Reject Car - engine fail - less than 60 days after purchase

[Eevie]

In September 2024 I purchased a used SEAT Arona 21377 mileage, registered 30/03/2022, from a Seat main dealer 60 miles from my home. On 26/2/25 (outside 30 days but within 6 months) the vehicle developed a fault and was taken to my nearest SEAT main dealership 5 miles from my home. Mileage was 23,604. After inspection we were advised the car needed a new engine because of a Crank Thrust Washer problem. This garage however refused to honour the manufacturer’s warranty claiming the vehicle had been serviced twice at a Seat dealership outside the manufacturers’ guidelines on time & mileage. All this happened before we took ownership of the car and the original dealer assured us servicing was up to date on purchase. They claimed the other garage were being pedantic and promised to honour the warranty but insisted I get the vehicle to them at a cost to me of £336 for recovery from one garage to the other. SEAT customer care were informed of the issues on 26/2/25 and have opened a case but have yet to provide any form of response. They have been sent a message on 23/3/25 chasing up a response and posing three questions 1) Why was the warranty declined by my local Seat dealership. 2) What will happen if a further warranty claim arises. 3) Why was a car sold that did not have satisfactory service history which led to the warranty being declined by my local Seat dealership.
Could anyone answer this please? Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 Am I entitled to request a replacement vehicle rather than accept a repair. The garage claim they get once chance at repair and only if that fails can I request a replacement or money back (less usage costs). My reading of the Consumer Rights Act is that I can request Repair or Replacement with the garages having a get out only if either of the remedies is impossible or disproportionate compared to the other. My argument is that it's not disproportionate for a main dealer to source a replacement similar vehicle (age, mileage & spec). I have agreed to neither remedy yet but the original SEAT dealership are currently going ahead with fitting a new engine regardless.

[sherman]

It could be as simple as you took it to the wrong dealer for the warranty claim.

The dealer is going to replace the engine either way as its cheaper for them than scrapping the car.
You may reject it still but they dont want to be left with it.

Is the dealership the car is currently at from the same dealer group (franchise) as you bought it from as you wont be getting your money back from them if not.

[Eevie]

Hi, no they are both SEAT dealerships but different franchise. It's with the original purchase garage. However original garage confirmed it could of go to any SEAT for repairs, servicing, warranty etc

Really want to know if we have a case to reject.

Edited by Eevie on Sunday 23 March 16:39

[LastPoster]

The local garage don’t want to do the warranty work as they will be paid much less per hour by SEAT than they would normally charge a paying customer

However, they don’t get to decide if a warranty claim is valid as the other dealer has proven by wanting to discuss a warranty repair

[Trevor555]

Eevie said:

Hi, no they are both SEAT dealerships but different franchise. It's with the original purchase garage. However original garage confirmed it could of go to any SEAT for repairs, servicing, warranty etc

Really want to know if we have a case to reject.

Edited by Eevie on Sunday 23 March 16:39

Call citizens advice tomorrow morning, it's a free service to consumers.

After the 30 days you'll have to give them one opportunity to repair before a right to reject, as you've mentioned.

Unless you had any problems reported to the selling dealership within the 30 days, that could be attributed to this engine failure further down the line.

As above, main dealers don't like warranty work as it's lower rates, so not surprised they don't want the work.

But if there is a problem with the service history, that means you may not be able to claim in the future, then the car has been potentially miss sold to you. So bear that in mind also because that could mean an entitlement to reject.

Do you have finance on the car?

If so, do a quality complaint to them, get them involved, and quote Citizens advice reference number in correspondence with the finance company.

Edited by Trevor555 on Sunday 23 March 17:15

[charltjr]

No, you can’t reject it I’m afraid.

Get it to the selling dealer, the cost of which is your responsibility unfortunately, and they should fix it regardless of the warranty under your consumer rights. I’d also talk direct to SEAT UK about the validity of the warranty.

https://www.seat.co.uk/contact-us

Citizens advice will help you if you need it:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-...

[OutInTheShed]

There are two issues here.
Firstly the car has broken down.
Secondly the car appears to have been mis-represented as being FSH and with a valid maker's warranty? Can this be proved?

[Eevie]

During purchase discussions we asked about servicing and were told it's up to date. We were told the car had balance of manufacturer's warranty and a 2 year used approved car warranty, we have a certificate for the SEAT used approved car warranty.

[valiant]

If the previous services were outside the time and mileage then why would it have been sold as approved used?

Get it back to the original dealer and create merry hell with Seat HQ over the local dealership who refused to fix the car.

[Eevie]

Original dealer is putting in new engine. But obviously not happy with the car given it's less than 3 years old. Plus the servicing issue this brought to light. Not impressed with SEAT customer services who never got back to us or local SEAT dealer that refused to fix the car. We had it transported back to selling dealer as we were going to be away for 2 weeks and so only had a couple of days to sort it out. They said they'd fix it. But would prefer a replacement.

[charltjr]

Eevie said:

They said they'd fix it. But would prefer a replacement.

You’ve no right to that unfortunately, the best you can hope is they might take it back with a charge for mileage covered out of goodwill. They might figure it would sell for a bit more as it will have a new engine and be willing to do a deal. If you don’t ask you don’t get.

[ALawson]

Assuming they cover your costs for returning the car, and any temporary car, then you are getting a new engine from the manufacturer.

It’s not a hypercar so assume not a significant impact on vehicle value.

I would want to know what warranty is on the new engine.

[Trevor555]

valiant said:

If the previous services were outside the time and mileage then why would it have been sold as approved used?

Get it back to the original dealer and create merry hell with Seat HQ over the local dealership who refused to fix the car.

If it turns out that dealer was wrong to refuse the warranty repair, could OP demand they pay the £336 costs for recovery?

[stevemcs]

OutInTheShed said:

There are two issues here.
Firstly the car has broken down.
Secondly the car appears to have been mis-represented as being FSH and with a valid maker's warranty? Can this be proved?

It does have a full service history though, it’s just in order for the warranty to be valid they normally have to be within 1000 miles or a month. I guess it depends if it’s the dealer being difficult or the manufacturer.

[OutInTheShed]

stevemcs said:

OutInTheShed said:

There are two issues here.
Firstly the car has broken down.
Secondly the car appears to have been mis-represented as being FSH and with a valid maker's warranty? Can this be proved?

It does have a full service history though, it’s just in order for the warranty to be valid they normally have to be within 1000 miles or a month. I guess it depends if it’s the dealer being difficult or the manufacturer.

'FSH' can be twisted to mean many things, but it should mean the car has been serviced to meet the schedule to keep the warranty valid?

Some of my Dad's cars had a very full 'service history', he was always bodging them, if he kept the receipts for parts, he'd have had a very full service history folder! Except breakers' yards never gave receipts in those days....

When you pay good money for a not-very-old car, you are not just buying the car, you are buying the warranty. A significant chunk of the value is that anything goes wrong is 'someone else's problem'. If you pay for that and don't receive it, you've been conned.

[Eevie]

OutInTheShed said:

It does have a full service history though, it’s just in order for the warranty to be valid they normally have to be within 1000 miles or a month. I guess it depends if it’s the dealer being difficult or the manufacturer.

It was a very little outside both date and mileage. Selling dealer said local dealer were just being awkward and, as someone suggested, they didn't want to do the work as they don't get much money under warranty work.

[OutInTheShed]

Eevie said:

OutInTheShed said:

It does have a full service history though, it’s just in order for the warranty to be valid they normally have to be within 1000 miles or a month. I guess it depends if it’s the dealer being difficult or the manufacturer.

It was a very little outside both date and mileage. Selling dealer said local dealer were just being awkward and, as someone suggested, they didn't want to do the work as they don't get much money under warranty work.

Ultimately that warranty is backed by Seat?
Either Seat honour it and instruct their agents to repair the car or they don't.
If you didn't buy the car from the nearest Seat dealer, you don't have a contract with them.
Your contract is with the dealer you bought the car from, and due to the warranty, with Seat.

Seat will have a contract with the local dealer which may or may not require them to do warranty work on your car.
If they decline, you'd have to take that up with SEAT.

[ADJimbo]

If it’s an SEAT Arona ON 24k then it’s probably ex-self drive hire.

SEAT were desperate to get the metal moving so started doing ‘daft deals’ with all and sundry - not just the nationals but the regional rental companies as well. This will explain the gaps in the history as if it’s out, it’s out…

Google the ex-keeper on the V5 - it’ll be a holding company - my money would be a very discrete link back to En**prise if I was a gambling Man…

Will a rival franchise want to touch the vehicle - no? For the reasons above as it’ll dent their profitability so they’ll be cautious which is natural. Do SEAT have to honour the warranty - yes? But only from the franchise that sold you the car.

A new engine sounds like a sensible outcome. The CRA(2015) says you have to give them opportunities to fix the vehicle. They’re doing this…

[Eevie]

ADJimbo said:

If it’s an SEAT Arona ON 24k then it’s probably ex-self drive hire.

Google the ex-keeper on the V5 - it’ll be a holding company - my money would be a very discrete link back to En**prise if I was a gambling Man…

Thanks for the info. I can't see the previous keeper on the V5 only that there was one previous owner. Garage told us it was a local lady who had exchanged car for a new one. Not sure how to check this.

[Sheepshanks]

Eevie said:

Not impressed with SEAT customer services who never got back to us or local SEAT dealer that refused to fix the car.

VW Group UK customer service is contracted out to an American owned call centre company, TTEC. So when you contact them, you're not dealing with a SEAT person, or even a VW UK person.

TTEC's whole purpose seems to be to isolate VW from having to interact with customers. If they do respond, they'll string you along for a bit and then fob you off. They seem to have no authority over dealerships.

Of all the VW Group brands, SEAT seem to have the worst dealerships.