Bentley Bentayga out of warranty electrical fault

buzzbuddy

Hi. I have  a 5 year old Bentayga from new and its developed 3 technology faults over the years but the latest is a source of dispute. A couple of months ago the main driver Speedo/tacho cluster started to be completely blacked out every time I came to start the vehicle. After a minute or 2 and some flashing lines it would eventually resume as normal. The Bentley approved repairers have found the fault and need to replace the cluster at a cost of £2,400. Bentley Motors have offered good will of £1,300 but I'm left with £1,000 to pay. My position is that by consumer rights protection a working speedo is a safety critical/regulator compliant device and I should reasonably expect it to operate faultlessly for the lifetime of the vehicle. They disagree and say its one of those things that happen with technology and I'm out of warranty. I am about to issue formal letter of complaint to Bentley -am I within my rights to not expect to have to pay?

MattMattMattUK

buzzbuddy said:

Hi. I have  a 5 year old Bentayga from new and its developed 3 technology faults over the years but the latest is a source of dispute. A couple of months ago the main driver Speedo/tacho cluster started to be completely blacked out every time I came to start the vehicle. After a minute or 2 and some flashing lines it would eventually resume as normal. The Bentley approved repairers have found the fault and need to replace the cluster at a cost of £2,400. Bentley Motors have offered good will of £1,300 but I'm left with £1,000 to pay. My position is that by consumer rights protection a working speedo is a safety critical/regulator compliant device and I should reasonably expect it to operate faultlessly for the lifetime of the vehicle. They disagree and say its one of those things that happen with technology and I'm out of warranty. I am about to issue formal letter of complaint to Bentley -am I within my rights to not expect to have to pay?

Unfortunately no, you are not. If you want it replaced free of charge you would need to demonstrate, through independent inspection that the fault was present at the time you purchased the car from Bentley, which I imagine would be impossible to do at this stage. That would also only apply if you bought the car from a business/dealer, if you bought it from a private seller you have no consumer rights at all. 

born_again

You need to check the T/C on the warranty on exactly what it covers & how long for. Not everything is covered for the full length of the 3 year warranty.
So you are already 2 years outside. So the offer to pay over half is a generous one.

No, it is not reasonable to expect items to last the lifetime of the vehicle, even for such as the speedo.

You can complain & hope they offer more, but they could also remove the £1300. 

Remember Bentley is owned VW group.

Okell

As it's more than 6 months after purchase the legal burden of proof is on you to establish that the speedo/tacho did not "conform to contract" (ie was inherently faulty* in some way) when you bought it.

Can you commission an independent expert report to prove that?

Even if you could, as the statute of limitations is six years, then after five years you would probably only be offered one sixth of the cost anyway (£400).

Unless it's covered by warranty £1300 might be the best you can get.


*  eg a manufacturing fault, faulty components, faulty design, not of satisfactory quality etc etc

flaneurs_lobster

I'm calling wind-up.

Nobody who pays £180k  for a car (" I have  a 5 year old Bentayga from new") is going to haggle over £1300.

buzzbuddy

Thanks to you all for the replies and explaining my rights so clearly. Fascinating. Sounds like I'm getting a good offer from them. Fyi it's the third fault so was pretty much fed up with paying out.

GDB2222

buzzbuddy said:

Thanks to you all for the replies and explaining my rights so clearly. Fascinating. Sounds like I'm getting a good offer from them. Fyi it's the third fault so was pretty much fed up with paying out.

I bought a 3 year old Volvo at auction in 2009. Since then, I've had the usual service costs, but nothing has broken. The car is now over 19 years old, and still going strong. Next time, prioritise reliability over performance, and buy Volvo?

Desmond_Hume

Using a single case example to make a sweeping judgement? Incredibly useful. 

Arunmor

GDB2222 said:

buzzbuddy said:

Thanks to you all for the replies and explaining my rights so clearly. Fascinating. Sounds like I'm getting a good offer from them. Fyi it's the third fault so was pretty much fed up with paying out.

I bought a 3 year old Volvo at auction in 2009. Since then, I've had the usual service costs, but nothing has broken. The car is now over 19 years old, and still going strong. Next time, prioritise reliability over performance, and buy Volvo?

Changed beast now, Volvo was bought by Geely in August 2010, my betting is Geely looked to improve their margins.

born_again

GDB2222 said:

buzzbuddy said:

Thanks to you all for the replies and explaining my rights so clearly. Fascinating. Sounds like I'm getting a good offer from them. Fyi it's the third fault so was pretty much fed up with paying out.

I bought a 3 year old Volvo at auction in 2009. Since then, I've had the usual service costs, but nothing has broken. The car is now over 19 years old, and still going strong. Next time, prioritise reliability over performance, and buy Volvo?

Are you really promoting Chinese cars? As Volvo is owned by Geely  🤣 

Although nothing wrong with Chinese we have one here.