New car Died, dealer and manufacturer being rubbish. help!

[Lumeycom]

We bought a brand new Zoe for the wife to use just over 7 months ago and its been great up until 3 weeks ago (on 3210 miles) when it wouldn't do anything but display "Electrical Fault" on the dashboard, light every warning light and play every warning sound (it has a lot!).

Ended up getting the car recovered and the dealers in Swansea have had it for 3 weeks now. No courtesy car's available so they've sorted us an absoloute shed of an Aygo in the meantime through Enterprise.

I just can't get any solid updates from them on what is going to happen and when. They have diagnosed Traction battery failure so it needs a whole new battery pack, which I appreciate isn't a 5 min job. They can't do the work in Swansea so it has to be recovered, again, to Bristol for the work. As it stands its still sat outside the dealer in Swansea. We were originally told 4 weeks which will be up Monday and I'm starting to lose faith.

The dealer in Swansea has pretty much washed their hands of it. "its going to bristol" is all I get. I've rung the main number for Renault UK and they've been polite and decent but not actually moved anything on nor really provided any update beyond the repairs are "authorised" and it "needs to go to bristol".


I'm at a loss of what to do and am rapidly losing faith in Renault UK, the dealer and to be honest the car itself a little bit.

Any reasonable suggestions on what to do? Seriously contemplating going and standing outside the dealer with a breadboard on at this rate

 

[Lumeycom]

Just to answer some of the questions here so far.

I was bought new from an official renault dealer.
Its partly financed via renault finance on PCP.
We'd had it just under 7 months when it died so outside the 6 months but as its a new car from an official dealer I believe that will stand us in good stead.


Current position is the car has been uplifted from the dealer in Swansea (last Tuesday I think) but nobody can tell me where its gone. I believe its in Bristol but the fact that no one can tell me exactly where is laughable, I suppose you could argue I dont need to know but its not like its a £50 item.

There is zero update on a fix time or even a 'confirmed' diagnosis, the traction battery failure diagnosis was given by the dealer in Swansea but it seems they are not that far qualified to give it.

I've not spoken to the dealer in swansea for 2 weeks now as they are next to useless and rude so its being dealt (or not?) with centrally and I have a 'case manager' in renault uk. Doesn't seem to have improved things at all so I wrote an email to them last week outlining everything thats happened and not happened thus far and asked for it to be escalated.

Next step is to speak to the finance company and see if they can't move stuff along, also it seems that any rejection would need to be agreed with them as its technically more their car than ours.

 

[Lumeycom]

Its been raised as an official complaint with them although that seems to have made no difference. I'm calling them every 2 or 3 days and just getting nowhere. Well the know the car is in Portbury in Bristol now but zero updates as to what is happening with it.

I tried the dealer again yesterday and it seems they have pretty much washed their hands of it. Their response is just "its gone to bristol".

I've already done the facebook thing and had a response from them. They will pass my concerns on to my case manager so that was a waste of time it seems. I'm emailing them weekly, more for me to keep a log of every call and whats being said and when as Renault only want to deal with this over the phone.

Their complaints procedure is being followed from what I can deduce, its merely via my "case manager". I've asked them to escalate it and requested to speak to a manager/supervisor and I get promised a call back which never happens.

So far the only contact I've had off them is one solitary text message when the car was picked up, every other time I'm ringing for an update and getting nowhere.

I'm not a shouty person, i've had to work in callcentres in the past myself and I know how futile it is to get snotty with someone on the phone. I've laid it out and told whoever will listen but to no avail.

Zero update on a repair and return time.

Next step is to speak to the finance company and see if they can do anything to gee it along, or possibly start looking down the rejection route.

Director email is available, worth firing an email to them as well do you think?

 

[Lumeycom]

Realised I never updated this...

We eventually got the car back in the middle of March 2023 so a pretty rubbish turnaround. They ended up giving the wife another zoe as a courtesy car in the meantime, refunding her all fuel costs on the beaten up aygo thingy the loaned her, covered insurance costs and gave her a small payment to apologise.

Apparently the delay was sourcing parts.. However Renaults complete lack of customer service was utterly pathetic to be honest, the fact that they couldn't even tell us where the car was for a number of weeks was just poor.

 

[Lumeycom]

And yet again its back in the dealers. It refused to switch on again with much the same symptoms as before except this time it did eventually turn on. Had a pretty rubbish experience with renault assist (RAC) who were quoting 8 hours just to send a patrol so knocked that on the head and managed to drive it to the dealers.

Thankfully the woman on the service desk recognised us and has made some moves to avoid the car hire issue and is sorting us a loan courtesy car although not until next week.

They are now saying that the cooling pack is dead and needs to be replaced, from what I can garner the HVAC also does the traction motor cooling hence the cars reluctance to move. Of course there are no parts avaible so its on back order with no idea of a timescale.

I'm due to go into hospital on Friday for a foot op thats going to see me at home for 2 months so i'm going to have plenty of time to pester them and also do some digging on whether our right to reject is still an option.

 

[Lumeycom]

Given you've had the car for two years that seems very unlikely.

My understanding also, the burden of proof that it was not fit for purpose from the start is on me, sounds like a very difficult thing to prove if its even possible.

Sounds like you've been sold a Friday afternoon special.

100%, its a bloody nightmare to be honest.

 

[Lumeycom]

You are correct yep.

Things may be looking up though, apparently they have secured the part and it's due to them Tuesday and they are quoting 2 days to fit so we might have it back next week which is more than reasonable should it actually pan out.

 

[Lumeycom]

It didn't pan out. whatever they ordered didn't fix it so they have ordered more parts which are currently on 8 weeks backorder.