Look for advice. Car Trouble. Warranty ??

Macker1

Looking for advice on behalf of the wife.

Background......

Her car a 08 Opel Corsa broke down last week. This car was only purchased in Jan09 when had 13k on the clock. THe car now has 22k on the clock and has been driven fairly regular with no issues up till last week.
The car was towed to an Opel main dealer and there they discovered that the clutch had been burned out. This they attributed to human error which came to me as a complete surprise as that car had been working fine. If fact I myself had only driven up and back to Enniskillen the previous week on a grocery trip. During this journey the car had exhibited no issues whatsoever. For it to completely fail less than a week later is puzzling me.
Bottom line is that we got hit with a bill for €850 for the repair costs.

Car is still covered by Opel Manufacturing warranty but this "Human Error is not" :mad:
The warranty from where the car was purchased is only for 3 months ( standard policy it seems for the company)

Do we have any comeback at all at if so with whom. ?
Surely the relatively new car should not develop an issue like this.


Please advise. Any suggestions will be appreciated

Drummerboy08

Get an independant assessment done on the clutch. That will clear up if it was down to driver error or mechanical failure.

Has Opel turned down the claim or the dealer where you bought it from?

BTW, a clutch can be burned out in a matter of minutes if not used right - it could be easily burned out in the week since you drove it. If your wife is heavy on the clutch when parking or in slow traffic, that could have caused it.

Anan1

If the car's an 08, it will still be under factory warranty until 2010. That said, clutches are only covered if the failure is due to a manufacturing fault, as abusive driving can wear a clutch out in no time. When the clutch is removed, it should be clear whether abuse or a manufacturing fault was to blame.

Edit: Drummerboy08 beat me to it!

bazz26

Given that it is a 2008 model and was bought second hand I would take a guess that the car was either an ex-hire car or possibly one of those cars used by Opel when they had that "test drive an Opel for free" promotion a year or two ago. This would lead me to think that the car could have been driven hard prior to the OP owning it, tourists not used to a clutch or someone renting the car and driving the crap out of it are common enough on ex hire cars.

Macker1

Just to clarify the car has been repaired at a cost of €850. We really had no choice as the car needed to be back on the road asap. My wife would be lost without it (not much of a public transport service where we live ) The Opel dealer did state that the issue was a result of human error (riding the clutch) and not mechanical failure.

My wife states that she does not incorrectly use the clutch and from what I have seen that appears to be the case. Obviously we are not aware of the driving habits of the previous owner and the Opel Dealer stated this as well. I'm just surprised that it could totally burn out and failure given that it was fine up to a few days previously.

The company that sold her the car in Jan09 have denied any responsibility stating that the car would have been given a full check-up prior to it being sold.

Just to mention my wife has driven other cars in the last few years and never had any clutch problems which would indicate to me that her driving style has not contributed to this particular issue.

The way I see it Opel are going to use the human error excuse as a means of avoiding covering the costs.

:mad::mad::mad:

Darsad

€ 850 for a clutch on a corsa I thinks its not the only bit of riding done on that clutch !!

EPM

Darsad wrote: »

€ 850 for a clutch on a corsa I thinks its not the only bit of riding done on that clutch !!

+1

I got a quote of €520 from a main dealer on my Leon and thats being robbed for a VW original part in the process

Macker1

Without the benefit of being a mechanic I have to go on what the invoice says which is as follows...............

Inspection Plate checked and found Clutch gone
Inspection of Disc ( All Burned )

Replaced Clutch Kit and Re-fit Box

Parts

CL Disc cost €122.00
CL Plate cost €99.50
Cylinder cost €139.00


Above plus labour of €388.50 comes in at €749 ex VAT which adds another €101


All in All a repair bill which is the last thing I needed at this or any other time :mad:

-Chris-

+1 on the independent assessor - they'll tell you pretty quickly if you have any kind of recourse to Opel/the dealer, and they'll provide you with the evidence required to do it.

Were your old parts kept or returned to you? Will there be something for an assessor to view?

Hellrazer

That sounds expensive tbh.

Just have a flyer in my hand here from the "Opel Trade club" and according to that a Corsa clutch from 01-06 is €158.94 + vat.Now that model probably has an ordinary release bearing where yours has the bearing built on to the cylinder.
Given that yours is a 08 Id imagine the price would probably be only about 100 more taking into account the Cylinder price and / or trade discount.


If it was me Id get a second quote from another Opel dealer.

By the way we dont cover clutches under warranty and I dont think most main dealers will either unless its a proven manufacturing fault.Independant assessor should be able to tell you.

I remember when I was in another main dealer we got a spate of clutches in certain models.Turned out they were all ex hire cars and the people that hired them(Americans usually) couldnt properly drive cars with a clutch and were burning them out like mad.
See if you can find out if it was an ex hire drive and you might have some comeback.

Macker1 wrote: »

CL Disc cost €122.00
CL Plate cost €99.50
Cylinder cost €139.00


Above plus labour of €388.50 comes in at €749 ex VAT which adds another €101

McSpud

Hellrazer wrote: »

I remember when I was in another main dealer we got a spate of clutches in certain models.Turned out they were all ex hire cars and the people that hired them(Americans usually) couldnt properly drive cars with a clutch and were burning them out like mad.

Hire car companies should be loading cost of americans hiring cars. Maybe they could use it as selling point for cars as in "no americans have used this car!"

E39MSport

I wouldn't say you have much of a case. Bit late now but when buying a used manual car, pull up the handbrake, stick it into 5th and try to pull away with lots of welly. The clutch will slip if its wearing (a mechanic can confirm or reject this method)

Macker1

I will try my best to keep this short and not mention company names in the interest of being fair.


Wife bought a 08 Opel Corsa in January this year. As one would expect the car was very nice and in excellent condition. The standard warranty from this Motor Dealer is 3 months, in addition the manufacturers warranty still had 2 years remaining.

Now the issues.........

At the end of April the car broker down and had to be towed to Opel Main dealer. The issue was that the clutch had burned out. Despite talking with Opel we ended up having to shell out €900 approx :eek: to rectify the issue. Opel stated that they would not cover the repair as it was not deemed to be a manaufacturing defect but down to driver abuse. The Motor Dealer that the car was bought from 4 months earlier didn't really want to know so we had to take the pain.

Note: The wife has been driving for nearly two years and never had any clutch trouble in her previous cars

A month later my wife had a reason to bring car back to the Opel dealer. During the quick inspection they asked if the car had been in a crash as it would appear that there had been respraying done on the bodywork. My wife of course answered no. Dealer said that anyone working in the motor game would be able to recognize that repair work had indeed taken place. This of course was a shock to both the wife and myself given that at no time was this mentioned when the car was purchased.

We rang the company that the car was bought from and they claimed to have no knowledge of any repair/respraying. Given the other issue with the clutch I really am concerned that this car may have a history that is not all together kosha. If fact it may well be the case that it was poorly driven, involved in a crash and after being repaired has been sold on to us.

I stated today to this company that no matter what they claim to be aware of it doesn't absolve them of their responsibility to ensure that the cars they sell have no issues. Given the misfortune that we have had with the car in the 5 months to say we are disappointed is an understatement. To be fair the service manager suggested that we bring the car up so they can have a look which will be done tomorrow.

Opel Dealer said that they would not be able to understand if the company the sold the vehicle would not spot the issues given that their in the motor trade.

Looking for opinions..........

What should I expect ???
Is it fair to look for compensation for the clutch repair given this latest development.
Can I depend on the car company to be impartial in their inspection given that if could potenially expose them as been negligent
If I feel that they haven't been truthful should I get an independent inspection done at a cost to the car company to fully determine the cars repair history / condition.


All comments welcomed

kona

The clutch story has nothing to do with it, they burn out , how quick depends on how the driver uses it.

My advice would get a RAC or a AA check done. This will give you a respected 3rd party opinion.

mick.fr

Well to break a clutch on a almost new car the driver would have had to do some seriously hard drifting etc
I don't buy what they said.

Opel seem to have a fair bit of issues lately, I have seen a 08 today in Fitwilliam Street Lwr, being towed away, there was signs on all the windows, it was written "NO BRAKES".
Pretty scarry.

Anyway if I were you I would call Opel Ireland and seek for a refund of the 900 quids unless they can prove the clutch died because of abuse.

mick.fr

FearDark wrote: »

Hey OP, why dont you try that again and maybe try to construct your question in a way that we're actually able to understand?

I am not OP, mod merged threads, but obviously it did not went very well...:D

L-M

mick.fr wrote: »

I am not OP, mod merged threads, but obviously it did not went very well...:D

I don't know what happened there, anywho, merged again and cleaned up.

bazz26

At this stage I'd get an independant assessor to give the car a full examination, this should determin whether the crash repair was serious or just cosmetic. An independant assessor's report might also shed some light on the clutch too.

Not that it makes much difference but I'm still of the opinion that your car is an ex rental car that seems to have had a hard life prior to you purchasing it.