New Car Has developed Fault

AquaJen

Hi All, I'm a long time lurker on the forum but feel I need some advice on a problem with my car.

I purchased a Citreon Berlingo Plus (new) about 7 weeks ago now. It was funded 40% by my money and 60% finance.

After 5 weeks of driving, it has developed a horrible noise/rattle which is coming from the offside front suspension. Only happens when I have a load in the back.

Notified Citreon, to be fair they have been great. Booked the car in immediately and at first they thought it was an engine mount. That was replaced but it still made a noise so they ordered a new suspension top mount. This took a week in which time the noise got really bad.

Had the suspension mount fitted yesterday... still no different. They have the car in today to do investigation work on it. I've told them I'm not happy driving it around in the state its in as it sounds awful and I'm worried about more damage being caused.

I know they can either repair/refund/replace and they are fulfilling their obligation by attempting to repair, but I'm not too happy about the time its taking to even diagnose and the fact that it may have caused other damage to the car which may not appear until the warranty has expired. This car is only 7 weeks old and seems to have already developed a major fault.

I'm out of the 30 day limit for handing it back I love the car but I 'm worried about what has happened to it. If they can't diagnose it today and need it in for a much longer period, does anyone have any idea how long I can wait before I insist on a refund or replacement vehicle? I just want to be able to argue my corner when I go back this afternoon, just in case they still don't know what's wrong.

Thanks all for reading

AquaJen

Update... just had a call from Citreon, they have no idea what is wrong with the car and need to drop the subframe out to do investigation work. Will be at least Tuesday/Wednesday next week before I even know what's wrong with it :mad:

bazster

To be honest it sounds to me like they are doing everything you can reasonably expect of them. It's costing them a small fortune already so there's no point in them cutting corners and risking another warranty claim later, so I daresay they will replace everything that needs replacing, when they eventually find the fault.

ThumbRemote

The law is quite clear that a remedy should not cause significant inconvenience to the consumer. Being without a car for a lengthy period of time is likely to cause significant inconvencience, therefore the OP should be entitled to a refund or replacement.

Of course, it's unclear what absolute period of time might be considered to cause 'signficant inconvenience'. By the time this is argued over the car will almost certainly be fixed.

Have you asked for a courtesy car while yours is being worked on?

vax2002

The 30 day return thing is in ADDITION to your statutory rights and not in place.
call them up and demand a replacement car until yours is fixed at no cost.
make it quite clear that this is the last attempt they have to repair the car before Sale Of goods is enforced and you demand either a replacement or refund.
Do not take any nonsense from them.
If they wont play ball comeback and I will write you a served notice of rejection.

Looksguywalker

vax2002 wrote: »

The 30 day return thing is in ADDITION to your statutory rights and not in place.
call them up and demand a replacement car until yours is fixed at no cost.
make it quite clear that this is the last attempt they have to repair the car before Sale Of goods is enforced and you demand either a replacement or refund.
Do not take any nonsense from them.
If they wont play ball comeback and I will write you a served notice of rejection.

...can you please do that here and now?

AquaJen

Thanks for replying,

Yes - I have a courtesy car for today, but its no where near an equivalent to my car and not suitable for my needs. I can get around in it if it's just me but the reason I bought the Berlingo Multispace was due to the size. I can't fit 2 adults and 3 kids in car seats in a Peugeot 107!

I have to return the courtesy car on Monday, If they still haven't figured out what is wrong with the car then I think I will insist on them providing an equivalent hire car for me. I know they are working as fast as they can to solve it, but I've just spent £14k on a brand new car that has broken after 7 weeks.

I will update on Monday, and thank you again for your advice. Its useful to know that I am not being unreasonable to expect this to be sorted a bit quicker... its nearly 2 weeks down the line and they still don't even know whats causing the problem.

bazster

As far as can be made out from the original post, until now she has not been without the car for an extended period, just a couple of odd days, between which she has been driving it around (albeit rattling).

However, it now seems they are going to have it for a few days, so they really should offer a courtesy car.

Getting heavy with them at his stage would seem to be an overreaction, so long as she gets a courtesy car (if she asks for one!). As the OP says herself, "to be fair they have been great", and if she starts fighting with them over it chances are she'll be without a car for weeks whereas this one will probably be fixed in a couple of days.

AquaJen

Yes, you are right - I've only been without the car for a couple of days so far which is why I'm not getting angry with them. I'm just trying to clarify what I can reasonably expect them to do for me as its the first time I've ever bought a 'new' car.

It is causing inconvenience as we can't go anywhere as a family in the car. Nothing major though

As I said above, when I have to give the courtesy car back (Monday, as someone else already had it booked) I will insist on them providing a suitable replacement vehicle.

I was driving the car around with the rattle, but won't any more as it got so bad I was worried that the suspension may have failed. I've told them that I don't want it back until they have fixed the problem totally.

bazster

AquaJen wrote: »

Yes, you are right - I've only been without the car for a couple of days so far which is why I'm not getting angry with them. I'm just trying to clarify what I can reasonably expect them to do for me as its the first time I've ever bought a 'new' car.

It is causing inconvenience as we can't go anywhere as a family in the car. Nothing major though

As I said above, when I have to give the courtesy car back (Monday, as someone else already had it booked) I will insist on them providing a suitable replacement vehicle.

I was driving the car around with the rattle, but won't any more as it got so bad I was worried that the suspension may have failed. I've told them that I don't want it back until they have fixed the problem totally.

Fairynuff. If they haven't fixed it by next Tues/Weds, that might be the time to ask them to replace it instead (I presume you would prefer that to a refund, since you said how much you love the car). However, even if they immediately agree (unlikely!) you might still have a fair old wait for exactly the same model/colour.

AquaJen

bazster wrote: »

Fairynuff. If they haven't fixed it by next Tues/Weds, that might be the time to ask them to replace it instead (I presume you would prefer that to a refund, since you said how much you love the car). However, even if they immediately agree (unlikely!) you might still have a fair old wait for exactly the same model/colour.

Exactly, I do love the car and would want the same car again - and I would probably have a 4 week wait for one by which time mine would (hopefully) have been fixed.

I'm glad I asked for advice, it has helped straighten out for me what to expect and what I may reasonably be entitled to. If they haven't figured it out by next week I may suggest that they just replace that particular suspension arm and wheel rather than trying to narrow the search down to one particular faulty component.