Major Engine Failure Just Out of Warranty - £6000+ bill - EU Law Legal Position?

withabix

I need some help here guys.

Nissan X-Trail, 2007 dCi model, just out of warranty due to mileage (73000 miles), but still under 3 years old.

Originally supplied by Nissan Ireland, but vehicle is now in the UK.

Requires new engine due to an injector failure which has resulted in piston, valve and cylinder bore damage.

Nissan UK aren't interested, because they didn't supply the vehicle.

Nissan Ireland aren't sounding like they are going to help in any way at all.

Vehicle has full Nissan dealer service history upto and including last service 1000 miles ago.

Where do I stand legally under European (or Irish) Law with this?

Hintza

I would say you are stuffed. Your contract is in Ireland and I don't see the dealer over there losing any sleep over it.

I would be scouring the country for an engine out off a write-off.

vaio

My understanding is legally you will be covered only if you can prove the fault was present (even in a latent form) when the vehicle was sold to you, ie it’s a design/manufacturing fault.

The above applies if you have owned it from new.

If you didn’t own it from new then it’s different……

If you bought it privately then no comeback.

If you bought it from a dealer over six months ago the latent defect stuff above applies

If you bought it from a dealer less than six months ago the latent defect stuff applies but the onus shifts from you having to prove it was latently defective to the dealer having to prove it wasn’t (which, given the FSH is going to be hard)

Google is your friend here and ideally you need to find lots of other instances of the same fault happening to others which will add weight to the argument that it’s a design fault.

Another option is to park it outside a Nissan dealers with a couple of big signs in the windows “For sale, non runner due to engine failure”

cyclonebri1

I too would think you are up said Creek without the proverbial paddle, Sorry, but too many things against you.

motorguy

Oh dear

One of the hidden risks of buying an import, i'm afraid.

withabix

I've sourced a properly remanufactured engine (with 12 month warranty) and injectors for under £2k fitted, but I don't want to go straight down that road....

Strangely, having had a conversation with Nissan Ireland's CS Director's office, this situation occurs in reverse (ie a UK vehicle in this situation in Ireland) quite often, as there are many NI-supplied cars in southern Ireland.

When this situation occurs there, Nissan Ireland request funding assistance from Nissan Europe (who fund warranty repairs to start with). For major failures shortly after warranty expiry, funding is often forthcoming, as Nissan Europe have a budget for this sort of thing, even in the current climate.

However, Nissan (GB) are refusing to even contact Nissan Europe because "we don't do that" and they won't provide me with contact details for Nissan Europe as "they aren't customer facing".

As they won't escalate this either (because senior staff...you guessed it..."aren't customer facing"), I've emailed Nissan GB's CEO, Paul Willcox, just for the sake of it, to ask them why they don't operate the same policy as Nissan Ireland in this situation. It probably won't a)reach him or b)get read by anyone useful, but it makes me feel better!

I've had a holding reply so far (from a real person), so it might get me somewhere.

Perversely, the Nissan dealer who has my poorly car at the moment told me that they had a knackered out-of-warranty Cyprus-supplied Navara in earlier this year and this was escalated to Nissan Europe by Nissan UK and the customer only ended up paying the labour charges. There seems to be a global problem with Navaras (to the extent that engines seem to be a service part!) that Nissan want to cover up however. Google Knackered Navara for that one...

I wouldn't buy another Nissan - fuel pump was replaced under warranty (that's a 2 grand job) and so was the intercooler (a £1500 job). They do seem to be better at reliability than Landrover though - I live near enough to the local LR dealer to see the almost endless procession of Range Rovers, Discos, Landies and Freelanders on breakdown trucks going in there every day....

emmell

Try contacting a motoring magazine like What Car and see if they can help.

wobbley

Tell Nissan UK that your brother in law is Jeremy Clarkson !

Homersimpson

"Another option is to park it outside a Nissan dealers with a couple of big signs in the windows “For sale, non runner due to engine failure” [/QUOTE]"

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

withabix

wobbley wrote: »

Tell Nissan UK that your brother in law is Jeremy Clarkson !

He's my sister....

Dick_Van_Dyke

The dealer has to contact the relevent Nissan department and ask for a contribution (be it Nissan Europe or Nissan GB).

Otherwise try going back to the original supplying dealer and asking their input

I would expect Nissan to contribute given the severity of the fault and FSH and it to be able to be repaired at any dealership; as long as its only been privately used and dealer serviced.