C5 Mk3 driver's seat collapsed

[bobins]

Hi, I bought my 2009 C5 in January and have covered about 4K in it so far. Since January the driver's seat cushion/base has sunken down..... and no, i'm not overweight ! The car has done 38k in total. I took it into the local Citroen dealers for a service and pointed out the seat problem and they've agreed it's collapsed and have informed Citroen UK who looked at their photos and description and said it's worn, not collapsed and so wouldn't cover it under the warranty (3 months left to run on the Citroen 3 year warranty). Does anyone know if the mk3 C5 is prone to seat failure in this way ? Anyone done battle with Citroen over this problem before ?

cheers,
Robin

[triumphtoledo]

If your seat has genuinely collapsed; i.e. springs/foam etc has come out, they you have every right to claim on your warranty and expect the costs to be met in full.

Get an independent garage/technician to inspect the seat and write a report. Counter the decision with it and say that you are not happy with Citroen UK's conclusion and that any reasonable person would not expect this on a car of your vehicle's age, price and mileage.

As I deal with technical enquiries for a motor breakdown organisation, I am finding an increasing number of manufacturers are claiming things are worn out, when the part has failed prematurely.

The most recent one I had was the owner of a 2 year-old diesel vehicle that had covered 18,000 miles (not a Citroen) that had suffered from a disintegrating glow plug , which resulted in a damaged exhaust valve. The owner had done everything by the book, including having the car serviced on time at a main dealer (which is not legally required to maintain a warranty). The manufacturer would not honour the claim, on the grounds that the engine/glow plug damage had been caused by 'external factors'. I found this excuse to be not only laughable but also dishonest.

Seems more and more manufacturers are at it...

R

[bobins]

Many thanks for the info triumphtoledo. The reason I was asking was my Citroen garage referred to my seat as being not the worst one they'd seen, but definitely gone. I also recall another post on a forum late last year (might not have been FCF, but needless to say, I can't find it now) where someone had had the same problem and had a struggle with Citroen to get their seat replaced.
If I have to I'll go down the route of getting an independent assessment of the seat, but for now I was going to see if it's a common problem. It's getting to the stage where I'll have to get a small booster cushion for the seat - and I'm 6 foot tall so shouldn't really be needing one !