Going to have watch who and what I mention here so apologies if a little vague.
I recently bought a specialist car being a Lotus. It is an older model at almost 20 years of age. I bought the vehicle just before lockdown and have done very little mileage since. My intention was to get the car into a specialist garage who deal in these cars for a service and general check over. I have not been able to do this until last week due them being up and running again.
The inspection was carried out and a number of issues have been raised which have given me concern. I have listed these below -
The car was loosing coolant, this has now been sorted with a now coolant tank, the old one as cracking and coolant was escaping when at temperature. I have now paid for this.
The brake fluid is contaminated and appears to have not been changed for some five years + this in turn can damage the cylinders and require replacement. The brake pipes are also highly corroded and worth changing at the same time.
The car has different sets of shock absorbers. Rear mismatch the front.
The rear tow links are seized and require changing.
Number of items also picked up but are more 'wear and tear' and are advisory.
The chap at the garage has been brilliant we went through all of this and I think he could see my heart sinking. He didn't ask until the end when I bought the car and how. He was surprised that a 'specialist' garage could let a car leave in such a way and believes the selling garage should have carried out a pre inspection and these issues should have been picked up and rectified.
I bought the car in mid May, it was MOT'd in April with no advisories.
I have since contacted the garage I bought it from but at this time they deny any liability and feel a car of this age will have these issues so it should be expected and that a MOT was carried out prior to sale which would have flagged these issues. Not entirely sure this is true?
I'm feeling a little lost with it all. If it was a few hundred pounds to sort I could live with it but I'm looking at a potential bill of £2k, maybe more. This just for the main points I have raised. I also paid a fair chunk of money for what is an 'old' car. I did expect some spending but nothing like this and particularly so soon.
I would welcome any thoughts on the above and perhaps any advice.
Thanks.