Hi,

I bought a Fiat Scudo nan new from a UK Van dealer (one of the big van dealerships).

The van came with a 3-year warranty.

In the 4th year the car stopped mid driving.

My local garage towed it in and advised after initial checks that something is wrong with the main processor.

I called the company who sold me the car, and they advised to bring the car to the authorised FIAT repair dealership (in my case DAF in Theale).

That dealership / DAF eventually established together with FIAT's technicians that the main processor failed in its own right. One of the reasons why it took them 3 weeks to isolate the fault was that the entire electric had to be tested to exclude any other fault that may have caused the processor failing in first place.

The bill was in the end just under £2500 to get the car up and running again.

DAF told me that they never had such a fault, certainly not for a car of under 4 years of age and at 17000 miles (I drive the car normally twice a week for about 70 miles with little stop-and-go and only light private domestic use).

For a moment it looked as if Fiat would cover such extraordinary fault within their warranty, but ultimately told me that the car is outside their warranty.

Citizens Advise highlighted the Sales of Goods Act 1979 and suggested to contact the vendor again.

I wrote to them twice, and they pointed me every time to Fiat, saying that the warranty is with Fiat and not with them, so they would not be able to refund the cost of the repairs of what I think seems to be a faulty product in first place (I am not sure whether one could even speak of wear-and-tear on such main processor).

Has anybody experienced a similar situation where they were left with a big bill on a fairly new car?

How successful would I be when taking this up legally on the basis of the Sales of Goods Act 1979?

It would be great to know of other / similar cases so that I know at what stage I am and how I could best go about resolving this issue.

Many thanks,

Norbert