Problems with brand new Vauxhall Corsa

IanMSpencer

glauber_berti wrote: »

Just been going through the paperwork they gave me yesterday and it says the following:


"Found pressure sensor pipe blown. Had to replace this before any further tests could be carried out.


Carried out tech test. P2453-56 DPF overloaded.


Initially the DPF would not regen as it was 181% satura with soot and DPF pressure sensor 124 kpa on tick over. Cleaned out the DPF with tuneap and carried out forced regen.


Carried out roadtest on the motorway and OK"








Can anybody shed any light on what the 124 kpa on tick over bit means?

124kpa is pressure, about 17psi. presumably the back pressure from the filter is too high for the regen process to work. tuneap is a proprietary cleaning system to clean out the DPF.

Perhaps a road test around town would have been more appropriate!

glauber_berti

Bit of an update. Vauxhall have offered to cover 50% of the costs as a goodwill gesture. Will post my response in a moment:






Dear XXXXXXXX,


Thank you for your email response on Friday 1st August.


I have taken the opportunity to review your case further in light of your dissatisfaction, and can confirm that our technicians at Arnold Clark are satisfied that a DPF can indeed become blocked/saturated within 1000 miles of driving.


However we have considered again the age of your vehicle and appreciate the disappointment that such a repair can cause, particularly with your upcoming wedding this week. Therefore, as a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer to reimburse you with 50% of the total repair cost paid to Arnold Clark. Should you wish to accept this offer as settlement of the matter, please confirm to me via email. Please be advised this offer will be available for the next 7 days, until close of business Monday 11th August 2014.


Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to clarify our position.


Yours sincerely


XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

glauber_berti

Dear XXXXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I am writing to inform you that I shall not be accepting your 'goodwill gesture' to cover 50% of the costs of the repairs. I am struggling to see what goodwill there is in a company refusing to repay me the other £221.25 that I feel I have been forced to pay out unnecessarily.

I am not querying whether it is possible for the DPF filter to become clogged after 1000 miles, as it clearly has done in this instance. My complaint is based upon the fact that I, as a customer, should not be expected to pay for it and any associated repairs after just 5 weeks of owning the car.

In your previous e-mail you have, once again, failed to inform me why this repair isn't covered under warranty or what I have done to void the warranty. Can you please clarify this in writing.

I am also confused as to why you continue to inform me about what Arnold Clark and their staff think about the situation. Obviously, the staff at Arnold Clark are of the opinion that the car should not be repaired under warranty. If they didn't hold this opinion, I would have had no reason to contact Vauxhall Customer Service and make this complaint.

My dispute is not with Arnold Clark. As the manufacturer of my car, Vauxhall are obliged to repair it under warranty. It is therefore your company's responsibility to determine what is and what is not covered under warranty and, ultimately, whether I should be expected to pay for these repairs.

As you say, it is indeed my wedding this week and I would prefer to be spending my time on other important matters rather than dealing with the unnecessary stress and hassle that your company is causing me. As I haven't mentioned my wedding in any of our previous correspondence, I can only assume that you have seen my post on Vauxhall's Facebook page where many people agree with me about the poor customer service I have received so far.

I assume you are, therefore, also aware of the thread on Money Saving Expert where not one single person has agreed with you that I should be expected to foot the bill for these repairs. If not, you may find it here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5027655

I have been advised by the Citizen's Advice Bureau that I should give Vauxhall three chances to rectify this situation before I proceed with legal action via the Small Claims Court process. As this is my third e-mail to your department, I feel that I have now given you a satisfactory number of opportunities to deal with my complaint. As a result, if your next e-mail does not indicate you are willing to provide me with a refund for the full amount, I will be taking this course of action.

Kind regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

photome

That reply looks good to me

Keep at them.

At least facebook got somwhere, although I am shocked they only came back with a 50% offer

IanMSpencer

I would be further emphasising:

1) If Arnold Clark are the experts, can they explain to in what way should the car be driven between home and work and other journeys to avoid this situation in the future? How are they aware of the driver's driving style to know that it is the driving causing the problem? All they have seen is a blocked filter, they have done no interview or other diagnostic to determine how this came about - they cannot have enough information to know it was driving and not some other tuning fault.

2) What assurance can Vauxhall give that this situation will not reoccur on a regular basis.

3) What detailed advice can Vauxhall provide about what modes of engine use are particularly prone to generating excessive particulates so that if necessary the OP can modify their driving style to account for this, e.g. rev range (is there a rev counter?) and throttle usage.

glauber_berti

Yeah, me too.

The service manager from Arnold Clark rang me this morning to basically say "Yeah, we know it's completely crap. This happens all the time with Vauxhalls. They just tell us not to repair anything if it's to do with DPF. My advice to you is just keep complaining and they'll eventually give you your money back."

Nothing like passing the buck but hopefully he's right!

glauber_berti

IanMSpencer wrote: »

I would be further emphasising:

1) If Arnold Clark are the experts, can they explain to in what way should the car be driven between home and work and other journeys to avoid this situation in the future? How are they aware of the driver's driving style to know that it is the driving causing the problem? All they have seen is a blocked filter, they have done no interview or other diagnostic to determine how this came about - they cannot have enough information to know it was driving and not some other tuning fault.

2) What assurance can Vauxhall give that this situation will not reoccur on a regular basis.

3) What detailed advice can Vauxhall provide about what modes of engine use are particularly prone to generating excessive particulates so that if necessary the OP can modify their driving style to account for this, e.g. rev range (is there a rev counter?) and throttle usage.

Yep, agree with all of this. If you read the e-mails from Vauxhall they've been very careful to not actually say that "driving style" is at fault.

As I said in my last post, I just spoke to the Service Manager at Arnold Clark.

He said "You have to be taking it out and driving it at 2,500 revs for a 15 minute continuous journey at least once a week."

I told him that's neither in the handbook nor has anybody ever driven a car like that in the history of motoring. That's when he said all the stuff about Vauxhall are rubbish and to just keep pushing them.

glauber_berti

VICTORY!!!!

I wrote the CEO of Vauxhall last night and got this back this morning:

Dear Mr Partington,


Thank you for your mail which I have had investigated urgently on the basis that it did not seem right to me.


This is indeed the case and I can confirm that we will carry out this work under warranty and will put Arnold Clark Stretford in the position to reimburse you £442.80.

I can only apologise for this and the fact that you had to raise it with me directly to get to this point. At this stage to be honest, I am not quite sure why this went off track but please be certain that we will be investigating and following up.

Regarding the future, I only now take this opportunity of drawing your attention to the instructions in the owner’s manual regarding the ways to keep DPFs clean – they need some decent runs out rather than lots of stop/start motoring to self-clean.

Finally, I hope you can now move on and enjoy both your new Vauxhall Corsa and married life.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Tozer

photome

Good result in the end.

BUT Vauxhall should never have let it get that far

pstuart

This whole episode was so stupid that initially I thought it was a wind up.

It puts Arnold Clark back into the 1960's motor trade mode of operation and as for Vauxhall themselves, I don't see the point of spending millions on advertising and not reacting quickly enough to comments on social media.
Their whole mindset is wrong, perhaps that's why they have had to spend a fortune on recalls in the USA.

Will someone please tell them that its 2014!