Renault Build Quality, Missing fixings!

[AlexW]

I get that cars are assembled by humans, Mistakes happen and all that, But I'm seriously surprised by how poor a lot of new cars come from the factory.

Today, I found one of the best I've seen in my years.

This is a 2013, Brand new, Delivered the other day to the dealer, still at the dealer Clio.

You notice the bolt, missing a nut? I didn't remove that. Its one of three fixings for the headlight. Bumper had never been removed before, No sign of a nut ever being on there either. There is now!

The bumper had been removed for fitment of front parking sensors (Something you cannot spec from Renault), I had noticed apon arrival that the headlight moved when touched, After removing the bumper I realised why. It was quite a lot of movement, enough to notice it without having the car apart.

I then went over to another New Clio the dealer have in, Exactly the same, Both on the passenger side, Drivers side ones have no movement so the nut has been fitted. Clearly somebody isn't doing their job correctly at Renault.

Nearly as bad as Nissan boots being full of trim clips they never fitted.

Whats the worst you've found?

 

[Adam G]

That's "A breaktime special" or built on a Friday. I bet the lunchtime buzzer went half way through Jean-Pierre's process.
Edit: just read it's on two cars - bet they ran out and were supposed to catch it back....and forgot.

 

[lemonnobby]

is that a clio 4 ill be checking in work tomorrow

 

[Daz.]

Obviously that robot arm was on holiday that day

 

[mad pierre]

Let them know, there will trace the batch number's and report the fault. The robot was was deffo not work right that day

 

[Munson]

Robots don't normally deal with suff like that. That's trim and final. Most probably the dude just wasn't concentrating.

 

[AlexW]

The dealer was indeed told. I'd be fine if it was just one car, but both the dealer had in, Not even delivered at the same time. Makes me wonder how many others are like this.

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

Admittidly not a Renault build fault but we had an Espace Initiale delivered once that was off the top dec of the transporter. He thought he'd 'hit a tree' on the way too us. Looked like he had hit a bridge, he had damaged the whole roof from about a foot behind the windscreen to the back of the car. He had popped the rear screen as well. The car ended up being written off. Was a fleet car and the guy had waited four months for the car.....

 

[CaptainSlow]

The worst I've experienced is working at a Proton dealer about 7-8 years ago, here is a list of things that I noticed.

1. New Proton Impian that had a mysteriously spongey brake pedal, that would be the brake system filled with power steering fluid then.
2. New Proton Satria GTi, alloys one side, steels the other.
3. New Proton Jumbuck, mismatched sunvisors ( patterns on both incorrect to each other)
4. New Proton Gen-2s came with alot of extras dropped in them, ranging from small clips to interior lights.
5. New Proton Satria sport that wore out the rear wheel bearings on Pre delivery inspection road test.
6. New Proton Gen-2 that on pre delivery inspection road test the engine seized, was something to do with a piston trying to eat its way out of the bore as the gudgeon pin wasnt installed correctly

This is what i can remember on freshly delivered vehicles off the transporter, ironically once these issues were sorted the majority of them were good cars, in fact i would have a Impian if i could find one cheap and close enough to me, nice cars to drive.
No idea what new Proton cars are like now though, it was good fun doing the pdis though, you never knew what you would find.
Never had any issues at Renault or Nissan though regarding new cars and bits missing, trim etc though.

 

[Feates172]

Deffo a Friday late shift car.

I see it every day. Worst I've spotted myself at work was 2 missing seat bolts.

Something that is checked by two buy off areas.

 

[GingerJosh]

I have the exact same thing with my car, that exact bolt missing Aswell! Haha sod knows what happened when they was making it lol

 

[Chris Lewis]

You think thats bad look over a williams.

Sound deadening on one side, but not the other is a common one. Also rear window seal fitted with a gap in the join, water gets in the gap, the reason one sill often rusts but the other side doesn't. Missing seam sealer. Windscreen fitted at an angle is another good one.

 

[Munson]

So it appears that quite a few operators are not using that fixing, and no one has really noticed? Renault, you do actually know why you're borderline bankrupt. Yeah?

 

[Baylis]

Wow...slacking

 

[Chris Lewis]

So it appears that quite a few operators are not using that fixing, and no one has really noticed? Renault, you do actually know why you're borderline bankrupt. Yeah?

They arn't borderline bankrupt. They are bankrupt. Only the French / European tax payer bailing them out (continually) through subsidies keeps them in business. Fact is they make a loss and the difference is given to them by the tax payer to keep them functioning. That means they are de facto bankrupt in any accounting definition.

Same with many other car makers though. They will realise at some point that their model of expecting people to pay 15-25k for a car and change it every 3 years is not sustainable as the median wage in this country is about 16k.

The amount of new cars bought with money from tax credits (again which is tax payers money) is simply not sustainable.

 

[Dave..]

So it appears that quite a few operators are not using that fixing, and no one has really noticed? Renault, you do actually know why you're borderline bankrupt. Yeah?

So long as the French government keeps subsidising them, they'll never go bust.

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

Same with many other car makers though. They will realise at some point that their model of expecting people to pay 15-25k for a car and change it every 3 years is not sustainable as the median wage in this country is about 16k.

The amount of new cars bought with money from tax credits (again which is tax payers money) is simply not sustainable.

If people bought cars for cash I'd agree with you. But they don't.

 

[craigy2703]

I work for ford they had a situation with the new ranger something happened with the workers and the factory but we had one delivered with no interior once lol that got sent back then they got delayed lol

 

[Munson]

That isn't true.

 

[Chris Lewis]

If people bought cars for cash I'd agree with you. But they don't.

And people dont buy cars for cash because they cant afford to. Because cars have got so expensive, relative to how much we get paid, people now RENT their cars on finance deals. Stupid deals that lose the manufacturers money. And then they go bankrupt. Seems like a poor business model to me.

 

[Bluebeard]

When I worked at Renault, I sold a new scenic to a neighbour (Who I hated!!) and when it arrived, it had colour coded door mouldings one side, unpainted grey ones on the other. I never mentioned it because I didn't want him complaining on my Customer satisfaction phone call (That stops your commission!) so I took the risk.

That was in 2002. He's since given the car to his daughter (Who incidently lives by my work) and to this day it still has colour coded mouldings on one side and grey unpainted on the other. Nobody has noticed. Mental.

 

[Ajcman]

I've got a Clio 4 and now reading this thread im gonna have a proper good Tyre kick tomorrow and check for any bits loose, Does your Reverse gear not engage sometimes?

 

[James1470]

I work for ford they had a situation with the new ranger something happened with the workers and the factory but we had one delivered with no interior once lol that got sent back then they got delayed lol

Lol, I work for ford too, been a few bad ones lately, since they terminated the contract at the genk factory, the workers diceded they would screw everything up, and have not only been filling door cards with nuts and bolts but air boxes too, and disconnecting brake pipes I'd heard - probably explains why it takes so long to get facelift fiestas, don't touch them! Ha

Best one I've heard though, we once got 25 basic mk1 capris which all turned up with 3l autos in them... Although the computers still say there 1.4 & 1.6 manuals. It's a worry how they managed to get the totally wrong engine on the totally wrong production line.

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

And people dont buy cars for cash because they cant afford to. Because cars have got so expensive, relative to how much we get paid, people now RENT their cars on finance deals. Stupid deals that lose the manufacturers money. And then they go bankrupt. Seems like a poor business model to me.

Sorry who goes bankrupt? Do you have a mortgage? If so you RENT your house from the bank, people and companies don't go bankrupt from using finance, manufacturers don't lose money selling new cars. However thanks for all your points, very valid.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Lol, I work for ford too, been a few bad ones lately, since they terminated the contract at the genk factory, the workers diceded they would screw everything up, and have not only been filling door cards with nuts and bolts but air boxes too, and disconnecting brake pipes I'd heard - probably explains why it takes so long to get facelift fiestas, don't touch them! Ha

They don't build the B299 in Genk

 

[Munson]

B299 is built in Cologne.

 

[James1470]

B299 is built in Cologne.

Hmm I've got a letter here saying otherwise, we're waiting for about 40 fiesta lease cars and it is because they said they would be shutting the factory in Genk, also our workshops are having to pretty much tear them to bits so we don't have any health and safety comebacks after some incident with self rappers in a airbox, as far as I was aware up until they announced they where closing it they where building fiestas and now they've changed there mind it'll be Mondeo, smax etc.

 

[Munson]

They are built in Cologne. Trust me. I'm not aware of any Fiesta operations in Genk. TBF I think they are also produced in Valencia.

 

[James1470]

That was always opinion until we received this, although it is probably the usual ford communication breakdown getting mixed up, I'll scan It in later if your actually bothered? Although my point is about the problems we've been having with purposely messed up cars

 

[Munson]

It's not opinion. I was there man!

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

It's not opinion. I was there man!

You don't know maaaan.... you don't knowww.....

PS: LOL at self rappers

 

[James1470]

It's not opinion. I was there man!

My opinion I meant .... Phone keeps screwing my text up
I'd just expect the info ford post me to be correct

 

[Rob]

When I worked at Renault, I sold a new scenic to a neighbour (Who I hated!!) and when it arrived, it had colour coded door mouldings one side, unpainted grey ones on the other. I never mentioned it because I didn't want him complaining on my Customer satisfaction phone call (That stops your commission!) so I took the risk.

That was in 2002. He's since given the car to his daughter (Who incidently lives by my work) and to this day it still has colour coded mouldings on one side and grey unpainted on the other. Nobody has noticed. Mental.

I can imagine the silly prick standing there one day thinking "this car definitely looks better from the drivers side, but I can't figure out why... Must just be the angles"...