a criminal matter. First, I'm going to get independant engineer report(s) paid for by me with an engineer chosen by me (they reccomended and paid the other guy) then hand over all my evidence before I take them to court which I may invite watchdog or ferret to join! I am a bit camera shy though!

BE WARNED - I've heard there's a new place in Llanelli called 'Llanelli Trade Centre' which is apparently run by the same people. A guy I know said he popped in there and saw unused TCW stickers in the office when chatting with a salesman. He soon lost interest and left the place!