To wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

[EricNorthmansFangbanger]

We bought our very first car a week ago, a Renault Megané Scenic automatic. Apart from the window screen cracking (!) after we'd driven it home, all appeared to be fine until yesterday. A fault is coming up on the dashboard saying check gearbox and then electronic fault. The car feels as though it is stuck in gear. When it did it yesterday, I put the car into park whilst at the lights and back into drive. This appeared to clear the problem. Today we drove to a retail park some 15 miles away from home. When we started our return journey the fault came up again. It seemed to be able to shift itself back in gear after a minute or two but did it a few more times in the journey.

I've had a look online and it appears to potentially be a common (expensive) problem. The searches I carried out before we bought the car didn't throw this problem up and I've just got a sinking feeling in my tummy about it all. We have some warrenty from the dealer where we bought it from, but this only covers gearbox/engine faults plus major mechanical faults. I'm hoping that if there is something wrong, the warrenty will cover it, as we can't really afford for anything major to be wrong. I know nothing about cars (neither does DH) and I'm reluctant to ask my dad as I know I'll just get the whole 'well I told you not to get an automatic licence/car etc etc etc.

AIBU to wonder if anyone here has had this particular car or problem before? I'm planning on ringing a local garage tomorrow morning that has plenty of good reviews, but I can't help working myself up in a tizzy right now

take it back!!!

I would be straight back to the garage. Don't take it anywhere else, they need to sort this for you.

After only a week, you should be entitled to reject the car I think. Check out this and similar for advice: www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/the-second-hand--car-i-bought-has-a-problem-what-are-my-rights/.

Good luck!

Thank you for the replies.

I have to email the dealer tomorrow with a copy of the invoice for the replacement window screen. He offered to pay £65 towards the replacement, as it happened the day we got it so I need him to repay me. He's just going to love it when I ring up tomorrow about this issue. Theh wanted to do an MOT on the car before we took it away, but in the ad for the car it stated that there was 12 months MOT already on it. We (DH & I) had already discussed about the car between ourselves and had agreed that if it drove well and there were no problems we could see then we were happy to take the car there and then. The dealer brought up the MOT thing on the day we went to view. They were fine with us taking the car without them doing an MOT on it, but there are a load of things not covered by the place we bought it from. Do you think I could ask for them to come and collect the car? The place we bought from is not local and requires driving via the motorway. I've only driven on it the once when we brought the car back and I was with DH. Apparently the company travel to a city near by where we live a couple of times a week, so would this be an unreasonable request?

This sounds very much like the same thing that happened to me a few months back on my Citroen C3. The automatic gearbox failed, had the same type of warnings come up, including being able to drive it again after the 'computer' had reset the gearbox. Unfortunately it was a uneconomical repair and I had to scrap the car. I'd MOT'd my car the week before the problems started and nothing showed up.
As you have a warranty and have only had it a week, I'd either ask the garage to pick it up or if you have AA cover ask them to tow it back to the garage/dealer as it's unsafe to drive. Under the sale of goods act it's 'not fit for use' so you should get your money back! Good luck!!

Under the Sale of Goods act, goods (in this case, the car) need to be fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time. This car is neither, take it back and demand it be fixed.

I'm quite gutted, as I do quite like the car and I'm getting used to the size of it, but the more I'm reading via the internet the more it seems that this will simply be a money pit.

I will contact the dealer tomorrow and speak with him regarding this, though I think both DH & I are thinking that it may be worth just getting a refund. I can't imagine that the dealer is going to take this too well to be honest, but hey ho.

Renault, Citroen, Alfa Romeo ... All of these cars are notorious for problems.

Dealers say 12 months MOT with a view to putting it through before you buy. Why you wouldn't let them is beyond me. An MOT won't flag up all problems, but it may indicate some.

With hindsight Gobby, yes we should have just let them do the MOT, but we really needed the car straight away and with the place not being local, we were reliant on MIL to take us to view the car in the first place. It is a mistake that I certainly wouldn't make again.

Well it's a Renault, I can almost guarantee it will be an expensive fix, from experience there isn't a fault on a scenic or Megane that costs less than £500 to sort out, I've had 2 scenics 1 Megane and a Citroen c3 and I have vowed never to buy a French car ever again. The c3 had so many electrical problems we called it Christine as it appeared to be possessed, the lights would go on and off randomly whilst driving, the central locking would lock and unlock itself, so if you left it locked it would often be unlocked when you got back. The Megane I had needed a new key which cost me £350, its a piece of plastic with a chip in it which costs pence to make. I won't even start on the problems we had with the scenics.
I only buy German or Japanese cars these days.

I've contacted the dealer. They have told me it is my responsibility to get it to them and I am really not happy to drive it with the way it was driving last night. The two big jolts it gave were enough to put me off. The other option they gave me was to have a diagnostic test at a local garage here and they will cover the cost of the repair, providing it is a reasonable. They will not cover the cost of the diagnostic test (£45), as they have a diagnostic machine there. Going off the experience I had with them after the screen cracked, they first offered to cover half of the cost to replace the screen if the window man they used did it, which was a total of £125. The crack was well over a foot long and impeded my vision in driving the vehicle. The cheapest I could find locally was £170, of which the dealer agreed to pay £65 after first pushing for me to drive the car back to them, as they could get it cheaper.

The man I spoke to at the dealer today is the sales manager, who I've never spoken to before and he has already told me that my statuary right is to have the vehicle repaired by them and that's the best that they can do. If it becomes uneconomical to them to repair the fault, then he would explore other avenues. Reading on the Renault forums about this fault, it doesn't always throw up a code so we could pay £45 for literally nothing. I really don't know what to do and the man at the dealer is seemingly unwilling to budge.

We have just had exactly the same fault with our Megane, also an automatic grand Scenic.
It's the EM valve....don't know exactly what it does, but it is a fault common with that automatic gear box [or so my DH says after internet research could bore for England on the subject]. It has just cost £600 at the local dealer....some places charge much more!
If your warranty covers the gearbox you should be OK, it is a gear box problem as the valve is in the gearbox. Make sure you ask for a warrenty on that work as they have been known to go wrong again....our dealer gave a 1 year parts and labour guarentee on the repair.
You should be OK driving it ....when it does that "clonk" thing, it goes into "limp mode", so pull over and switch off. When you restart the engine it will have reset itself, until next time.
BTW, the MOT wouldn't have tested for this, so unless it did it during a test drive, you couldn't have known about it until it was too late.

You shouldn't need the warranty in this case as it's clear that a substantial fault has developed very soon after purchase and so falls under SOGA although you seem to have a dealer that sounds keen to resolve the issue so that's a good start. You have to give them 3 attempts to fix it before rejection but to be honest I would say that you are in for a world of hurt in the long term with an auto Megane Senic. The windscreen (not window screen) I guess is just unfortunate as these things happen but they seem keen to help with that also which says a lot of positives about their customer service.

I can't believe I got that wrong. Thank you for pointing that out, as I would have carried on saying that instead of windscreen

I'm going to get the diagnostic run on it tomorrow at a local garage. They specialise in automatics, so I'll see what they say. The warranty they've given will only last for 3 months from purchase, I'm not sure exactly how keen they will be on putting extra warranty on top of that, but I will keep that in mind when I speak to them.

Here's my advice. Sell it, take it back, get rid of it!

I loved the size and space of my grand, but fuck me it was beyond unreliable. German or Japanese here from now on! Or fords, at least when they break it's cheap enough to fix!

Renaults are notorious for this. The Megane has been named most unreliable family car in a few different articles.
www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-1687080/Renault-Megane-tops-MOT-failure-league.html

Sorry that this has happened to you the first time you have bought a car. I would get rid of it ASAP if possible.
When buying again if you don't have a car expert in the family that you can go to for advice, sources like Which can be really helpful in deciding which makes and models perform well.
Toyotas and Hondas always seem to top the most reliable polls but are out of a lot of people's price bracket.
Like manchesterhistorygirl says Fords are a good bet as at least the parts are really cheap when bits need replacing, and they are more reliable than the Renaults/citreons etc..

There is a problem with the solenoid value, according to the diagnostic report I paid for. The dealer won't let the local garage do it, as theyre charging £470 and apparently the dealer can do it for £300, but I will have to drive the vr back to them.

I informed the dealer this morning via phone call that I wanted to return the car for a full refund under SOGA. He told me that the onus is on me to allow them the chance to repair the car. He told me that if I took them to court for example (I never mentioned court at all) and the dealer told them that they had offered to repair the vehicle but I had refused, then we would lose. So basically it is either let them repair the car or, by the sounds, take them to court for a refund. I have lost faith in the car, driving the car home from the local garage the fault occured again 'check gear box' sounded like it was stuck in gear and a big jolt followed by 'electronic fault'. The car drives but I'm not looking forward to having to drive it on the motorway at all.

You do not need to allow them the chance to repair since its only been a week. When you go print off a copy of the sale of goods act and hi light the relevant part that within a reasonable time and the suggested is 3-4 weeks you have the right to reject the goods. This onky applies however if you paid cash for the car if you bought on hp its slightly different.

Oh. And please don't tell us the vendor wrote "sold as seen" on any of the sales paperwork? This would be their get-out-of-jail-free card. I guess they didn't or they wouldn't be engaging with you at all re repairs! Good luck!

If you're sure the SOGA can get you a refund, stick to your guns. Before going on the journey with the car, think about getting roadside assistance that says it will take you and car where you want to go if you break down. At the first sign of trouble, call them out and get the car taken by recovery truck to the garage. Hopefully if that happens, you will embarrass them enough to get some action.