sounds about right, the bmw garage here wouldn't tell me what they did under warranty when mine decided to throw all its oil over the road.
They are taking the piss big time, worst cast you snapped the chain and bent all the values etc, a new block wouldn't cost anywhere near 5k, 2nd hand engine I recon around 500-700 chf then maybe the same again to fit
a local (to where the car now is) mini specialist really is your best bet unless you can go all legal on the place you bought if from, do you have legal cover insurance?
that's not the same version, I suspect that's what failed on my car, which had done only 20k km, when I got it back it looked like most of the engine had been replaced, but they wouldn't tell me what failed or what they replaced, 2 days worth of work though. lease is up in a couple of months, so its going back, anyone want to take over the lease on a cooper s ? lol
No insurance and spoke to a lawyer who basically said our best bet is to send them a letter saying what we want to happen and hope they offer some sort of partial refund as the law is on their side unless it happened within the warranty. The thing is, I asked if they offered a warranty to which they said no as they don't have a garage to fix cars but when I called the owner he said I should have taken out a 3 month engine and gear box warranty! Had they offered it when I asked about it, I would have taken it. It's so messed up!
So the lawyer route is fruitless, called an independent garage in Lindau who charge €70/hour and are confident they will find the fault within an hour. Much better than the €2,500 from the BMW garage! If it's less than €1,500 to fix we will get it fixed, if more then we will try selling it to them or a nearby garage for spares or repair. As a last resort, tow it back to Switzerland and scrap it. I heard it is expensive to scrap cars in Germany but free in Switzerland if you can bring it to them. Will let anyone interested know the outcome!
I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but usually before you can scrap the car in Germany, it has to be imported... and all the hassle. So if you can tow it back to Switzerland, via Austria, it might be easier to get rid of it. I suspect the German & Austrian scrap dealers won't touch it until it has been imported. But I think the insurance will pay the fees and tax.
Thanks for the info Sbrinz, don't suppose you have heard of any difficulty crossing the borders when towing a car?
With the car papers, no problem.
That lawyer is talking shit......the law is on your side if you can prove it was sold not fit for purpose, as somebody mentioned already there is an implied warranty even on used goods, cars etc. But if the seller doesn't co-operate it will cost you a lot to enforce the law
I know as I have the same / similar situation at the moment
As the clerk to the Bern court once told me: "There is a big difference between being right, and getting justice."
How can she prove the dealer knowingly sold her a car not fit for purpose? She drove it for 130 Km, so it wasn't broken when she bought it. She might have driven it up the Autobahn at high speed, but then maybe she didn't.
The dealer probably didn't know it was going to break down either. It's an old car, mechanical things can fail at any time. It was regularly serviced, (and passed the MFK 6 months earlier) but if the car is 10 years old, it can fail at any time!
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You obviously dont drive a Jaguar S-type then. I had to pay CHF 950 to get a lightbulb replaced. The lightbulb alone was chf 210 if i remember correctly.
Doc.
Thats a HID bulb though, not a normal halogen filament bulb. Apples and wombats comparison.
A lot of cars now you have to remove large parts of bodywork to get to bulbs, it's quite common for the front bumpers to have to be removed, we had a smart car where it was a 2 hour dealer job to change a normal headlight bulb!!! Or rip your arm apart trying to do it yourself
Quite cheap to buy on eBay
Lol my 2 yr old mini failed 4 times so far lol
Only German cars usually fail that early.
My German Ford Focus is 15 years old, and has never failed totally.
I did once have to drive back from Venice on three cylinders seven years ago (bad coil), and an ABS sensor failed recently, but that's it.
Tom
Riiight, that's it. Pheeew, and here I thought you had bigger issues like a broken antenna.
You cannot go around saying German cars never fail. They are made from components. My ex father in law sold UK contracts, supplies to German car companies,
Camshafts for BMW engines from Wales
Cooling systems for Opel from UK Midlands
Door hinges for Ford Köln from Birmingham
Mine is about 4 years old, german and to change a bulb takes a massive 5 mins and costs about 20CHF for the bulb plus labour included.