Car related

[Ispini]

Hi I am absolutely flummoxed by this. Our nearly 2 year old car has a worn clutch. We took it to the dealer quite annoyed that it had worn so quickly. We got a call this morn to say that the clutch was going to cost £1600 to replace!! Apparently it’s not under warranty because the warranty was considered effective from the time it was on the showroom floor. So we drove a brand new car off the showroom at the end of Feb 2017 only to be told today the warranty has expired. Should we fight this or is this normal practice?

I have no idea, but might they argue that you have worn the clutch through miss-use?

The clutch has gone in 2 years?! Blimey!

How many miles have you done?

How many miles have you done and under what conditions? Often items subject to wear and tear like a clutch are not covered. I would have expected a warranty to be live from first registered owner.

And normally you get the option to extend towards the expiry date.

Need more info. Date it was registered with DVLA (on v5)) what make model, how many miles.

Warranty should be from date of purchase..

Just looked at the warranty for my new car, clutch isn't covered as its considered a wear and tear item. It also says it should be ok for a minimum of 60,000 miles or fault is likely due to driving error.....

Clutches are consumables and are not generally covered under warranty as by their nature they wear out- like tires

Seems completely nonsensical to me surely the warranty is for the benefit of the customer not the the manufacturer. I would go to citizens advice and ask their opinion. I would also consider going direct to the manufacturer to ask if this is the case.

Is it a vauxhall?

Hi thanks for all the replies. There’s 22000 on the clock and it has mainly been driven by me on decent roads and very carefully! It’s a Hyundai. Never again!! I just can’t believe the warranty is effective while the car is in a showroom. We will have to investigate further.

A warranty co tried to avoid replacing a major part on my OH’s engine because it was “worn, not broken” that bit of wear caused considerable damage to other parts of the car which cost thousands to repair a few months later. They only paid up once he began small claims proceedings.

I had to have a new clutch in my Hyundai i30 when it was just out of warranty last year. It had done 20k miles. The clutch and fitting only cost about £250-£300 though!

That's very early for a clutch to wear out without either abuse or a fault. The former is not going to be covered by warranty, but the latter may be hard work to prove.

Purple Pingu!!! Are you serious? That would be a lot more doable. We are getting a quote from a local garage this afternoon hopefully.

Definitely no more than £300! I'm in South Yorkshire if area makes a difference to the price.

As soon as I had the clutch replaced I traded it in for a different car. The trust had gone with it once it had cost me so much money on something that I didn't think should have gone at that age/mileage.

I've never had a worn-out clutch but there are certain driving techniques that cause them to wear out early, and I've heard this is why the makers try to exclude warranty claims.

If there's a fault in the car design you would expect to find hundreds of user comments on the owner websites.

p.s.

rather than accept the dealer's price, ask around. Depending on the car some fast-fit places might do it.