# Ever heard of the "Just got screwed at the used car lot" ?



## TF2Engineer (Dec 7, 2016)

Well first a bit of background 
I purchased an ex demo FIAT Freemont 2012 model 2.0 Diesel (170HP) which was then an official FIAT dealer.
I do a lot of mileage so I wanted a comfortable capable of driving around 6500 kilometers per month. So in the last two and a half years I have managed to rack up 140.000 km

No issues occurred with the car and was always serviced (What I thought) at an official FIAT dealer 
until 2 months ago the dashboard was lit up with the Particle Filter warning and eventually the car stopped near the exit Weilerwist (ADAC) A61 
So as I had still 360km they provided me with a replacement car and carried on with my journey, ADAC would deliver the car 7 days later in Rheinau-Diersheim (Near Kehl) 
Well thats when the fun started that they did indeed deliver the car on the back of a car transporter but failed to secure the eye bolt used for towing so bent that up and damaged the bumper. (but thats another story)

OK, now on the Friday the mechanic replaced the Catalytic converter and started the car up to have it literally flood with oil everywhere - after they ran the diagnostic they found out that there was no compression in one of the valves (not clear what actually happened at the garage workshop and I will probably never know) But there was no previous issues, no smoke, no big bang nothing just the motor management system kicked in and stopped the car to prevent damage.

So I demanded the car be bought to another garage as I was sure that they had screwed up either with the installation of the CAT or something else, 

During the time the other garage were checking my wife called FIAT as the car was out of the guarantee period and no warranty left on the car - FIAT replied that they would not offer any "kulanz" because the garage that had been doing my services for the last 2,5 years was no longer an official garage and this would have been possible if the services were done by an official FIAT dealer/workshop but because he stopped being an official dealer months after the car was purchased they could not help.

My wife also sort legal advice and was basically told their was not much she could do as the car is out of warranty and could not get the "kulanz" because the garage that completed my services etc were no longer an official FIAT garage.
On the first interview with the official garage they mentioned that the ex-FIAT garage had on nearly all invoices mentioned an oil change or topped it up with oil. The they explained they actually used Oil for Petrol engines and not oil for Diesel engines
not once but every single time and they gave the FIAT part number for the Oil for Petrol engines which is logged on every invoice.

They also mentioned that even in the invoices that were given out now to customer still had the official FIAT stationary on the top so people would be none the wiser.

The official garage performed a small diagnostic check on Monday this week and concluded with the first garage that indeed a valve was losing compression and they would need another 30 hours to examine the motor more carefully to the tune of around 5000 euro, and they were not prepared to say that the wrong oil was a leading factor in this whole saga. And the price of a new engine was 10.000 ohne Mwst 

Instead advising to sell this car and buy a new one 
The problem is that I still have a HP loan on this car 11.300 euro, will cost me another 5.000 euro to prove what happened plus another 10.000 + on top of that to buy a new engine 

The Finance company who are the registered owners (FIAT bank) have said you have signed the loan therefore we want the whole amount paid back, 

Now I am not sure what to do as I have a literally a 2,5 year old car that I expected would do at least 200k kilometers and instead managed 140k on the clock. 
If I pay another 5000 euro to the garage to find out what happened it could go either way. FIAT Deutschland have refused point blank to assist and I always believed that I took the car to an official dealer 



:smokin:


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## TF2Engineer (Dec 7, 2016)

*An idea but not sure if it exists*

A friend mentioned that if the price of the car has been seriously devalued as a result of "so called" negligence then two things can happen.

Ask the HP company to send their own people to check the car and create a report though I am not sure where that will lead.

Also try and find out as in Germany if the value of the loan far exceeds the value of the property purchased then there are other possibilities.
Of course the loan company just want the loan paid and dont give a stuff about the current predicament. 

If there is one message to convey here is that if you have bought a new car its worth checking if the dealer that does the service i still an official dealer as this will affect the kulanz


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