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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To take this further with car company even though I'm out of warranty period?

72 replies

ICantThinkOfANameSorry · 18/02/2019 13:58

I have a 3 year old car. It is a very well known and supposedly good make.

So far it has only done 18,000 miles and I have never had an accident or any form of bump in it.

Last week, my airbag light came on and my horn stopped working. I now know from the local garage that a part has gone in the steering wheel and my airbag is likely to not inflate in an accident because of it. He also told me he would not expect to see this in a car this age as it's quite a major fault.

My car is one month outside it's warranty. I called them and explained the situation and what the garage had said. They were beyond unhelpful and just said its outside of warranty they will not do anything, they didn't ask anything further or offer any form of explanation as to how this could happen.

I know it's outside warranty technically and car dealers are notorious for being arseholes but AIBU to take this complaint further? Its a practically new car which has hardly done any miles that is now potentially dangerous to drive / life threatening if I were to have an accident and whilst it isn't a Lamborghini, it wasn't 'cheap' either.

I'm not usually one to complain but I think this is so wrong (and bloody annoying!).

OP posts:

Insomnibrat · 18/02/2019 18:23

Are you the first owner from new? That is? Is the garage you bought the car from the original supply I dealer, are we talking manufacturers 3yr warranty?

I have worked in the motor trade for 20yrs, you should be knocking on the service manager's door for a (majority) 'goodwill contribution'.

Insomnibrat · 18/02/2019 18:27

A warranty item shouldn't be invalidated by having servicing done elsewhere unless that servicing done at another garage can be proven to have had a negative effect on the part which has failed, so in this case, no.

This is not a serviceable item and will not have been affected by say having your oil filter changed by another garage.

However, you might find your dealership may have had a greater loyalty to you in the way of potential goodwill contributions had you stuck with them for any extra work.

Original poster

ICantThinkOfANameSorry · 18/02/2019 18:27

Insomnibrat yes I am the first and only owner. The car was purchased from brand new directly from Audi. I ordered it and had to wait for it to be made and shipped over.

It has never had a repair or been in a garage other than for services and MOT. Before the service I rang Audi as I wasn't happy with the prices they charge for servicing and was told I can take it elsewhere so long as any parts required are genuine Audi parts and it wouldn't affect my warranty. Of course, the warranty has now expired now in any event.

OP posts:

howtotrainyourdragqueen · 18/02/2019 18:30

It's not fit for purpose.

The law covers this in the fact that whilst a warranty might be for a period of time it should very much last longer

Google to see if anyone has had this problem, it maybe a common fault.
I would definitely go to Audi UK with this. Someone could have driven 59000 miles in 2 years and they would cover it, 18000 is fuck all mileage.

I had an issue with Honda on a car out of warranty but it was a common fault that they had recalled on cars within warranty. They gave me 75% of the cost of repair. A friend had a power steering failure on a just over 3 year old Clio and Renault honoured the majority of the repair cost as it had done v low mileage

cupofteaandcake · 18/02/2019 18:31

I had a very similar situation. My airbag light came on and the steering was making a strange noise. Like you it was literally days out of warranty. They refused to honour anything and told me that the whole steering column needed to be replaced. I called the manufacturer direct and they did give me some money in 'compensation', not much though.

Anyway, a few months later I received a recall notice for the airbag coming on and something to do with the steering. I went back and they checked it out (would have been ok though because the whole steering had been replaced). I complained to the manufacturer and after a bit of wrangling got a refund.

Insomnibrat · 18/02/2019 18:31

Dealerships employ warranty personnel in order to process and keep down the costs of their warranty claims.
They might well take the stance that you had it serviced elsewhere so why should they honour a goodwill contribution?
On the other hand, you might get somewhere by screaming blue murder and threatening all sorts.

I've seen both yield results.

howtotrainyourdragqueen · 18/02/2019 18:33

There is no requirement to have a car serviced at a dealership to retain warranty. As long as the car is serviced to the appropriate schedule and uses genuine manufacturer parts it's fine

Original poster

ICantThinkOfANameSorry · 18/02/2019 18:51

They might well take the stance that you had it serviced elsewhere so why should they honour a goodwill contribution?

They wouldn't actually admit to this though surely given that their own policy states it's fine to get them done elsewhere so long as certain conditions are met i.e. genuine parts used etc...

And as someone else mentioned upthread, the part that is faulty is not a serviceable part. It's not been touched since they built the car regardless of who did my service.

OP posts:

Notwiththeseknees · 18/02/2019 18:57

That is disgraceful! 18k & 3 years old - that's brand new to me!! My VW Golf was born in 2001 & all airbags fully functioning & my T5, 11 years old & 130k on the clock - airbag light came on after the radio was changed and after telling me I needed a new airbag fitment, it was a faulty connection. I would kick up a real fuss and also go onto the Audi forums & see what they recommend.

BoringPerson · 18/02/2019 19:02

That’s a new car to me too! I would definitely push for the work to be done. I might be happy with a compromise though.

Be polite and VERY persistent. I’d go into the dealership in person and see if that helps.

hoge · 18/02/2019 21:54

They might well take the stance that you had it serviced elsewhere so why should they honour a goodwill contribution?

Where you service the car has no bearing on the expected life span of the clock spring, which is the most important factor.

Onlyjoinedforthisthread · 18/02/2019 22:15

Look on the bright side at least it lasted 3 years, if you'd bought the land rover equivalent it wouldn't have lasted 3 months

CluedoAddict · 18/02/2019 22:38

I would turn up on a busy Saturday morning and advise every potential buyer not to buy from them. My Dad had to do the same with Ford.

His car kept cutting out whilst you were driving even at high speed it was dangerous. They refused to do anything. He was there ten minutes on a busy Saturday morning and funnily enough they agreed to sort his car out.

Original poster

ICantThinkOfANameSorry · 19/02/2019 13:27

I had a response to my email (not started a complaint yet) saying they couldn't help me and they had listed my problem as a 'strange noise in steering wheel' which is actually nothing like what I reported to them at all!

OP posts:

Alsohuman · 19/02/2019 13:30

Start a complaint and out them on Twitter. They'll soon start playing ball.

TheInvestigator · 19/02/2019 13:36

I wonder if anyone else has reported the same issue and it's been recorded as "strange noise in the steering wheel"...

hoge · 19/02/2019 13:41

Have your car recovered to the dealership. Get it looked at there. They won't take your word for any fault they need to diagnose it themselves. Once they come back to you and tell you it is the clockspring, you take it from there. Again I can't say how important legal help will be here, you need someone to argue the case for the lifetime of the part not being as expected.

ilikefastcars · 19/02/2019 22:53

*They might well take the stance that you had it serviced elsewhere so why should they honour a goodwill contribution?

They wouldn't actually admit to this though surely given that their own policy states it's fine to get them done elsewhere so long as certain conditions are met i.e. genuine parts used etc...*

This isn't their policy Op, it's the law!
Your warranty would be valid so long as you service your car in accordance with the manufacturer standard and use original or equivalent quality parts.

However your warranty has expired, there does have to be a cut off somewhere, and if your MOT was due/done 3 months ago then you are 3 months out of warranty not one.

The garage are unlikely to do this for free as they cannot recover their costs from the manufacturer.

JazzyBBG · 19/02/2019 23:02

I had a similar issue with BMW. Car also just out of warranty. I said I don't care do you think it's acceptable for a car that costs £x to be unsafe after 3 years? Luckily the dealer referred it back to BMW who agreed to pay. Ask to see the Dealer Principal.

CanuckBC · 19/02/2019 23:04

I would take it to the parent company, not the dealership. It is shit that it has gone when it normally wouldn’t. I would google for any other people having issue to see if it’s a “known” issue to happen at this time.

Taking it to the parent company would maybe have better results as they have the overall safety of the vehicle at hand.

Random18 · 19/02/2019 23:24

We had an issue a number of years ago when our car was just out of warranty. We googled it (got to love the internet) and discovered that it was a know fault with the car.
Whilst they did not cover the whole cost we did mange to get them to contribute 40%. That was going to manufacturer rather than dealership.

Stupomax · 20/02/2019 01:56

We had an issue with a Nissan - diagnosed by a non-Nissan dealer before the warranty expired but the Nissan dealer was too busy to see it till after the warranty had expired, and refused to repair under warranty.

Cost us $2300.

Complained to head office. Complained to the dealer. Complained everywhere. Nothing.

Don't buy Nissans any more.

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