Hello,
I bought a Seat Ibiza a few days ago, it is my first car. On driving it back home i had to rev it insanely hard to get it going, i tried to use gentle acceleration the first few times but it kept stalling.
I also noticed the gears were very stiff and it was especially hard to move from the second gear into third, however once in third gear the car seemed at it's best.
I also noticed that when i was in third gear, the speed didn't pick up much at all even though the engine sounded like it was very willing to gain speed, and you have to rev it in reverse to get it going, which to my knowledge is not ideal for a 1.4 engine???
Starting the car off in first gear is an absolute nightmare, it wobbles like jelly and i'm petrified of driving it!
My dad had a go in it and he said there is definitely a problem with the clutch. However, do you reckon that the whole clutch needs replacing, or is it just some smaller parts? Also, are there any other clutch parts that you reckon would be needed as well as the whole thing needing replacing?
I would be quite willing to pay up to have the clutch replaced, but if there are lots of other parts that need to be bought and fixed too then i guess i'll have to get rid of it.
Dad said the gearbox may need replacing in future, however after reading up on the net it seems this could be connected to the dodgy clutch system.
Anyway all your replies are much appreciated thanks, i've got hardly any knowledge of cars so i need them!
Hannah
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It sounds like it needs a new clutch. There are only 3 parts to a clutch (4 on some modern cars, but I doubt a 1.4 comes into this category) - they come as a kit, and since the gearbox needs removing to replace them, it's not worth not doing the whole lot. If you bought this car from a dealer then take it straight back and get them to do it - it's their responsibilty. If you bought it privately then unfortunately you will have to pay. However, I wouldn't expect the clutch on this to cost more than a few hundred pounds all in.
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Hannah, it sounds as if you bought the car off a right rotter. I hope it was cheap. As RW says, take it back if it was a dealer. If it was bought privately I'd still have a quiet word with the seller, if only to satisfy myself that they knew they were doing you.
Anyway, if it is just the clutch and you get it replaced you will probably have an OK car thereafter.
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Thanks for all your help :-)
I actually bought this car from one of the manufacturer's garages!! You'd think it couldn't get any better then that... obviously not.
I wasn't allowed to test drive the car, even around the compound. They told me it had no MOT. But looking at the receipts now it did have 7 days left, and as this is a fancy showroom, surely they should have had temporary trade tax/insurance too so i could have driven it around the forecourt?
Even though they knew i was coming, they sandwiched the car between 3 others, so i wasn't even allowed the space to feel the biting point. If i could have tested this it would have given the car's faults away.
Because i couldn't test drive the car, i had to put my trust in what the salesman said. I asked whether it had any problems with it, and he said 'to be honest, i think it only needs servicing, which you could do at home'.
If he had told me he was unsure of any faults, or that it had a bad clutch, i wouldn't have bought the car, or at least negotiated a discount for clutch replacement.
I bought the car at the full asking price of £994, trusting in the salesman that it 'only needed a service'. And of course this is an established SEAT dealer.
The day i picked up the car, the salesman couldn't start it up at first. I asked him whether there were any problems with the car and he said 'no it just needs warming up'. Once he got it going he was trying to move it and kept revving it loads and i was getting worried and asked again if there were any problems and he said 'no, it just needs warming up'.
And he looked a bit worried and then he said 'this is not like the other cars i've driven'.
Well what can you say to that?
He then left the car facing outside the showroom. This backs onto a very busy shopping centre jam packed with cars and kids running everywhere, and said 'drive safely'.
The car lunges forward unpredictably so needs more space to move around. It makes me really upset to think that this guy, knowing that the car wasn't right and that i am an inexperienced driver, let me drive this car in this busy place where i could have ran someone over. I was a nervous wreck.
If i would have known the clutch was faulty, i would have left it at the garage to be fixed before driving it.
He told me later he didn't think there were any problems with the clutch but i don't believe him one bit, he drove the car around and there were mechanics on site driving them around and they would have sensed this problem fairly quickly.
It upsets me to think that they are more bothered about red tape and closing a deal rather then being honest about a problem and preventing an accident.
Also, the mileage in the advert was incorrect, it was stated as 23,000 miles rather then 84,000 miles, only noticed once i looked at the milometer, but they did confirm the mileage mistake before i bought it.
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