Warranty Blues...

vapourtrail

Hi all, on advice from a friend I have decided to come on here and ask your opinion on my current issue....

About 3 months ago my girlfriend and I purchased a second hand car (Citroen C3 Pluriel) from a large franchise dealer (Evans Halshaw)and purchased an additional warranty for a year, after a couple of niggles the car has been a great little thing until the clutch went earlier this week, upon advice from the dealer we paid for it to be transported to Lincoln (30 miles) at a cost of £150 to be told that if the problem is the clutch then it won't be covered under the warranty, despite being assured that "All mechanical and electrical" problems would be covered...Surely a car that was purchased 3 months ago at a cost 0f 3K plus an additional £200 for the warranty should not need a clutch replacement costing a third of the price of the car?! It has not covered many miles it the time we have had it and to be honest, I don't have £1000 to pay for the repair....All ideas will greatly recieved, honestly I have no idea where to go with this...

Thanks for your time reading this

MX5huggy

The clutch is a ware and tear item like tyres, wiper blades and brake pads so it won't covered by a warranty unless it has failed in some other mechanical way.

You don't know how the previous owners drove it they could have been riding the clutch all the time.

One elderly relative was doing this and was eating clutch plates in about 6 months just pootleing around town, his son got very good at changing it.

Ring some local independents mechanics and get a quote for changing the clutch and get it out of EH.

Notmyrealname

As above. A clutch is a consumable item and usually not warrantied.

Although I'd expect a clutch on a car to last more than 3 months, as it is possible to kill a brand new one in that time if you ride the clutch a lot it is going to be a battle to get anywhere especially with Halshaws.

maninthestreet

how many miles has the car done?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Simplest thing in the world to diagnose a clutch failure, don't understand why therte's still a question mark over 'if its the clutch', unless this is Sensodrive automated manual dross, one of satans personal designs.

If its a manual gearbox and obvious clutch failure, then as someone above said, get it out of the place its at and into a competent indy.

Sorry to have to tell you, unless the aftermarket warranty was Citroen approved used, then you might as well use the paperwork as bog roll.

vapourtrail

Thanks for all your advice.

In total the car has done 53K with a full service history, its a standard manual and despite the usual quirks of Citroens (leaking roofs, mental electrics etc) its a cracking little car. I can totally see your point about the warranty, I just would have hoped that the dealer would see that it surely is not right to charge for something like that....hmmmm. If I get the work done at a little garage, would that invalidate the rest of my warranty with EH? Can't believe I did not look into this before buying the car, and the additional warranty!!

fivetide

Additional warrenties rarely cover anything.

If you were specifically told that it would cover everything and they never went over the small print you might have a case for misselling.

I suspect it covers next to nothing as it will all be wear and tear plus any claims will be limited to £1000 so if the engine went they wouldn't cover it because the value would be too high or you'd still be very much out of pocket.

If you knew the clutch had gone too, they certainyl shouldn't have told you to get it back to them to be fixed. that's left you £150 down minimum and they'd have known it was going to be money down the drain.

5t.

fred7777

vapourtrail wrote: »

I don't have £1000 to pay for the repair....All ideas will greatly recieved, honestly I have no idea where to go with this...

If possible ring round to get other quotes. The clutch on my 307 Hdi went last week. One garage wanted £948 for a replacement, in the end I got it fixed for £390 including towing to and from the garage!

MX5huggy

vapourtrail wrote: »

If I get the work done at a little garage, would that invalidate the rest of my warranty with EH? Can't believe I did not look into this before buying the car, and the additional warranty!!

No your warranty for what it's worth would still be valid.