Any advice? Been sold a duff van

[sunburstjazz1967]

Fwiw I bought a 2011 caddy 18 months ago for £8700 with the vat,egr valve went, £1200 dealer or £750 franchised independent, it wasn't covered by my 2 year warranty so I took the hit.

[Roger2611]

[quote name='andytoad' timestamp='1457829985' post='3002222']
I removed the wooden labelling inside the van to install seats. The supporting pillar has be badly damaged and repaired. It has had a new outer skin.
[/quote]

I have lots of vans coming back to me that are 12 months old, it is not unusual to find at least 1 a month that has had a structural panel replaced, sometimes it is a better repair to replace a panel rather than repair one with shed loads of filler, on the current VW Crafter / Mercedes Sprinter van the side panels are bonded on not even welded so replacing them makes a lot of sense. The fact that it took the removal of the ply lining to find a repair had been done suggests it was probably done when they vehicle was pretty new, the van has probably had a couple of owners since that were oblivious to the repair.

[ambient]

[quote name='cameltoe' timestamp='1457860360' post='3002319']
Like above, I think this would be a hard thing to conceal for a month and the seller probably had no knowledge.

How many times have you had a vehicle break down with a major fault? How many times were you aware this was going to happen 4 weeks in advance?

I bought a car a few years back, and within 2 weeks the cambelt snapped costing me over £1000 to repair the top end of the engine. Absolutely no way the seller could have known this would happen.

If you're confident he did know, you'd have to prove it had been concealed somehow for the sale.

Hoping it gets sorted.
[/quote]

My dad has been in the motor trade for 40 years. The very first thing he does when buying any new vehicle, and something I've heard him tell others dozens on times, is check when/if the cam belt has been changed. If there's nothing to say it has been, then change it straight away. It's a relatively minor and cheap thing that can save you msmy hundreds of pounds.

I know absolutely nothing about cars, and got my fingers burned a few years ago when I bought a car on my own. Which was actually a really stupid thing considering my dad and 2 brothers are all mechanics. I would always take someone with me to look at the car, and to check it's history, even if you have to pay them something for their time.

Edited March 13, 2016 by ambient

[cameltoe]

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1457879496' post='3002576']


My dad has been in the motor trade for 40 years. The very first thing he does when buying any new vehicle, and something I've heard him tell others dozens on times, is check when/if the cam belt has been changed. If there's nothing to say it has been, then change it straight away. It's a relatively minor and cheap thing that can save you msmy hundreds of pounds.
[/quote]

Needless to say, I've followed this rule ever since.