Bought a car 3 months ago, problems not covered under warranty

BeenThroughItAll

How many miles have you done since you bought it, as you've missed that piece of information.


I'd say, personally, that the fact it was the dealer demo and will have been subject to some abuse by test drivers will explain premature clutch failure. You'd have to be a catastrophically poor driver to destroy one in under 20K unless it was faulty to start with.

jimjames

Hope you manage to get it sorted.

One thing it does show is that new cars aren't immune from big bills and kind of reinforces my "bangernomics" strategy. Clutch replaced on my car at 170k miles, 12,000 + 3 months driving seems exceptionally low to fail.

motorguy

jimjames wrote: »

Hope you manage to get it sorted.

One thing it does show is that new cars aren't imune from big bills and kind of reinforces my "bangernomics" strategy. Clutch replaced on my car at 170k miles, 12,000 + 3 months driving seems exceptionally low to fail.

i think the o/p should actually use that when the are speaking to the dealership - they have spent a very significant amount of money and one of the significant reasons someone does that is to ensure they are not faced with large unexpected bills.

its very poor show that the o/p is facing this. i would be roaring and shouting at the dealer and involving nissan uk.

Charliezoo

We had done 3000 miles in the car since we bought it in March. It's mostly driven by my pregnant wife, we have a 15 month old daughter who she ferries around to playgroups and the shops so she's a pretty careful driver, especially given her condition and has never burnt out a clutch in a car before. We've had 3 Nissans now with no previous problems and did not forsee any big bills when buying this virtually new car for £18000.

The garage phoned back this morning and weren't particularly helpful. I was given a phone number for head office and told to put in a complaint there. He said that he'd dug out the paperwork from the car's pre sale inspection and there was a tick in the box next to 'clutch' which satisfied him that the clutch was in absolute perfect order when we bought it! In regards to the air con condenser, it was leaking fluid but they didn't know why so rather than remove and inspect it closely they were waiting for head office to give them the ok to just replace it under warranty which they may refuse and ask for further inspection.

I phoned the CAB just now and they said that they believe we have a possible claim with the finance company who we have PCP finance with. I didn't even know the finance had anything to do with it but she said that they owned the car and we needed to claim through them. In regards to the wear and tear issue it was up to the finance company to prove that the damage was caused entirely by wear and tear and an independent inspection would be required to decide this. The vehicles age and mileage would also have to be taken into consideration when deciding if it was our fault.

I'm not sure how hopeful we should be with this but it sounds like it could be a very long process and even though we have a courtesy car at the moment I'm sure Nissan will want it back and we can't afford to not have a car at the moment . I'll let you know what the finance company have to say.

Charliezoo

The finance company said I needed to report the fault on a series of forms which I can download and send back to them and they would raise a complaint with the garage.

Does anyone know where I stand in regards to driving the Qashqai? It's driveable but I don't know for how long, I've read various things on the internet about not driving the car at all if you're in dispute with a car dealer over a fault but that's not practical for us at the moment. I also don't know how long the clutch has got to go.

Thanks for your advice so far.

Quiet_Spark

Charliezoo wrote: »

Does anyone know where I stand in regards to driving the Qashqai? It's driveable but I don't know for how long,

If you continue to drive it with a defective clutch then you run the risk of causing further damage which you would no doubt be liable for as you know the car has a problem.


What is the actual problem with the clutch (slipping, juddering, etc)?

motorguy

Charliezoo wrote: »

We had done 3000 miles in the car since we bought it in March. It's mostly driven by my pregnant wife, we have a 15 month old daughter who she ferries around to playgroups and the shops so she's a pretty careful driver, especially given her condition and has never burnt out a clutch in a car before. We've had 3 Nissans now with no previous problems and did not forsee any big bills when buying this virtually new car for £18000.

I would get Nissan UK involved. Get the number of their customer servicing. Tell them its shocking that a clutch could fail so early in an £18,000 cars life. Tell them this is your third Nissan and the dealer are palming you off.

Charliezoo wrote: »

The garage phoned back this morning and weren't particularly helpful. I was given a phone number for head office and told to put in a complaint there. He said that he'd dug out the paperwork from the car's pre sale inspection and there was a tick in the box next to 'clutch' which satisfied him that the clutch was in absolute perfect order when we bought it!

Disappointing that i was right on that point. They can take that all the way to court now and say the clutch was fine when they inspected it prior to sale and you also would have had - presumably the chance to test drive it. They will also argue that because it has taken three months, that the fault clearly wasnt there at the time of sale.

They're palming you off with the "ring head office" number. They'll ask you to put your complaint in writing and bluff you along.

Go down and insist on speaking to the after sales manager, the service manager, the warranty claims manager - anyone you can embarass into taking ownership.

Push to speak to the dealer principal if you cant get a satisfactory solution.

Charliezoo wrote: »

In regards to the air con condenser, it was leaking fluid but they didn't know why so rather than remove and inspect it closely they were waiting for head office to give them the ok to just replace it under warranty which they may refuse and ask for further inspection.

Push them on that too - insist it hasnt been working right since you got the car.

Charliezoo wrote: »

I phoned the CAB just now and they said that they believe we have a possible claim with the finance company who we have PCP finance with. I didn't even know the finance had anything to do with it but she said that they owned the car and we needed to claim through them. In regards to the wear and tear issue it was up to the finance company to prove that the damage was caused entirely by wear and tear and an independent inspection would be required to decide this. The vehicles age and mileage would also have to be taken into consideration when deciding if it was our fault.

I though there may be an angle there, but wasnt sure. Doesnt sound like a quick process.

Charliezoo wrote: »

I'm not sure how hopeful we should be with this but it sounds like it could be a very long process and even though we have a courtesy car at the moment I'm sure Nissan will want it back and we can't afford to not have a car at the moment . I'll let you know what the finance company have to say.

Push as hard as you can as quickly as you can. Such a massive bill on a close to new car is proposterous.

I would definitely be involving Nissan UK.

arcon5

Clutches are wear and tear items like nearly all components and aspects of the car - but the clutch has clearly not failed due to wear and tear and is clearly faulty and it should e covered by whomever sold you it under SOGA.

Now, this is assuming you haven't caused the damage yourself.

Also, it is their responsibility to prove the clutch has failed due to reasonable wear and tear or misuse and not an inherent fault!

arcon5

motorguy wrote: »

Disappointing that i was right on that point. They can take that all the way to court now and say the clutch was fine when they inspected it prior to sale and you also would have had - presumably the chance to test drive it. They will also argue that because it has taken three months, that the fault clearly wasnt there at the time of sale.

That argument simply wouldn't cut it. Just because it worked when op bought it doesn't mean there wasn't an underlying fault somewhere which has resulted in damage or excessive wear.

This isn't a wear and tear issue, clutches don't fail after such short periods of time when used reasonably. So unless ops misused it and they can prove this then they should replace the faulty clutch!

We're not talking about a banger here with 000s on the clock and many years of wear under its belt - but a fairly new, barely used motor.

motorguy

arcon5 wrote: »

Also, it is their responsibility to prove the clutch has failed due to reasonable wear and tear or misuse and not an inherent fault!

No.

It is their only responsibility to prove the fault was not present at the time of sale and they have documented evidence to prove it was checked, therefore they are covered under the SOGA.

They dont have to prove what the cause of it is.

A clutch is considered to be a wear and tear item, just like brake pads or an exhaust.