Citroen Warranty - Another Reason....

[qprdude]

Sorry mate, but if a warranty has run out, it's not in force. Fit for purpose, fair use etc are not covered by a warranty which has expired. They might well be covered by OTHER retail regulations, but a warranty IS for a finite period of time, otherwise every manufactured article would be covered for ever.

[frenchcarnut]

Sorry mate, but if a warranty has run out, it's not in force. Fit for purpose, fair use etc are not covered by a warranty which has expired. They might well be covered by OTHER retail regulations, but a warranty IS for a finite period of time, otherwise every manufactured article would be covered for ever.

I don't think StickyFinger is saying that is (s)he? I thought a warranty is a form of protection offered by the manufacturer whilst anything to do with Sales of Goods Act and "fit for purpose" overrides it according to retail law. So it doesn't matter if someone's driving a three year old car out of warranty: if it fails catastrophically for some reason due to a design fault or there's some failure that seems unreasonable, then national laws can override anything. My view is that warranties do the following:

(a) encourage people to maintain their cars or companies to maintain their fleet (the latter will have Health & Safety responsibilities to their staff)
(b) help manufacturers sell their cars on the back of some perceived sense of reliability: real, actual or otherwise.
(c) encourage manufacturers to compete for claims of reliability and thus a tangible and increasing share of the market.

It's neither here nor there how warranties are interpreted if a court of law adjudicates that a vehicle was not fit-for-purpose - regardless of warranty time-lines. After all, here in the UK it's the MOT test which determines whether a car is road worthy, and not a manufacturer's warranty.

[qprdude]

Can't argue with much of that and I didn't set out to argue about "fit for purpose etc" just that warranties are a limited liability in many ways.
Interestingly, the M.O.T. only determines that the vehicle is roadworthy at the time of the examination, according to the tester. The minute you leave the garage, it is no guarantee of roadworthiness in law. Pretty worthless really!
I'd still rather have a warranty and keep to the service schedule than rely solely on retail laws though. It's just a pity that manufacturers try their hardest to avoid responsibility for faults they know are there.

[Stickyfinger]

I don't think StickyFinger is saying that is (s)he?

Correct, I was talking about "General Retail Law" fair use , fit for purpose etc....and Male.... last time I looked (but it may of fallen off !)

Tough one, basically they can all sell you crap, roll the dice !

[qprdude]

Yep, but the surprising thing is, with companies like Amazon, Marks and Spenser and other online sellers, they seem to accept returns for any reason, no questions asked. If you just change your mind, even outside the 14 day period, they let you return stuff, usually free of charge. Wouldn't it be nice if car manufacturers did the same!
As regards the OP, that's just a company trying to weasel out of responsibility using the flimsiest of excuses. As usual, getting satisfaction takes a lot of perseverance and patience, and the buggers hope you will give up rather than take them all the way.

[frenchcarnut]

I don't think StickyFinger is saying that is (s)he?

Correct, I was talking about "General Retail Law" fair use , fit for purpose etc....and Male.... last time I looked (but it may of fallen off !)

Tough one, basically they can all sell you crap, roll the dice !

Sorry mate, smartphone and awkward, so had to concentrate on post rather than look through gender classifications. I don't think there are many females on here but I think it's right not to make assumptions given that I've come across some really good female engineers into their cars.

[frenchcarnut]

Can't argue with much of that and I didn't set out to argue about "fit for purpose etc" just that warranties are a limited liability in many ways.
Interestingly, the M.O.T. only determines that the vehicle is roadworthy at the time of the examination, according to the tester. The minute you leave the garage, it is no guarantee of roadworthiness in law. Pretty worthless really!
I'd still rather have a warranty and keep to the service schedule than rely solely on retail laws though. It's just a pity that manufacturers try their hardest to avoid responsibility for faults they know are there.

Absolutely fair point about MOTs. It's like Building Control certificates which state, and I paraphrase, "Complied with and correct at the time of inspection". So home owners can appear to do the right thing but engineer something completely different after a council officer has signed off the paperwork!

[Northern_Mike]

With my Laguna II I was very lax with the servicing, going quite a bit over the 20,000 mile service interval. The turbo blew but as they were prone to that anyway Renault replaced it under warranty and got me a rental Clio at a very favourable rate for the two weeks it took for the work to be done (I guess they had a shortage of turbos!)

My neighbour recently had a scheduled timing belt/tensioners/waterpump changed at a Skoda dealership on his 80k mile 07 Plate Octavia VRS

Two weeks later, the new waterpump packed up "at speed" on the M11, throwing the timing belt off.

Much mess was caused.

Skoda - shipped the car back to Reading for him, checked it out, took one look, said "yep, that waterpump failed. It's our fault, all under warranty, would you mind waiting 2 weeks and driving this brand new Yeti while we ship you a new engine in from the factory"...

2 weeks later, car returned, with brand new engine, including ancillaries. Had an slight issue with aircon leakage which they sent a man out to sort.

Excellent service. Absolutely brilliant.

[frenchcarnut]

With my Laguna II I was very lax with the servicing, going quite a bit over the 20,000 mile service interval. The turbo blew but as they were prone to that anyway Renault replaced it under warranty and got me a rental Clio at a very favourable rate for the two weeks it took for the work to be done (I guess they had a shortage of turbos!)

My neighbour recently had a scheduled timing belt/tensioners/waterpump changed at a Skoda dealership on his 80k mile 07 Plate Octavia VRS

Two weeks later, the new waterpump packed up "at speed" on the M11, throwing the timing belt off.

Much mess was caused.

Skoda - shipped the car back to Reading for him, checked it out, took one look, said "yep, that waterpump failed. It's our fault, all under warranty, would you mind waiting 2 weeks and driving this brand new Yeti while we ship you a new engine in from the factory"...

2 weeks later, car returned, with brand new engine, including ancillaries. Had an slight issue with aircon leakage which they sent a man out to sort.

Excellent service. Absolutely brilliant.

And all that will do, given our uncertain and often selfish world, is ensure the owner buys another VW/Skoda the next time (or perhaps return after a bad experience with another manufacturer) because they'll know when it's not their fault, the manufacturer will hold up its hand. It's not rocket science. Fair play

Going back to the OP, it has to be said that it's really poor and highly disrespectful of a manufacturer to deny a lifetime loyal 82-year-old fair due process. If I were the CEO/MD, I'd have replaced the engine and given him credit for a new car at cost price and hailed him in company memos as the sort of loyal customer they needed to cultivate and encourage, in what is, such a cut-throat industry.

[Jaf]

Interesting. Used to work for them. Worst garage ever, didn't know anything, sold very questionable cars. Used to borrow tools from the good skoda garage 5 miles away. Suppose they are owned by vw now so it's all changed!

[frenchcarnut]

Interesting. Used to work for them. Worst garage ever, didn't know anything, sold very questionable cars. Used to borrow tools from the good skoda garage 5 miles away. Suppose they are owned by vw now so it's all changed!

It's amazing how perceptions and realities change in such a short space of time. Dare I ask: could any recent British manufacturer have done with Skoda that which VW achieved in a relatively short period? Hmmm. I wonder