Citroen C4 air suspension bag delivery

Slaacer

Hi,

Back in 22/03 I brought my C4 GP for service and to check the rear suspension as I was loosing pressure while driving, and had to come home twice with no suspension in the back as the air bags doing the suspension were loosing too much air and could not keep the rear of the car up anymoe - it's like the chassis was resting on the rear axel.

Was told by Citroen main dealer it will be 3 weeks, after 3 weeks was told it will be longer with talk of earliest mid may or June (problem was from 22nd March).

Eventually I got a call from the Citroen garage last week that the parts had arrive and book the car in then.

In the meantime as I could not use the citroen and it was our only car I had to purchase an old second hand car to get us around (have 2 kids), birthday parties, shopping, etc.. normal and essential trips really.

Now I called the Citroen garage to tell them I am willing to pay for the labour to fix the parts but not the cost of the parts due to:
1-the unacceptable delay on what is an essential part for the normal use of the car and for a car that is still in production (mine is a 08),
2- the cost I incured due to their shortage of parts which immobilised my car, the purchase of a second car due to our only car being out of action for over 2 months.
3- an finally for failing to provide a normal and acceptable service so a good will gesture like this is only fair.

Looking for your views and what I can actually do ?

As of course when I called the garage this morning I was told no I would have to pay as normal and see with Citroen then. Being realistic my chance of getting somewhere with a group like Citroen is very remote.

Had a similar but different problem with Audi years back when they were the Audi garage were charging me almost double what that had told me and when I refused to pay the increase in cost they refuse to release my car, holding it as a leverage for me to pay - not willing to be in that situation again !

Thank you for your reading and your help
G

theblueirish

These airbags were replaced under warranty as they has a massive failure rate.
Have a read through here, there is a thread about it somewhere.

http://c4owners.org/plugins/forum/forum_viewforum.php?29

Slaacer

thank you for your fast response,
do you think it would work as mine is a 08 ? though I had heard of this problem being more "popular" then just me !!!

Although this should add weigh to my claim, but it is still at their discretion if they accept or not ?

theblueirish

Mine is Dec 07, I got mine done about two years ago just after the big freeze that cause the problem. (airbags only rated to -10 or something we had -12).

I think mine was out of warranty but I got garage to contact Citroen, I also contacted them by mail and we came to an agreement that Citroen paid for the replacement airbags and compressor (burnt out) and we all went thirds on labour, Garage, me and Citreon.

Think it cost me about £90 in total.

Slaacer

Brill thank you for your response - this sets a precedent and Citroën will have to accept similar.

Love the car it is fantastic in so many ways but Citroën drop the ball big time here, they helped you along the way which is good now let's see if they'll do the same and put it right for me too !