Catch 22 Citroen

[Scuttler]

I'm not sure what you're complaining about. This is perfectly normal for Citroens and Renaults.

At my last company a couple of guys had Lagunas and C5s. They spent more time being fixed than they did on the road!

Anyway; it seems to me that the best way to to complain is to start at the top as shit tends to flow downhill.

The head of aftermarket sales and service in the UK is (I believe) Jose Antonio Lopez. The headquarters are at 221, Bath Road, Slough, Berks, SL1 4BA. Copying France in on correspondance at this stage is unlikely to make much difference and will simply cost you more in terms of postage.

A strongly worded letter should get things moving and don't forget to send it recorded delivery.......complaint letters have a way of getting lost in the post far more often than requests for quotations, bill payments and compliments!

[Anemone]

Originally Posted by Scuttler

I'm not sure what you're complaining about. This is perfectly normal for Citroens and Renaults.

True, true.

I have a Megane.......one electrical gismo curled up and died the first time I drove it. Ive had the sunroof motor and the handbrake replaced, and sometimes when I put my foot on the clutch or brake the radio cuts out for a second! Marvellous.

Nice to drive though.

[Bantam]

Everyone's probably sick of hearing about the issues I had with my Peugeot 407 (a C5 in a different skin).

I had a similar issue to you where the ball joints failed at both sides, and had to have new bearings (along with a raft of other issues).

Peugeot UK were just useless, totally unhelpful and just outsourced their customer care to some automated call centre who knew sod all. Some of the e-mails I got from Peugeot were actually quite hilarious as they knew nothing about the car or anything about Peugeot's stuff.

I ended up getting rid of the car (05 plate) as it was getting unreliable. However, before I did, I sent them a parting shot across the bow and reported a whole load of issues to VOSA who are following up on the ball joint failure because it was so serious (and common place) so they may force a recall.

That had been my 6th Peugeot in a row, but never never again. I now have a Nissan Pathfinder and my wife's 306 is soon to be replaced by an Audi A3

Good luck - you'll need it!

[Sparky750]

Originally Posted by Bantam

Everyone's probably sick of hearing about the issues I had with my Peugeot 407 (a C5 in a different skin).

I had a similar issue to you where the ball joints failed at both sides, and had to have new bearings (along with a raft of other issues).

Peugeot UK were just useless, totally unhelpful and just outsourced their customer care to some automated call centre who knew sod all. Some of the e-mails I got from Peugeot were actually quite hilarious as they knew nothing about the car or anything about Peugeot's stuff.

I ended up getting rid of the car (05 plate) as it was getting unreliable. However, before I did, I sent them a parting shot across the bow and reported a whole load of issues to VOSA who are following up on the ball joint failure because it was so serious (and common place) so they may force a recall.

That had been my 6th Peugeot in a row, but never never again. I now have a Nissan Pathfinder and my wife's 306 is soon to be replaced by an Audi A3

Good luck - you'll need it!

Ahh the pathfinder a true mans car for real men

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Sparky750

Ahh the pathfinder a true mans car for real men

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not! I think you probably are, but I don't care

It's a strange car - It looks like a Tonka Toy, but drives quite nicely actually, and handles surprisingly well for a massive car. It's economical, but I didn't buy it for that - it tows things lovely, you can fit shedloads of dive gear in it (4 sets of twins plus associated paraphenalia without any issue) because it's a 4x4 estate - and the seats pop up out of the floor at the back so you can get 7 people in it when you don't need shedloads of luggage. A true multi-purpose vehicle. Oh - and I can pop a rope round the towbar, nip it into low ratio and pull out tree stumps (or boats up slipways etc..)

The other thing I'm impressed with is the customer service at Nissan. I enquired as to the availability of an iPod connector for the factory fit radio. They said because the head unit is already a Double-DIN 6-disc changer there is no aux or changer input, so they're unable to provide a connector because there's nowhere to connect it.
So I email them back saying 'Cool. Understood. So if I want to change the head unit (it's a standard double DIN fitment), how can I get it out, and do you have any other nuggets of useful information?'
And they reply with a 'We're not overtly technical, however, you may find the attached useful'. Attached were 10 PDF files which contained full schematic and documentation on how to remove the part of the dashboard, how to remove the stereo, how to connect in the in-built microphone yada yada yada. Just awesome.

And it's definitely not a chelsea tractor - it's far too agricultural for that - and it never gets used for the school run - it's used for my work

[Sparky750]

Originally Posted by Bantam

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not! I think you probably are, but I don't care

It's a strange car - It looks like a Tonka Toy, but drives quite nicely actually, and handles surprisingly well for a massive car. It's economical, but I didn't buy it for that - it tows things lovely, you can fit shedloads of dive gear in it (4 sets of twins plus associated paraphenalia without any issue) because it's a 4x4 estate - and the seats pop up out of the floor at the back so you can get 7 people in it when you don't need shedloads of luggage. A true multi-purpose vehicle. Oh - and I can pop a rope round the towbar, nip it into low ratio and pull out tree stumps (or boats up slipways etc..)

And it's definitely not a chelsea tractor - it's far too agricultural for that - and it never gets used for the school run - it's used for my work

I drive one myself love it to bits so no i wasn't being sarcastic

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Sparky750

I drive one myself love it to bits so no i wasn't being sarcastic

cool.

[ScubaSue]

Originally Posted by Frankie Price

All advice is welcome.

I'll do you a 'strongly' worded letter Frankie

It's a good job you didn't have the caravan on the back too!

[Frankie Price]

Originally Posted by ScubaSue

I'll do you a 'strongly' worded letter Frankie

It's a good job you didn't have the caravan on the back too!

Now you come to mention it Sue, the trip back from the Plymouth weekend was not without it's problems if you recall. I think both you and Ratty had a bit of stress due to car faults.

[Ding Dang Doo]

Big sign on the car saying how long ago you bought it and what problems you have experienced.

Park it outside the garage you bought it from, and make sure you talk to every 'punter' looking to buy a new car from them.

Saturday and Sunday are generally best for this.

You may find that the garage offers to solve the problem very quickly.

It did in my case. (although it wasn't a Citroen, but funnily enough, another French car, a Renault! I know, they probably are the same...)

Worked for me!

Hope you have better luck getting it sorted than you have, Mr. P!


Pete