to be very angry that the door of our 3 year old car fell off!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Well, it didn't completely fall off but it came of its roller mechanism- it's a Mazda 5 which is a family car that has rear sliding doors (like van doors IYSWIM). One of the doors completely came off it's mechanism and was hanging at an angle and couldn't be closed properly. It also damaged a neighbouring panel. We have 2 DS's under 4 years old and they had to sit in the back with the door like that until we got it back home! We then took it to our local Mazda dealer and they charged us nearly £500 to fix it!!!!!! We were about 2 months out of our warranty and they refused to extend it out of goodwill even though I said that it was frankly ridiculous that the door of a 3 year old car falls off its hinges.

AIBU to think this is crazy that the door fell off the hinges? I kept getting fobbed off, I eventually called customer services and have logged a complaint but I'm not holding my breath...

Get on to someone like What Car if you don't get any joy. They have a consumer advice page and might be interested in featuring your problem.

We didn't take a photo of it, I wish I had now! I might threaten to take it further if they keep ignoring me.

YANBU but its outside its warranty.

Have to say though, I LOVE Mazdas.... well I don't like everything that isn't directly related to driving, our windows ceased to close, the back doors got stuck on lock, the only way in or out of ours was though the front windows (we got rid when I fell pregnant) BUT it had done nearly 200,000 miles happily with no breakdowns and had pop up eyes headlights which at the time I thought were rather cool.

Not sure what the legalities are, but YANBU... even though I miss my Mazda.

If the time limit has expired on a warranty then you have no claim under the warranty. However, if you can show that the car door was not of satisfactory quality at the time of sale, for example, they were not as durable as it is reasonable to expect, then you may have a claim against the trader or finance company (if applicable) for compensation under the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

In my case a door lock broke on my VW Golf after three years of purchase, just after the warranty had ended. I asked VW for compensation under the Sale of Goods Act stating that the lock should have reasonably lasted more than 2 years. In the end VW covered 60% of the cost of repair.

Consumer Direct should be able to advise what to write: goo.gl/jhu3N

Good luck

The Consumer Direct helpline can be found at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk