rejecting a car from a part time trader

[chunkyjh]

Last week I bought a 1.4 tsi Octavia, 2013 on 100k miles. The car came with a meticulous service history, one owner from new. Serviced every 10k miles by the same garage. It's super clean. The service book was all stamped up but no invoices, so when I got home, I contacted the garage who kindly emailed me the service record. Sadly, it didn't make for good reading. From around 48k miles, there are reports of coked up spark plugs covered in oil. In the 50k miles to 100k its had six sets of spark plugs and has been into them twice for running issues. Speaking with my local VAG specialist, they said that although these direct injection engines do suffer from coking, there shouldn't be excess oil on the plugs and suspects it'll need rings or a turbo seal. He seems to think this isn't worth the hassle as rings are rarely done right, and told me to sell/reject it. I really don't like selling substandard products, im far too honest and so will probably lose my hat on it.

My question is, can I reject the car, back to the trader on this alone? Do I need some sort of running issue or failure or can I just say to him, sorry I don't want it.

He was a part time trader, off the driveway, with no warranty as such. I presume this would be consumer rights act territory

many thanks in advance

[Wacky Racer]

I very much doubt it, it has done 100,000 miles.

How much did you pay for it, and have you had an estimate for the work needed?

[chunkyjh]

4600. No estimate

[Jordie Barretts sock]

So what's wrong with the car?

You don't appear to have a case at all if it is running alright. The seller will likely deny they are a trader either. So will say it is a private sale.

[Muzzer79]

chunkyjh said:

Last week I bought a 1.4 tsi Octavia, 2013 on 100k miles. The car came with a meticulous service history, one owner from new. Serviced every 10k miles by the same garage. It's super clean. The service book was all stamped up but no invoices, so when I got home, I contacted the garage who kindly emailed me the service record. Sadly, it didn't make for good reading. From around 48k miles, there are reports of coked up spark plugs covered in oil. In the 50k miles to 100k its had six sets of spark plugs and has been into them twice for running issues. Speaking with my local VAG specialist, they said that although these direct injection engines do suffer from coking, there shouldn't be excess oil on the plugs and suspects it'll need rings or a turbo seal. He seems to think this isn't worth the hassle as rings are rarely done right, and told me to sell/reject it. I really don't like selling substandard products, im far too honest and so will probably lose my hat on it.

My question is, can I reject the car, back to the trader on this alone? Do I need some sort of running issue or failure or can I just say to him, sorry I don't want it.

No, I don't think you can reject it.

The 'faults' you describe fall under worn items, not faults. You bought a 100k miles car and checked the service history afterwards. The time to do that is before you buy.

I assume you bought it in person and not over the phone/online? If so, it needs to have a fault.

[chunkyjh]

Nothing yet but appears from SH that it needs new rings and/or turbo seals. I obviously don’t want to be footing these bills and my question is, can I reject the car in these circumstances? If not, fine , I’ll get it fixed but my knowledge in these circs is limited

[chunkyjh]

Muzzer79 said:

No, I don't think you can reject it.

The 'faults' you describe fall under worn items, not faults. You bought a 100k miles car and checked the service history afterwards. The time to do that is before you buy.

I assume you bought it in person and not over the phone/online? If so, it needs to have a fault.

No problem, Thankyou

[BertBert]

chunkyjh said:

Nothing yet but appears from SH that it needs new rings and/or turbo seals. I obviously don’t want to be footing these bills and my question is, can I reject the car in these circumstances? If not, fine , I’ll get it fixed but my knowledge in these circs is limited

Surely you would need something current to say it has a problem now? Those old problems might have been fixed. And certainly if you have no symptoms you are going to be on a sticky wicket

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Is it smoking badly? Because turbo seals would cause a lot of smoke.

If there's nothing currently wrong with it, you have no reason to reject it. Plus as I said before, I doubt he will cheerfully give your money back and will claim it was a private sale.

[Nickp82]

No, you can’t just say sorry I don’t want it. Unless you have a chat with the trader and he/she is prepared to see your point of view, some are pragmatic about these things (more so full time dealers rather than driveway types) and prefer to deal with it as swiftly as possible rather than get in to battles which take up time.

[chunkyjh]

Thanks all. I’ll look at a inspection/rebuild

[Tiglon]

Probably worth getting it looked at by a mechanic rather than assuming a telephone diagnosis is 100% accurate. Have you even looked in the spark plug wells?

[Jordie Barretts sock]

chunkyjh said:

Thanks all. I’ll look at a inspection/rebuild

Why?

It's running OK you say.

[chunkyjh]

Needs an inspection as it’s getting through plugs <10k, so somethings up

[Jordie Barretts sock]

How do you know it wasn't constantly used on short runs? Your use of the car might be entirely different.

I wouldn't be looking for an issue that has yet to manifest itself to you.

[chunkyjh]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

Why?

It's running OK you say.

More preventative. I’ve just come from an end of 3yr lease so want that some degree of reliability. Admittedly that was always going to be a gamble with a car on 100k but thought given the regular service, that would give me the best chance of that. Also acknowledge there are more reliable cars (Avensis etc) but am a VAG guy at heart. A rebuild may be a bit extreme but need it looking at for some peace of mind really

[chunkyjh]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

How do you know it wasn't constantly used on short runs? Your use of the car might be entirely different.

I wouldn't be looking for an issue that has yet to manifest itself to you.

A valid point re carbon build up as not so common in cars on longer runs due to increased temperature and I will be running longer journeys but I don’t think this relates to oil in the cylinders. With wife and two kids I want minimal risk and can’t afford anything newer. Lease deals are way beyond what I paid for mine sadly

[The Rotrex Kid]

I would say you have two hopes!

[MDMA .]

chunkyjh said:

More preventative. I’ve just come from an end of 3yr lease so want that some degree of reliability. Admittedly that was always going to be a gamble with a car on 100k but thought given the regular service, that would give me the best chance of that. Also acknowledge there are more reliable cars (Avensis etc) but am a VAG guy at heart. A rebuild may be a bit extreme but need it looking at for some peace of mind really

A 100k mile, direct injection VAG product was not for car for you then if you wanted reliability
Run it for a while, see if you have any issues, then take it to a reputable specialist for a once over.

[chunkyjh]

MDMA . said:

A 100k mile, direct injection VAG product was not for car for you then if you wanted reliability
Run it for a while, see if you have any issues, then take it to a reputable specialist for a once over.

I’ve sadly come to realise this quite quickly. I hadn’t read about the direct injection problems until after purchase, foolishly assuming the issues were all diesel related.