Am I fighting a losing battle???

[Toptotz]

I'd be grateful for any advice I can get from anyone who's been in a similar sirtuation or knows the legalities of this...

I bought my car in August last year, the previous owner sold the car as runing & driving fine but needing a map. I had the car trailered from one end of the country to the other so as not to damage the engine & booked it in for mapping the following week. The mapper turned up & we discovered that it was losing compression so the map couldn't be done so the car was moved to a garage a few hundred meters away & stayed there while the mechanic went on holiday for a few weeks. He was only meant to be investigating the problem but...
The next time I rang him he'd taken the cylinder head off & sent it away to be skimmed, this cost me £1200 & it was booked in with the mapper again who took 3 weeks to turn up. This time he said their was a fuel problem so the pump was replaced & the mechanic said he'd had to re-route the air intake pipes to get it ready for yet another try at mapping it. At this point the clutch stopped working so I had the slave cylinder replaced to cure yet another problem.
The mapper then let me down another couple of times so I took it to another garage where I was told there was still a acompression problem & the car still couldn't be mapped, so...
I don't know if it's the pistons, the rings or a cracked block! Its a forged engine & the guy is heavily into motorsport as proved in all the emails he left in the folder of receipts. The engine has at least had a new set of rings previously (according to the receipts with his name on) so I think its fair to say he knew it didn't JUST need a map. The mileage he sold it as having is written on a 6yr old receipt for a new clutch.
It was november last year when I finally ran oiut of money to spend on this car (& started losing the will to live, lol) so it was brought back home.
I contacted the buyer & he ignored me so I started legal action but haven't got the money for a specialist report which I need.
When the previous owner filed his response he enclosed a copy of a receipt, supposedly signed by a mechanic who was 300 miles away stating sold as seen but my copy doesn't have sold as seen, nor does it have any signature from a mechanis, in fact the words simply don't even match!!!

Do I have a leg to stand on in court & is it worth throwing another £850 away getting it there?

Thanks,
Leander

[Rev5GT]

personally fo rthe amount of time that has passed i think you would be struggling to get anywhere also the fact that its been to a few garages who have worked on it etc wouldnt go in your favour.

[Marf]

As sh1tty as it is, caveat emptor, buyer beware. Unless you can categorically prove that he misrepresented the car I'm afraid you'll be out of luck.

[Toptotz]

It has only been worked on at one garage, I have receipts to prove the mileage quoted is from at least 6 years ago & I can get a witness statement to say it was in the garage until I started proceedings if that helps any...
Does buyer beware still apply even if it's bought at distance & his discription is relied upon?

I realise I made a mistake with this one & won't be doing that again!!!

[archangel]

Oh man I'm so sorry to hear that. The one I bought had a bunch of bodged mods and I had to have the engine rebuilt and it's been pretty expensive, though I love her now she's running (well once the knackered turbo has been sorted out). Lots of cowboys selling these knowing they are getting to a stage where it will cost them thousands to have all the bits fixed and not declaring it, but what can you do? In future I'll always buy one of these performance cars from a respected member of one of these forums I think.

[alanmr2turbo]

I would seriously have words with you mechanic. He charged you £1200 to take head of and have it skimmed??????

Only only paid less than £500 for head skimmed and having new head gasket fitted and that was done by a specialist.

[Toptotz]

I would seriously have words with you mechanic. He charged you £1200 to take head of and have it skimmed??????

Only only paid less than £500 for head skimmed and having new head gasket fitted and that was done by a specialist.

Not best pleased with him as he didn't do a compression test to check if had cured the problem after donig the head... cost me another £500 messing with fuel pumps etc after having the head done before taking it somewhere else whose first words were "there's a compession problem with that car" after only driving it into his garage but what can you do???

Fast losing the will to live with it!!!

[Toptotz]

Oh man I'm so sorry to hear that. The one I bought had a bunch of bodged mods and I had to have the engine rebuilt and it's been pretty expensive, though I love her now she's running (well once the knackered turbo has been sorted out). Lots of cowboys selling these knowing they are getting to a stage where it will cost them thousands to have all the bits fixed and not declaring it, but what can you do? In future I'll always buy one of these performance cars from a respected member of one of these forums I think.

Think I'd have to agree with you there, never again!

[alanmr2turbo]

I would seriously have words with you mechanic. He charged you £1200 to take head of and have it skimmed??????

Only only paid less than £500 for head skimmed and having new head gasket fitted and that was done by a specialist.

Not best pleased with him as he didn't do a compression test to check if had cured the problem after donig the head... cost me another £500 messing with fuel pumps etc after having the head done before taking it somewhere else whose first words were "there's a compession problem with that car" after only driving it into his garage but what can you do???

Fast losing the will to live with it!!!

Been there with mine, from day 1 i just wanted to smash the hell out of my car with the biggest hammer i could find or push it off a cliff. I listened to other members saying stick with it and you'll enjoy it which i thought was total dribble but i did and £1000's later guess what.......I am finally enjoying driving her even though i have nick named her 'The Black Death' due to her always wanting to die on me.

Having said that, the only thing left from the original car i bought is.......... the rear spoiler. Everything else has been changed including the shell LOL

[sjm1984]

Who built the engine and who is the un reliable mapper?

[Toptotz]

lmao, would love to be in a position to do that but I'm not, maybe go with the cliff option instead, lol.

[Toptotz]

Who built the engine and who is the un reliable mapper?

Got a load of emails & receipts from a place called Rebass Systems, if they actually exist that is!

The mapper was a guy who does a lot of work for a Subaru garage in Fleetwood, don't think he's from Fleetwood but his name was Andy Carr, aparently he's very good but that's not the experience I had with him... took it back to my mechanic bellowing smoke out of it the last time claiming that the turbo had blown while they were mapping it & he wasn't prepared to take any resposibility... fortunateley it was just a lot of oil burning off from the pipes having melted tgrough in the past, lol, hence I found a new mapper & it didn't go near him again!!!

[sjm1984]

this is why i go to greg from Protuner as he is the no bullsh!t kind of guy and doesnt fob you off it the sh!t goes down.

[Toptotz]

this is why i go to greg from Protuner as he is the no bullsh!t kind of guy and doesnt fob you off it the sh!t goes down.

where's he based?

[sjm1984]

Redditch, Birmingham

[Toptotz]

ok, thanks. I'll bear that in mind for future but Midlands was still too far to travel when I paid to have this one delivered on a trailer... way too many cowboys close to home to chose from, lol, as I said before - think I've learned a good lesson, not a cheap one though!