Advice on used car warranty issue please

[jamesgarbett]

First off this is not a BMW, but I figured advice from here is at least as valuable as any other car forum

Bought an approved used car from a main dealer just before Xmas, it's a 4x4 SUV

A few issues have arisen over the first few weeks of ownership, culminating in me getting stuck in some snow which most 4x4s would have got out of

Take it back to the supplying dealer and they say the 4x4 is broken, i.e. it's only front wheel drive. No problem they say it's under warranty

But because of the cost of the parts/repair (>£1000) an inspector(?) has to come out from the warranty company to authorise the work

He comes out today and although the fault code is still in the system the actual fault seems to have gone away

So dealer says you will have to wait for fault to re-occur and then demonstrate it to the inspector before we will fix it

Which sounds to me like I need to get stuck in the snow again, which is a nonsense

I guess a rolling road would prove if the 4wd had failed again but I don't have access to one of those

I want to complain - anyone have experience of a successful outcome from a similar situation?

 

[lacroupade]

As I often say, regardless of any dealer warranty, they are responsible for the majority of faults within the first six months,m especially if they were likely to have been developing at the time of sale.

Problem here is that the dealer isn't accepting a current fault.

What car are we talking and is the supplying dealer franchised to them?

But it sounds a bit of bollox to me....I've not heard of an SUV thats part-time 4WD but with 2WD drive to the FRONT wheels; they are normally either permanent split 40/60 (or so) or RWD with part drive sent to the front when it gets slippery....if its full-time 4WD its a bit more understandable but loss of drive to either set of wheels would normally mean a serious problem with the centre diff, although that could be electronic, hence the issued....

But if its in the ECU as a fault code theres clearly a problem and you've got it logged, but making them do something with it is another story. I'd expect a franchised dealer to be more co-operative, hnce my question.

 

[jamesgarbett]

Thanks - it's a Volvo franchised dealer - I think the Haldex system sends most (95%?) of the drive to the front wheels unless it detects slippage