5 day old brand new car has broken down.

dannyrst

As long as the garage attempt to fix it and do so in a reasonable timeframe, I'd suggest sticking with it. Think how many parts are on a car, and how many electrical components there are. All it takes is for one or two of those to be faulty and you get more lights than the high street at Christmas.

Give them a chance to find the issue and fix it.

Oh and as for good will gestures, they are just that. Personally, I wouldn't go asking for any because I know for a fact I'd value a customer more who didn't think they were entitled to this and that. Therefore your car might just find its way to the back of the queue when it comes to looking at it.

bigjl

I would probably consider rejecting it.

Though by continuing to drive it with warning lights illuminated could have caused other issues.

If it is a Diesel then if the emissions light is on it will likely not Regen.

The limp mode will have been triggered to protect the turbo.

Some vehicles suffer from electrical problems that never go away which is why I would look at rejection.

It is also possible that they never filled the Eloys tank(again only if it is a diesel)

solchain

I have had many new cars and most of them have had one thing or another go wrong within the first year, nothing to worry about just make sure you get a courtesy car that is equal to yours.
I had a Renault that for the first year would randomly go into limp home mode, they sorted it though.

You should get AA or RAC cover with the warranty, next time ring that and they will send someone out, and if you are far from home they should hire you a car.

Don't reject the car if you like it, they will get to the bottom of it.

straighttalker

I'd stick with it and let the main dealer take it in for a fix under warranty work. One electrical problem or failed sensor could cause the domino effect of all the others coming on.

Definitely get a courtesy car. As for anything else, you're in the hands of the dealer. I'd try and go for a free or cheap first service.

tim9966

Sounds like a wiring loom fault. I'd let them fix it first under warranty and see how it goes from there.


Shouldn't affect the resale value at all if it's fixed correctly.

Strider590

Peugeot / Citroen are renowned for electrical gremlins, back in the late 90's and early 00's, many a Peugeot was written off purely because of undiagnosable electrical issues, once they were a few years old, it was often a case of replace ECU for a large sum of money (but might not fix it) or send it to the scrappers.

I would hope they've got their act together a bit now, though the "feature" on Topgear wasn't far off the mark for cars made more than 5 years ago.

patman99

Even BMWs had major issues with electrics during the '90s.

xHannahx

Strider590 wrote: »

Peugeot / Citroen are renowned for electrical gremlins, back in the late 90's and early 00's, many a Peugeot was written off purely because of undiagnosable electrical issues, once they were a few years old, it was often a case of replace ECU for a large sum of money (but might not fix it) or send it to the scrappers.

I would hope they've got their act together a bit now, though the "feature" on Topgear wasn't far off the mark for cars made more than 5 years ago.

We had a 2010 Citroen berlingo from new up until it was 4 years old. I have never known such an unreliable car. 1.6 HDI. We got rid of it, cut our losses and went down the "bangernomic" route. in the last year we had it, we suffered no fewer than 7 breakdowns, yet Citroen couldn't diagnose. A friend had a C3 1.6 HDI on a 58 plate and Citroen were unable to diagnose her breakdowns neither, she cut her loss on that as well as far as I'm aware.

bigjl

xHannahx wrote: »

We had a 2010 Citroen berlingo from new up until it was 4 years old. I have never known such an unreliable car. 1.6 HDI. We got rid of it, cut our losses and went down the "bangernomic" route. in the last year we had it, we suffered no fewer than 7 breakdowns, yet Citroen couldn't diagnose. A friend had a C3 1.6 HDI on a 58 plate and Citroen were unable to diagnose her breakdowns neither, she cut her loss on that as well as far as I'm aware.

I wonder how many of the issues were to do with the complicated emissions systems?

I can confirm that the Berlingo I just bought has not suffered a single breakdown since new in 07, it hasn't gone very far though just 29k. The interior has a few issues, passenger door mirror no longer adjusts which is likely to be the dash switch and a bit of plastic on one rear door has broken, bought from local Citroen dealer for under £6.

Not sure what fuel consumption it will give but I don't think it will be much less than 35/40mpg.

xHannahx

bigjl wrote: »

I wonder how many of the issues were to do with the complicated emissions systems?

I can confirm that the Berlingo I just bought has not suffered a single breakdown since new in 07, it hasn't gone very far though just 29k. The interior has a few issues, passenger door mirror no longer adjusts which is likely to be the dash switch and a bit of plastic on one rear door has broken, bought from local Citroen dealer for under £6.

Not sure what fuel consumption it will give but I don't think it will be much less than 35/40mpg.

Ours did around 40-45mpg. You mention the emissions, that was always my suspicion as after the car sprung back to life it gave a big soot cloud and it was fine for a couple of weeks. It never once threw up a management light on the dash or recorded a fault code, no fault codes ever read for Citroen. The service manager took my car for 2 weeks and supplied a courtesy car, to try and get the problem due to it not giving any clue on the engine management, the problem occured whilst he was using it but he couldn't identify the problem and confirmed no EML had shown up when it failed for him.
When it broke down it would lose power and not Rev more than 1500 rpm. Limp mode Citroen informed me would allow up to either 2500 or 3000 rpm.
We can't fault the customer care from the dealers service department, it's a Shame the product was so awful!