Diognostic light (relay)

[peteadams67]

Hi Ant had a call from the garage regarding the light it appeared that the cam belt had jumped a tooth & a tensioner was broken, "does that make sense"?
put the cost at £700 + but what ever the price it has too be done, the van's only done about 16000 miles.

Also I'd like your oppinion on this situation being that your in the business but if you don't want too answer I understand.

When the van broke down on Fri. I was on my way too the Newbury MH show so
decided too go Sat. instead. I was looking around the Dealer who I had purchase my prevously vans from & I saw a Surf it was a 04 but looked in good condition the sales person who had sold me the last 2 vans said that if I wanted too sale theDimension she had a customer who wanted one & offered me a good price plus doing some extra work on the Surf, so the wife & myself gave it a good looking over & said Ok paid a large deposit but over night & next day had
other thoughts mainly the inside headroom my head touched the roof & had too stoop so I didn't think it was suitable sent a E-mail off Sun. too cancell the deal but thats a no go say that they had lost a day and a half sales on it being that a sold sign had been put up also they had taken a deposit off of the person who was after mine. I phoned them today after I found out that my repair was £700 + as I told the garage doing the job no way was i going let it go I explained this too the Dealer so the top and bottom of it s that they want too keep my deposit & look for another van but either way I would still be out of pocket.
Is it above board what they are doing?
Pete

[ant]

Hi Pete.
It is perfectly possible for a cam belt to jump a tooth if the tensioner fails. You're very luck it only jumped a tooth and didn't jump further out of timing and wreck the engine. It's very unusual to have one do it at such a low mileage. I'm not sure where the £700 is being generated from, a timing belt kit plus labour for the job doesn't get to that unless the hourly rate is up near the £100 mark.
As for your dealer experiences, a deposit can be retained by a dealer if they can prove they're out of pocket due to your cancellation. If the deposit was large they may not be able to retain it all. Having said that I have heard of dealers suing for loss of profit after a cancellation where only a small deposit was taken. It's all a bit too aggressive for me, I like my customers to work for me free of charge after they've bought a van, I don't think starting off the relationship on a money grabbing stance will make for very motivated salemen out in the field!
Each their own I suppose, I like my sleep too much to go down the "beat them up" road.
Ant