Faulty Renault dashboard - do I have any rights?

powdrfingr

We have a 53 Renault Scenicwith about 90 thousand miles on the clock. We bought it 2 years ago from a Renault dealer, it has a full service history etc.

Late August the electronic dashboard flickered off and remained that way, incidentally during a trip home with children in the back. Scary.

Renault customer services have not offered any help and the cost of dashboard replacement was £500. On top of that they advised us to drive illegally to the local dealership for checks.

I have written to Renault about our appalling experience. The garage told us this was a common fault but Renault CS refuse to accept it - they said they'd never heard of that problem (even though a quick google on faulty Renault dashboard shows it's happened to hundreds of people). I cannot believe they expect a car's dashboard to fail in such a short time - surely it should last the life of the car - and if they do expect failure it should be part of the car's service.

When the dash was replaced the mileage was reset to 0 which means we will have trouble selling it in the future.

Given the expected life of the car (approx 10 years) and its age (about half that) I asked for £250 compensation - half the cost - which I thought was reasonable, all things considered, but they have outright refused to refund anything.

The problem itself is unrelated to mileage or the car's age, and seems to be happening to a lot of Scenics of similar age. Like I said the garage themselves said they'd seen a batch of similar cars with the same issue.

Do I have any grounds to fight their decision (sale of goods act etc)?? Any tips on how I could take this further?

Appreciate your help

hartcjhart

plenty here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1038819

powdrfingr

Thanks - didnt realise that thread was here - I will certainly be contacting Watchdog, trading standards etc but in addition I just wondered if anyone here may be aware of my legal rights in this situation?

hartcjhart

I wouldnt think you have any after so long a time,but may be wrong,

here is another usefull link for you

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170376878342&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

terryya

I think what you need is persistance! I think you need to keep going on at Renault customer service and don't take no for an answer. I haven't read about the dashes for a while, but from memory they have made contributions to a lot of people, especially if you have a full dealer service history.

In a nutshell-grind the !!!!!!s down.

Hintza

I'm going to be blunt here.

The car is over 6 years old for goodness sake, it's starting to enter banger territory.

The value of the car is probably only £1,200 - £2,500 and you want 10% to 20% of the value?

You haven't a hope in hell I'm afraid.

powdrfingr

Thanks guys - the point I'm trying to make is that, while the car may be mid-life I would never in the life of the car expect the dashboard to do what it did. If it was something to do with the car's useage - brake pads, clutch etc - I'd understand - but do Renault think it's reasonable that their cars are undriveable after only 5 and a half years? If so then the dash should be part of the service.

Given that the experiences of hundreds of Renault users here and on other forums, plus the Renault dealership, confirmed this is a common problem and therefore surely a manufacturing fault, I think I am right to be very angry at them and to pursue a claim against them.

goldspanners

i agree with hintza. the car is getting on a bit so failure of parts is to be expected.

and also the fact its a renault so you should probably expect the unexpected.

the dash cluster is full of electronic components,its not like an old dash where its just a few gauges and bulbs. so a tiny resistor could fail or a track on the board could be burnt out. s**t happens im afraid. no dealer in thier right mind would be will to even do good will on a car they sold 2 years ago second hand. they probably laughed when you walked out of the showroom and then called you a chancer!

and as for renault offering even half the costs on a car with 90k miles on it i wouldnt be surprised by them telling me where to go.

as for your mileage, theres plenty of places that will correct your mileage for you. google digital mileage correction for someone in your area.

harveybobbles

powdrfingr wrote: »

We have a 53 Renault Scenicwith about 90 thousand miles on the clock. We bought it 2 years ago from a Renault dealer, it has a full service history etc.

Late August the electronic dashboard flickered off and remained that way, incidentally during a trip home with children in the back. Scary.



When the dash was replaced the mileage was reset to 0 which means we will have trouble selling it in the future.

Why was it scary...?

Why was the mileage set at 0? The mileage isn't usually held on the dash pod, but the cars ecu. So it should have kept the mileage.

As for having problems when you sell it - anyone who is looking at buying a Scenic will know of the dash problems, so when you tell them its been done at such and such date at such and such mileage (all documented I assume) then you will have no problem selling it...

Anihilator

A few questions

1) How exactly is the car illegal? I am not aware of any reason it would be illegal due to the failure of the board?

2) Who done the repair? I would put the mileage issue down to their lack of skill/knowledge more than anything else

Thoughts.

A 6 year old car with above average mileage and reaching the 100k mark will need repairs. A new dash system is not one I would say that is unreasonable. Its electronic and electronic parts will break. The other issues seem to be due to poor fitting more than anything else.

Overall you could use the SOGA to try and claim but I dont think you have a hope in hell. I wouldnt be at all surprised if you have been ripped off either by someone who didnt know their stuff and thus just replaced it.

powdrfingr

It was scary because we didn't know how fast we were travelling.

If you google 'renault faulty dashboard' you'll see how many others have this issue - always the same. Mileage in some cases starts to climb exponentially before the dash flickers off. With our it just went.

The whole electronic dash needed replacing. I have no idea how to do this and Renault advised replacement. When replaced the dash was set at 0. We had the car serviced only a few weeks earlier and the mileage was logged then so Renault took a note of the old mileage. Not very accurate or reassuring eh?

I suspect selling via trade will not be so much of a problem but selling privately will take some doing. Understand this might not be too much of an issue for some people but most of my colleagues told me it would be an issue for them and they'd probably steer well clear of the car.