I wasn’t sure whether to post this or not, but here it goes.
This is the story so far with my 200. It’s a pretty long story and I’m after a few opinions and views from people that may have dealt with buying new cars and then had problems.
So I’ll start at the beginning, picked the car up on the 30/09/09. Great day, as it should be when picking up a new car, very happy with it. All was good.
A few days later at work I noticed a few bits in the paint, issues with the lacquer, took it back and fair enough these were removed with ease. I had also noticed a little bubble on one of the alloys, being a perfectionist and expecting the car I had bought to be perfect I asked for this to be sorted as well. The spoke in question had the bubble in the paint polished out.
I left, went home and didn’t look at the wheel until the next day, they had polished the satin finish to a shine. Terrific I thought, back on the phone and I was advised I’d get a new wheel.
A few days later I was back in Renault now with a rattle coming from the dash board. Spoke to warranty and this was resolved with some padding put in the dash, the wheel on the other hand would not be replaced under the warranty. I explained that the wheel was not perfect and it had then been damaged when they tried to rectify the paint on the wheel. It was then agreed this would be sorted and they’d be in touch when they had another 200 in to swap the wheel over.
After not hearing anything for 3 weeks and having developed a few more faults (I’ll explain them in a second). I phoned back up to be told the wheel would be re-furbished, not too happy about that but at least it would be sorted.
Now onto the other faults, I had noticed the gearbox was quite notchy and thought after it was run in properly all would be ok, well it’s not been getting any better and its quite difficult to select second when cold or when above 6k revs. Also above 6k revs there’s a noise coming from the clutch, sounds like a bearing making a noise, think it could be the thrust release bearing but I’m no mechanic. In addition to this there’s a knocking noise coming from the drivers front wheel area and the 1 click drivers electric window switch had stopped working.
So I got it booked in for all of these faults, it went in at 08.30 on Tuesday morning. I was told it would be ready for 16.30. I called them at about 2pm to ask how it was going, as I’d heard nothing, at this point I was advised, no issue with the gearbox, cannot replicate the clutch noise, the electric window switch had been replaced and the knocking noise was suspension related and its being stripped as we speak, at this point I left it at that.
Waited until 15.30, no phone call once again, phoned up to be advised they need to keep it over night as they still couldn’t pin point the knocking sound, by this point I’m getting a little annoyed that my 10 week old car is needing quite so much of their attention.
So we go into Wednesday, it gets to 11am and guess what, no phone call. I phone up to be told they have diagnosed the strut top as faulty. They will need to order this part and they will call me to let me know when they expect it in later. It gets to 3pm and once again no phone call, I phoned them once again and by this point had lost all control, advised them what I thought of the service provided and that all I wanted was to be told what was happening with my car. I was then advised by the guy on the service desk he’d get together all my details from the engineers and call me back in 10 minutes.
Ten minutes later I received the call back, he advises that strut top has to be ordered and will be a few days, the electric window is sorted, the clutch noise still cannot be replicated, the wheel has been re-sprayed and then the story changes on the gearbox. They now require the car back in January to have the gearbox out to be inspected by the 3rd party Renault now use for gearboxes. At this point they will replace the strut top and are hoping to find out what is causing the clutch noise as well.
Now I’m a little bit more than disappointed with this whole situation, I understand that things can go faulty, but I don’t expect quite so many issues in such a short period of time with a 16k car.
I am now considering whether to write to RUK in order to try and get the car replaced.
Any help with this would be much appreciated and apologies if this is in the wrong section.
Chris
This is the story so far with my 200. It’s a pretty long story and I’m after a few opinions and views from people that may have dealt with buying new cars and then had problems.
So I’ll start at the beginning, picked the car up on the 30/09/09. Great day, as it should be when picking up a new car, very happy with it. All was good.
A few days later at work I noticed a few bits in the paint, issues with the lacquer, took it back and fair enough these were removed with ease. I had also noticed a little bubble on one of the alloys, being a perfectionist and expecting the car I had bought to be perfect I asked for this to be sorted as well. The spoke in question had the bubble in the paint polished out.
I left, went home and didn’t look at the wheel until the next day, they had polished the satin finish to a shine. Terrific I thought, back on the phone and I was advised I’d get a new wheel.
A few days later I was back in Renault now with a rattle coming from the dash board. Spoke to warranty and this was resolved with some padding put in the dash, the wheel on the other hand would not be replaced under the warranty. I explained that the wheel was not perfect and it had then been damaged when they tried to rectify the paint on the wheel. It was then agreed this would be sorted and they’d be in touch when they had another 200 in to swap the wheel over.
After not hearing anything for 3 weeks and having developed a few more faults (I’ll explain them in a second). I phoned back up to be told the wheel would be re-furbished, not too happy about that but at least it would be sorted.
Now onto the other faults, I had noticed the gearbox was quite notchy and thought after it was run in properly all would be ok, well it’s not been getting any better and its quite difficult to select second when cold or when above 6k revs. Also above 6k revs there’s a noise coming from the clutch, sounds like a bearing making a noise, think it could be the thrust release bearing but I’m no mechanic. In addition to this there’s a knocking noise coming from the drivers front wheel area and the 1 click drivers electric window switch had stopped working.
So I got it booked in for all of these faults, it went in at 08.30 on Tuesday morning. I was told it would be ready for 16.30. I called them at about 2pm to ask how it was going, as I’d heard nothing, at this point I was advised, no issue with the gearbox, cannot replicate the clutch noise, the electric window switch had been replaced and the knocking noise was suspension related and its being stripped as we speak, at this point I left it at that.
Waited until 15.30, no phone call once again, phoned up to be advised they need to keep it over night as they still couldn’t pin point the knocking sound, by this point I’m getting a little annoyed that my 10 week old car is needing quite so much of their attention.
So we go into Wednesday, it gets to 11am and guess what, no phone call. I phone up to be told they have diagnosed the strut top as faulty. They will need to order this part and they will call me to let me know when they expect it in later. It gets to 3pm and once again no phone call, I phoned them once again and by this point had lost all control, advised them what I thought of the service provided and that all I wanted was to be told what was happening with my car. I was then advised by the guy on the service desk he’d get together all my details from the engineers and call me back in 10 minutes.
Ten minutes later I received the call back, he advises that strut top has to be ordered and will be a few days, the electric window is sorted, the clutch noise still cannot be replicated, the wheel has been re-sprayed and then the story changes on the gearbox. They now require the car back in January to have the gearbox out to be inspected by the 3rd party Renault now use for gearboxes. At this point they will replace the strut top and are hoping to find out what is causing the clutch noise as well.
Now I’m a little bit more than disappointed with this whole situation, I understand that things can go faulty, but I don’t expect quite so many issues in such a short period of time with a 16k car.
I am now considering whether to write to RUK in order to try and get the car replaced.
Any help with this would be much appreciated and apologies if this is in the wrong section.
Chris
