Product Support and after sales service

DominicM

What is the situation with regards to a manufacturer properly supporting their product in the market place?

We purchased a second hand Mitsubishi Shogun Diamond from a Mitsubishi dealer and for just over 3 years it was good and reliable.

We then had a breakdown in France where we live, the vehicle was taken to a local dealer and then we waited.

Several of the fuel injectors needed replacing.

Problem - no parts available in Europe, they will have to be sent from Japan. Vehicle broke down in late October, parts finally arrive late January.

To add insult to injury the replacement parts cost more than £4000.00.

Mitsubishi were extremely casual in their response to our predicament, it was only when I contacted the head person in Europe that any kind of urgency arose.

I was of the opinion that if a manufacturer is going to sell their product in the European marketplace that they should be able to support their products should the need arise. Our experience was less than satisfactory and as a result I would never contemplate purchasing a Mitsubishi again.

Waiting 3 months for replacement parts on a vehicle that cost the best part of £30K was disappointing. Having replacement parts that cost more than 10% of the vehicle value was also to my mind a bit steep.

I contacted my MEP as I figured it was a consumer protection issue which is what I thought was a key principle of the single market. No interest or assistance offered.

Have Mitsubishi infringed any consumer rights or protection in this situation?

daveyjp

When in France run a French car.

AdrianC

So you bought the car in the UK, then exported it to France. Were you trying to get Mitsu UK or Mitsu France involved?

You bought it used, three years ago - but how old is it now? Diamond spec seems to have been discontinued in 2012, so we're talking about a car at least six years old. Mitsubishi did not extend their new car warranty to five years (/100k km) until 2015.


Also - you simply cannot say "Well, it cost me £30k three years ago, so it's still £30k-worth now", as you seem to be trying to. You might as well wave the c.£40k new price around. There is only one used Diamond on Autotrader at more than £14k, with another three above £13k - and even then, there is no way you can relate used parts prices to vehicle value. Sometimes, it's simply uneconomical to repair. In this case, it wasn't - quite...

debtdebt

Not surprised your MEP didn!!!8217;t respond. You bought a second hand car out of warranty. You!!!8217;re on your own. Deal with it.

bigisi

DominicM wrote: »

I would never contemplate purchasing a Mitsubishi again.

I'm sure they'll be devastated that you'll never purchase one of their cars second hand again. That's really hit their pockets.

DominicM

An innocent question met with some not particularly helpful comments - I was asking about the principle.

Surely if you purchase an item that is sold in a market the provider should be in a position to support the use of the product that they sold.

bigisi

What have principles got to do with anything?

They have a dealer network who will fix any problems you have with the vehicle albeit at a (usually) massive premium compared to a local independent garage.

Mistubishi did provide support, they sent out the items your garage needed to fix the problem.

What more "support" do you need?

alan_d

DominicM wrote: »

Several of the fuel injectors needed replacing.

To add insult to injury the replacement parts cost more than £4000.00.

Sounds like the garage mis-diagnosed AND over-charged.
A failed injector would cause rough running, but unlikely a complete stop/breakdown. It's highly unlikely that several failed at the same time.
Was it running rough for ages and then broke down?
To me, it sounds like another issue, garage perhaps fixed that and found that one or more injectors were getting tired and needed replacing - but that cost suggests far more than a few injectors were replaced.

As someone else said, if you're in France then run a French car - plenty of support for them, but anything else is hard to get fixed without getting ripped off.

tedted

a injector that leaks back to much is enough on these to stop it starting

DominicM

so waiting the best part of 4 months for spare parts is acceptable support is it? The whole point of my post was the principle of supporting products sold in a market.

I have learnt one lesson guess what that is

System

You didn't buy the car from them, you weren't their customer. The vehicle was well out of manufacturers warranty and used cars do go wrong. Dealers and manufacturers don't tend to keep a lot of stock for older models that have been replaced a few years so whilst they can get them it can take some time.

You also had the French factor to take into account and they'll not rush over anything.