How long is reasonable to take diagnosing a fault

whatnext

Bought my first ever new car last year 161, 14 months ago. 3 weeks ago it cut out on my while approaching a junction. Wouldn't restart.

I got it towed to the dealer it was bought from, as being a new car and having been recently serviced it's under warranty.

To date they have been unable to give me an update apart from the fault "appears" to be electrical. No courtesy car, only once returned a call. I have phoned daily and stay on hold now.

They don't know when they will be able to find the fault or when I will have the car back. They haven't even asked what happened or what I was doing on the lead up to the issue.

I feel like they are taking the p!ss at this stage. 3 weeks and they don't know what's wrong??

As far as I can see it's like they are hoping I'll forget about it. If 3 weeks is reasonable when does it start to become unreadable?

I have lost my cool with them twice already. The smart ass comments really wind me up, it's complex, there are so many electrical components to be checked, it will take as long as it takes to find the fault, etc.

My life is on hold, I live in a rural area. If the busses were running it would be a 4 mile walk to get one to work.

Is there a period that they should say we can't fix it? As far as I can see the warranty is useless without a time limit.

Any advice for me?

Esel

Solicitor's letter?

I would be camping in their showroom, tbh.

.........

was it a VWF Golf by any chance ?

whatnext

......... wrote: »

was it a VWF Golf by any chance ?

No, not a Golf.

I didn't want to go into too much detail and slate the company on a public forum in case it was me that's being unreasonable.

mytime

Ring the manufacturer directly. Cut out the garage. All manufacturers will have a customer service department. They'll get on to the garage and should dramatically speed things up.

whatnext

mytime wrote: »

Ring the manufacturer directly. Cut out the garage. All manufacturers will have a customer service department. They'll get on to the garage and should dramatically speed things up.

Tried that. Stone walled. Same guff about these things take time. They gave me the name of the after sales manager in the garage and assured me he was at the top of his game. They deflected every question I asked eg:
What if it takes 3 months to fix? What then? REPLY: did they say it would take 3 months?
Me: no, but what if it does.
REPLY: I'm sure it won't take that long.
Etc etc

I'm paraphrasing above.

biko

Your rights are

• Repair
• Replace
• Refund

Time to start insisting on next steps perhaps.
Did you get a loaner car? If not then insist on that from now on.

dev100

If the car is under warranty and you haven't drove it into the sea and it's not full of water or diesel (put in washed or nasty diesel) or something stupid that you may have done well I'd be asking for a loan of a car until problem is sorted .

Sometimes with electrics it can be hard diagnosed as its not like years ago everything was mechanical and fixable and easier to fault find . My mate has a focus sitting in the garage and thing won't start for love nor money and there's been several computers and mechanics looking at it . It's down now to basic old school fault finding so these things can take time unfortunately

whatnext

biko wrote: »

Your rights are

• Repair
• Replace
• Refund

Time to start insisting on next steps perhaps.
Did you get a loaner car? If not then insist on that from now on.

No courtesy car. Going to have to escalate, my major issue is my lack of ability to keep calm. Been trying to be pleasant and understanding, but it's getting me nowhere.

I'm going to get a lift up there on Monday but being honest it's like talking to the wall. But if they can't even keep a promise to return a call it's hard to put weight on anything they say.

martinr5232

Why did you not get a loan car ?? Do you not have fully comp insurance or did they not offer one ??

As to your original question no it shouldnt take three weeks to repair if they knew what they were doing they should have answers in a day or two maybe not repaired due to availability of parts but should know what is wrong.

SBPhoto

At the very least i would insist on a courtesy car while yours is been fixed, this is the least the Dealer should do.

whatnext

dev100 wrote: »

If the car is under warranty and you haven't drove it into the sea and it's not full of water or diesel (put in washed or nasty diesel) or something stupid that you may have done well I'd be asking for a loan of a car until problem is sorted .

Sometimes with electrics it can be hard diagnosed as its not like years ago everything was mechanical and fixable and easier to fault find . My mate has a focus sitting in the garage and thing won't start for love nor money and there's been several computers and mechanics looking at it . It's down now to basic old school fault finding so these things can take time unfortunately

This is the line I'm being given. But things are snowballing for me, I've not worked for 3 weeks, if I knew it would have been this long I'd have hired a car, but now funds are getting tight.

I can't even be sure the car has been looked at yet. In my opinion you'd expect someone to at least ask what I was doing when it died?

I've asked them to get me a car but they insist they have none available.

Toyotafanboi

Hyundai?

3 weeks is pushing on. Sometimes dealers can struggle to track down issues and it can take days/ weeks in some instances and when these do happen they have to take care of you. Is the car in with the same dealer now that you bought it from?

If at the 3 week mark they don't have any leads/ timeframe, they need to be looking at contacting someone who can. Honestly it sounds like a difficult repair and as such has fallen by the wayside in the workshop.

You have no real likelihood of a refund or replacement at 14 months into ownership. You need to ask for a replacement vehicle from the dealer and if the dealer declines, ask for one from the manufacturer. That is a reasonable expectation from the minute your car started to give trouble. A courtesy car will also get your car fixed faster as it is costing the dealer or manufacturer a couple of hundred quid a week to keep you mobile so they will want you back in your old car as soon as possible.

No offence, you've been very patient and the dealer has probably walked on you a little bit by the sounds of things. You need to make a lot of noise on Monday. Request a courtesy vehicle, that will solve all of your issues and it's a reasonable request so push hard for it. Turn up at the dealer If possible, don't just ring in as it's too easy to fob off or dodge a phone call. If you go in looking for refunds or an exchange for another car you won't be taken seriously.

bucketybuck

If we had a vehicle in our workshop for 3 weeks there would be ****ing war.

If it has been three weeks and they can't find the fault there are two realistic possibilities, either its some genuinely random never before seen fault, or they just aren't capable of carrying out the correct diagnostic procedures. As somebody who has worked in dealers for a long time my gut tells me that its the latter.

The lack of communication is a red flag, if this was a competent garage facing a genuine problem they would just tell you that, they would tell you what is happening and what they have done so far. If they are telling you nothing its because they know nothing.

Its worth remembering that not all dealers are the same, any garage is only as good as its mechanics and there are a lot of dealers out there that don't have good auto electricians or lads who can properly check can bus wiring. They could have an electrical fault for 6 months and not find the cause, whereas a good lad could work through the steps and find it in a day.

Anyway, to answer your question, 3 weeks is far from reasonable and I would be raising hell in your shoes. When you speak to them make sure that not only they tell you what they are going to do, but what they have done so far. What did they do that took 3 weeks?

bazz26

OP, you need to go into the garage in person and speak with the service manager. Explain to him/her what you stated on here including what they have done so far, what they plan to do next, the inconvenience of not having a car for 3 weeks and the lack of communication with you on all this up to this point. If you get no joy with the service manager then take it up the food chain - dealer principal/general manager then the Irish distributor if necessary.

The very minimum they should be doing is providing you with a courtesy car while yours is in their garage. To be fair some problems can take time to troubleshoot and resolve but there is no excuse for not keeping the customer regularly updated or fobbing them off when they ring for one.