Bit of advise please

Hi i recentley baught a 2002 td5 discovery from a company in barnsley, after having it a few days started smelling a burning/hot smell from 1 of the front wheels. Turned out to be o/s front wheel bearing was shagged so i took it back under warranty and they replaced it.

A few weeks later it had a complete nervous breakdown, immobiliser, everything the bcu controlled stopped working, landy wouldnt start or anything. Rang company i baught it from and they said get it recovered in and we'll sort it. After a lot of messing about as im not or wasnt with the rac/aa (i am now!) i managed to get it recovered back to barnsley and they gave us a vauxhall zafira as a courtesy car which didnt seem roadworthy to be honest and it turned out to be a trade in that was going to auction the following day! the young lad gave me the wrong car, so they dropped off another zafira a much newer model which i was happy about taking my kids and family out in. Apart from it being an absolute nightmare to start on a cold morning its been ok and i didnt want to start bugging the company as i wanted my landy fixed properly not rushed, plus this zafira is absolutley shocking on diesel and i cant afford a run to barnsley to swap it for a different vehicle ( my disco is a lot better on fuel than the zafira!). I rang the company who i baught it off the other day and they said its at landrover dealer in wakefield and they have ordered a wire which is faulty, they didnt say which dealer it was at and i forgot to ask, so i rang main dealer and its not there, only other place i know of is simon services, so i rang them and i was delighted to hear that it was with them. i asked if he knew what was wrong with it and he said no not as yet ( so company was lying to me) Anyway simon services rang me the other day and said the bcu has packed in and landrover have them on back order until 17th of feb. he said he can send it away to be repaired but could take a week or 2 to get it back. so i rang around a few local places and found 1 local. Rang simon services today and they have fitted new bcu but it wont allow EKA code to be entered and to make it worse they have now got other jobs booked in. ive been without my landy now for 2 weeks and i think ive been very patient with the company and only rang twice in 2 weeks. but now im getting really ****ed off and annoyed as my partner is a equestrian excerciser and struggles like **** to get to horses in the zafira. What do i do? keep waiting or start asking questions or reject the landy? spent weeks searching for a good 1 and this was by far the best ive viewed. any advise would be gratefull

read the "crock of ****" thread.

i have mate but im confused as what to do as they have the landy back for repair but dont seem to be getting anywhere fast. just want it back, seems like i dont even own 1 its been there that long

trading standards.

i think if you send the supplier a letter saying that you wish to have it fixed within a reasonable period (state what yu consider "reasonable" is. If not, yu want yo money back as yu consider the car is "unfit for purpose".

we didnt pay all cash for the car, had a trade in, bit of cash, and rest on finance over 2 years. we need the disco as she works on farms with horses and i go out with dogs, which they dont fit in zafira and its on fekkin 18s which makes it impossible to go over a pebble without getting a blow out

I thought garages, as with insurance companies, are meant to replace the car like for like, or at least try!!!

On this one as MHM has said- crock of ****e thread, give consumer direct a call.

It is one of those ones that at least they ARE trying to get it fixed properly and therefore you need to decide inconvenience now v buying another and maybe being worse off.

It's a difficult one always.

If the vehicle develops a fault, then the first thing is to determine whether the fault was there or not when the car was purchased.

If so, then you've got a sale of goods act thingy, where the product could be deemed unfit for its intended purpose and therefore returnable to the seller.

If the fault has suddenly occurred then it is a warranty issue, similar rules apply but you can't say it's a pile of **** gimme my money back because it was fine when you bought it. The warranty is a peace of mind period, I'm afraid the customer has to put up with the repair time because they entered into a contract regards the warranty just as much as the dealer did.

In many cases if we have a real nightmare scenario it's often easier to give the customer his money back and sort the problem in our own time than it is to have to do it under pressure. But that depends on the relationship and situation between customer and dealer.

All I can say is that I hope it gets sorted out sooner rather than later, if you get fed up then go to the dealer and speak to the man in charge, don't shout or accuse, just ask what's what. We are much happier to deal with polite and 'realistic' customers in their favour regards after sales than people who turn up shouting, where then we would often dig our heels in and operate by the book.

Hope that helps

Mr Noisy said:

It's a difficult one always.

If the vehicle develops a fault, then the first thing is to determine whether the fault was there or not when the car was purchased.

If so, then you've got a sale of goods act thingy, where the product could be deemed unfit for its intended purpose and therefore returnable to the seller.

If the fault has suddenly occurred then it is a warranty issue, similar rules apply but you can't say it's a pile of **** gimme my money back because it was fine when you bought it. The warranty is a peace of mind period, I'm afraid the customer has to put up with the repair time because they entered into a contract regards the warranty just as much as the dealer did.

In many cases if we have a real nightmare scenario it's often easier to give the customer his money back and sort the problem in our own time than it is to have to do it under pressure. But that depends on the relationship and situation between customer and dealer.

All I can say is that I hope it gets sorted out sooner rather than later, if you get fed up then go to the dealer and speak to the man in charge, don't shout or accuse, just ask what's what. We are much happier to deal with polite and 'realistic' customers in their favour regards after sales than people who turn up shouting, where then we would often dig our heels in and operate by the book.

Hope that helps

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i totally agree and ive kept myself calm and polite when ive spoke to them on the phone. im in motor trade i know what its like, we will bend over backwards to help a polite customer, if one comes in shouting they get a big f off tablet. my mrs is all up for ringing them up kicking off but like you said and i told her the same the will just drag there heels more with it and go by the book. i just want my landy back and i think they are taking the ****, i only baught it on 6th of december and for 2 weeks they have had it

What you can fit a horse in yer disco ?

dyte said:

What you can fit a horse in yer disco ?

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:doh: i meant struggles to get to the horses

Still not got her back! They managed to find a new bcm and turned out it had allready been fitted before so was locked, had to send off to somebody in oxford to reset it. They should have it back now but I'm getting ****ed off wi waiting, nearly 3 weeks without my landy now!

Hi again, still havnt got my landy back from the garage yet and it was 4 weeks yesterday since I dropped it off there. They found a bcu from a supplier local to me which in the end it turned out to be no good as its allready been fitted before so its locked. Simon services of wakefield sent the original bcu and this locked 1 down to somebody in oxford to be either repaired or the other 1 unlocked. The original 1 had been repaired before as there was a wire inside used as a bridge across 2 terminals. Apparentley the bloke in oxfords software won't re-programme them or unlock them. So he's orderd new software which is going to take 10 days to get to him apparently?? Sounds dodgy to me but... So it could be weeks from now before I have my disco back. ****ing courtesy cars from them are a joke and 2 of them have let me down. The zafira we've got now broke down today and I rang company and they never rang me back. ****ed off and not sure what to do from now? Disco is on finance so how would I go about rejecting it? Thanks and any help grateful

Speak to the finance company tomorrow and see what they say...

Sometimes I think if something has happend to it because surely it dosnt take this long to replace a body control unit? I know some1 local who runs an independant landrover repair centre and he said they should be able to re-programme an old unit easily with equipment such as autologic etc. Everytime I've managed to find 1 I've always got a phone call back saying its unavailable or something. Something just dosnt seem right and think it may be time to have a drive through to where it is

It's not unreasonable to wish to book a visit to see the vehicle and the work that is being carried out.

Does seem odd coa bcu is plug in, reset, and play.

All garages run work sheets its how they charge the customer for the parts and labor and carriers various info, I doubt there is owt wrong with asking to see an upto date copy of it, If its under warranty and your not paying tell them to black out the prices, That way you can see what has been done to your vehicle.

I think you can also charge them for any loss of earnings due to your vehicle being away, Only reason I know of that is cause the old man had to put a work trip to France off for 3 days as Audi had his car, They told him to bill them with full expenses so mileage to Audi and back, Ferry tickets that could not be changed and his day rate, They paid up the day he gave it to them.
Must admit bits like ECUs ect I will be taking down serial numbers ( once i finally get a vehicle with an ecu) and then check it if its been in for any work along with the mileage

How about billing them for loss of earings due to courtesy car breaking down and my mrs not been able to get 2 work? Actually twice she's missed work due to them having to come over and change courtesy car and not turning up until 4pm and she started work at 3

Shaun, it's pretty simple mate in my opinion. If its a small garage and they're trying their best to sort the problem then I think it's unfair to come down hard on them, if it's a big company and they're not really bothered then you might as well try to teach them a lesson. A lot of big groups now don't even have anyone in charge on site.

The small garages (like us) don't have the profit margins to be able to afford to pay people's train fares etc. having said that we are cheaper than the big groups so it's swings and roundabouts.

If they're being fair then I think it's fair to be fair with them.

As I already said if you start being an arse then they won't feel kindly towards you.

However if you think there's something funny going on you need to go down there and have a sit down with the boss and hammer out the truth.

If you're still getting nowhere then you need to work on getting out of the issue and/or getting some kind of refund.

Only you can decide though because you're the one who's there mate.

Well still not got my landy back so i sent a letter the other day just to try and hurry things up a bit. i dont think ive been harsh or anything towards them. see what you think




Dear Sir

I recently purchased a car from your company (Company name) on 6th of December 2011. The car is 2002 Landrover discovery td5. A major fault with the vehicle has been apparent since 6th of January 2012. I am dissatisfied with the product I have bought from you and as such i am seriously thinking about rejecting this car

The faults with the car are as follows,

Body control module failure

An independent inspection of my vehicle has been carried out at Simon services of Wakefield. They have listed the faults as follows

The vehicles body control module has failed resulting in a malfunction of the vehicles immobiliser and electrics.
Simon services of Wakefeld informed me that a repair of the body control module has been carried out in the past

To date, the car has been with your mechanic twice. The first time only a few weeks after purchasing the vehicle the o/s front wheel bearing/hub assembly was faulty. The wheel bearing was so badly worn my partner was scared to drive it as it was smelling very hot. I had the vehicle inspected prior to bringing it back to your company for repair. It was evident that this fault was there when i purchased the vehicle from you. Although you state on your website"All our vehicles go through stringent 122 point vehicle check, prior to delivery by our on site fully trained mechanic".


The second time i had the vehicle recoverd on the 7th of january 2012 to your company in Barnsley which then it was taken to Simon services of Wakefield. In the time it has been there i have always been kept upto date by Simon servies not yourselves.


I was given a courtesy car when my landrover was recoverd on the 7th of january. The courtesy car has been swapped 3 or 4 times and a number of times i have had to bring the courtesy car back as we have been experiencing problems with it. Not so Long ago when we was experiencing cold weather the courtesy broke down and refused to start. i was left stranded miles from my house and my Partner Victoria rang your company and explained that the courtesy car had broken down. The person she spoke to said "i will ring the manager and get him to give you a call straight back" i waited over an hour and didnt recieve a telephone call back and had to get the courtesy car recoverd to my house a number of miles away. We Managed to get the courtesy car going again and havnt experienced any further problems with it. I find dealing with your company very difficult which is why i am writing this letter as i dont seem to get anywhere talking over the phone.


The vehicle YK02 DYN has now been with Simon services for almost 7 weeks which i feel is a unreasonable repair period. I spoke to Simon services of Wakefield on monday the 20th of Febuary for an update and the body control module is still in oxford awaiting repair and could be a while yet before they have it back due to the company not having the software to re-programme it.


We purchased a landrover because my partner Victoria is an equestrian exerciser so this is causing her hardship as she struggles getting to the horses and carrying her equipment

I refer you to the Sale of Goods Act 1979, specifically Section 14 which details that the car I bought from you must be of satisfactory quality. From my own judgement and that of the independent expert Simon services. I believe that the car you have sold me is not of a satisfactory quality, as such I believe you are contravening Section 14 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

I Look forward to hearing from you very soon to discuss what happens from now. Failing any contact regaring this letter will result in me seeking legal advise. I feel i have the right to withdraw from the contract we both entered when i purchased this vehicle. I also look forward to this being dealt with in a professional manor

Yours sincerely