Vauxhall Useless Parts, Poor Warranty!

unsure

A year ago the infamous EGR valve failed on my 9 year old Vauxhall Zafira. Local garage got the replacement part from Vauxhall and fitted it. It failed after 11 Months and was replaced under warranty. The replacement replacement has just failed after less than 3 months!!! However, Vauxhall now says that because the original guarantee on the first repalcement was only 12 months I will have to pay for a new part.

Garage was shocked at the idea that new part from main dealer would fail after 3 months and took it up with them- they told him the same. I spoke to Vauxhall in Luton who said "we don't guarantee a guarantee". I argued that this gave them a perverse incentive to produce poor quality parts which did not last, since owners could have to replace out of warranty parts every 12 months, which can't be right.

Trading standard said that a part should last a reasonable amount of time under the Sales of Goods ands Services regs...but my case would be against the local garage not Vauxhall. I'd have to sue him and he'd then have to sue Vauxhall to get a refund for the part.
I don't want to add to his burdens as he's behaved decently throughout (charged £10 to fit the part).

So I've got the car fixed, I'll be selling it and I won't be buying another Vauxhall, ever. Vauxhall owners be warned...get rid of your car before it needs repairs or you may find yourself paying for the same one over and over every twelve months! Nice business for Mister Vauxhall not so nice for his customers.

Strider590

Solution would have been to blank it off and leaving the wiring connected to the existing EGR to fool the ECU into believing it's still there. Costs no more than the cost of a small sheet of metal and a new EGR gasket. Additional side effect = better performance and fuel economy.

My car doesn't have one, it was blanked off by Vauxhall on all new Vectra's after a certain date and on certain engine sizes. But if did I would have removed it by now.

colino

OP, I know what you mean and it is the terrible paring down of quality in parts that is to blame. The supplier is taking the view that they've warranted the part from the date you paid for it and if they continuously replaced parts for customers, their policy of in-built obsolence wouldn't work!

Strider590

colino wrote: »

OP, I know what you mean and it is the terrible paring down of quality in parts that is to blame. The supplier is taking the view that they've warranted the part from the date you paid for it and if they continuously replaced parts for customers, their policy of in-built obsolence wouldn't work!

It's profitable for parts to fail after the customers warranty.

Suppliers warranty OEM parts for several years, it's not in their interest for them to fail. The car manufacturer and dealerships claim the costs back from the supplier (both parts and labour) whether the customer has a warranty or not.

If the customer pays £300 for a water pump + fitting, the suppler also pays £300. Total for this job = £600.
The industry has been raping it's suppliers like this for years.......

A certain Swindon based car manufacturer, gets parts supplier warranties of anything up to 9 years.

mikey72

Not normally.
If it's in warranty, the dealer fits a new one, and returns the faulty one to the car manufacturer. They return it to the supplier, if it's faulty, it's replaced, and the car manufacturer claim a set hourly rate, which they pay the dealer, and get a credit for the new part they have fitted. The hourly rate is quite a low rate compared to normal.
If it's no fault found, the component supplier returns it, the car manufacturer returns it to the dealer, and the dealer gets a bill for the new one they have fitted as well. Plus they don't get paid for fitting it.

If it's out of warranty the customer pays.