Just got the car back from the dealer.
The gearbox was pulled out and the totally-stuffed 5th gear synchro replaced, along with the noticeably weak synchros on 1st and 3rd, and I hope the 2nd and 4th gear synchros too because they came in the kit from France.
The sensor thingy on the gearbox was replaced because after the gearbox was put back in the dealer couldn't start the car to take it for a run to check out the gearbox repair.
And when they took it for a run they could hear the left-front wheel bearing was stuffed and replaced that.
All under warranty fortunately.
That's more faults found and repaired under warranty than in all the other new cars I've bought in all my life. And I'm not young.
You Europeans don't build cars like the Japanese do.
Had a Honda. The dealer had drilled a hole through a panel to fit something, and there was a wire behind it that got drilled through. That was the only thing that had to be fixed under warranty.
Had a Mazda. Nothing needed to be done under warranty.
Had a Nissan. Nothing had to be done under warranty.
But the Renault, gees. It started with the dealer saying "yeah, no problem, we can fit a towbar" and the distributor sending him one to fit even though Renault says they shouldn't be fitted to a Sport. The first time you tow a trailer you realise why. Then there's the speedo being inaccurate - I bought the car to go quickly, it defeats the purpose if its telling me I'm going as quick as the speed cameras will let me get away with and other cars are streaming past me because I'm really going 10% slower than the limit - and all the readings from the trip computer being hopelessly wildly wrong. Like it saying you've only used 33 litres of fuel, then the "empty" light comes on, you fill up, and it takes 41 litres to fill it. The dealer has stuffed around with it and he got it down from 15% out to "only" 8% out. And homofocal zenon low beams that I reckon are the most hopeless lights I've ever had on a car because their cutoff is so sharp they don't put any light on things you need to see. Like reflectors on the backs of bicycles, and street signs and speed limit signs. And the way after the lights turn green you have to pick up a few revs before you let the clutch out. Too many and the front wheels give a chirp and you sound like a w*nker. Too few and it stalls and you look like a w*nker. And either way cars with less performance are already away and gone before you move.
Is it just my Clio Sport? Or is it all of them? Some things they did really well. But there's s-o-o-o-o-o-o many more that they still haven't got right after they've been building basically the same car for years. Aren't they listening to their customers? Don't they have egonomics and useability experts? Or quality control specialists?
I got pissed off one day and wrote a list of all the ones I could think of. Four pages. From the idiocy of a 5th seatbelt in a car that has that tiny a rear seat to a tailgate latch that sticks up and damages anything you slide into the boot to a sun visor that can't be swung around to shield your eyes when the sun is setting on the drivers side of the car and a dip switch that only dips the lights when you release it and a control on the end of it that means if you grab it quickly you just rotate the control not dip the lights. Je ne parlez pas le Francais so I sent it to this country's Renault distributor. The answer was along the lines of "don't bother complaining to us".
The gearbox was pulled out and the totally-stuffed 5th gear synchro replaced, along with the noticeably weak synchros on 1st and 3rd, and I hope the 2nd and 4th gear synchros too because they came in the kit from France.
The sensor thingy on the gearbox was replaced because after the gearbox was put back in the dealer couldn't start the car to take it for a run to check out the gearbox repair.
And when they took it for a run they could hear the left-front wheel bearing was stuffed and replaced that.
All under warranty fortunately.
That's more faults found and repaired under warranty than in all the other new cars I've bought in all my life. And I'm not young.
You Europeans don't build cars like the Japanese do.
Had a Honda. The dealer had drilled a hole through a panel to fit something, and there was a wire behind it that got drilled through. That was the only thing that had to be fixed under warranty.
Had a Mazda. Nothing needed to be done under warranty.
Had a Nissan. Nothing had to be done under warranty.
But the Renault, gees. It started with the dealer saying "yeah, no problem, we can fit a towbar" and the distributor sending him one to fit even though Renault says they shouldn't be fitted to a Sport. The first time you tow a trailer you realise why. Then there's the speedo being inaccurate - I bought the car to go quickly, it defeats the purpose if its telling me I'm going as quick as the speed cameras will let me get away with and other cars are streaming past me because I'm really going 10% slower than the limit - and all the readings from the trip computer being hopelessly wildly wrong. Like it saying you've only used 33 litres of fuel, then the "empty" light comes on, you fill up, and it takes 41 litres to fill it. The dealer has stuffed around with it and he got it down from 15% out to "only" 8% out. And homofocal zenon low beams that I reckon are the most hopeless lights I've ever had on a car because their cutoff is so sharp they don't put any light on things you need to see. Like reflectors on the backs of bicycles, and street signs and speed limit signs. And the way after the lights turn green you have to pick up a few revs before you let the clutch out. Too many and the front wheels give a chirp and you sound like a w*nker. Too few and it stalls and you look like a w*nker. And either way cars with less performance are already away and gone before you move.
Is it just my Clio Sport? Or is it all of them? Some things they did really well. But there's s-o-o-o-o-o-o many more that they still haven't got right after they've been building basically the same car for years. Aren't they listening to their customers? Don't they have egonomics and useability experts? Or quality control specialists?
I got pissed off one day and wrote a list of all the ones I could think of. Four pages. From the idiocy of a 5th seatbelt in a car that has that tiny a rear seat to a tailgate latch that sticks up and damages anything you slide into the boot to a sun visor that can't be swung around to shield your eyes when the sun is setting on the drivers side of the car and a dip switch that only dips the lights when you release it and a control on the end of it that means if you grab it quickly you just rotate the control not dip the lights. Je ne parlez pas le Francais so I sent it to this country's Renault distributor. The answer was along the lines of "don't bother complaining to us".
