AIBU to make a complaint about my car?

[Fedupwithcar]

Bought a car from new coming up 3 years ago. Warranty is up later this year.

The car has had multiple issues of failures (mechanical and electrical) all under warranty and has had to visit the main dealer each time which is not local and the next dealer is even further away. Repairs all under warranty, I have paid for my own servicing. They have at times given me a courtesy car for free, but on some occasions I have had to pay the insurance to use it.

Each time I have taken the car in I have been messed about by the dealership ordering wrong parts, miscommunication about what I have brought the car in for. The first time the wrong part was ordered I had to go back 3 times and then eventually the part had to be shipped from overseas and took 6 months.

I am now on my third visit for the Fourth warranty part - meant to be fitted yesterday and today they tell me this is also the wrong part and has to be ordered from Europe and they don’t know when it will arrive.

My car is able to be driven. It’s otherwise in good condition. I don’t want to keep the car as I don’t trust it won’t keep having issues out of warranty.

I want to sell it but a dash light is on due to the error that needs repair, and this knocks £1k off the value on webuyanycar! I feel obliged to follow through the free repair to preserve the value but this could now be months away?

I got a valuation 2 weeks ago and it’s dropped another £800 since then. So I can sell now for a loss of £1.8k or wait and see what happens with a repair.

I don’t know what to do, I am not exactly well off, it’s not a high value car but I need it for work and the sale of this car needs to go towards my next car

Will a complaint to dealer and manufacturer get me anywhere?

I would do both. A very factual list of what happened, when, how long it took along with the inconvenience of having to have something new repaired regularly. Add in that this has been compounded by incorrect parts being ordered.

I would also lay it on about how disappointed you are with the brand, and that you selected it based on its reputation for reliability and that you have now lost faith in the car and that even now it has a fault that cannot be fixed due to lengthy delivery times.

I would be really cheeky and also lay it on about how you wanted to give them a chance to rectify the situation and are open to their suggestions about how they might do this.

Then see what they say. Your next step depends on how they respond. Send the letter to the dealer copying the same letter to the Head office of the manufacturer.

Thanks I have written an email. I have complained to the manufacturer before and they did seem to try to help get the part sorted by giving me updates, it didn’t come any faster! I now hate this car and its won ‘awards’ for being some amazing budget good value car, when it is nothing but problem after problem

There are tons of problems with car parts at the moment due to the silicon chip shortage. All manufacturers are struggling. One of my neighbours bought a brand new Mercedes and couldn't get the spec he wanted unless he was prepared to wait an indeterminate period of time.

I waited 6 months to get the car but I knew this when I bought it. It’s the second up from most basic spec car model they made back then

The first one was that the air compressor was broken for the air con from brand new. So not affecting other functions but meant there was no air con. They ordered a compressor but it needed a belt to go with it, either they forgot to order it or they got the wrong one this is what took 6 months to sort out and so many visits - at the expense of taking time off work.

Then the fuel pump stopped working and my car broke down out of the blue. This part was in stock. Just not sure why a 1 year old car has a fuel pump failure in the first place.

The third one was a dash light that was faulty connection and kept flashing engine light and took ages of fiddling with the connections.

The Fourth is the SOS button on the ceiling, another thing that isn’t necessary for the car function but the engine warning light is on due to it and it can’t be turned off and the SOS light is on red and doesn’t work. I believe they ordered the whole unit and then when they went to fit it, realised it was the wrong unit

I can’t sell it for it’s actual value or get It through an MOT with a warning light on

I am not sure what is the cause if it’s related to chips, it just seems to be poor manufacturing and poor stock management/ordering

In your instance there doesn't appear to be much chip related stuff there. Some parts these days get coded to the individual car, but I can't see this affecting more than the fuel pump in the items you list. That would be part of an immobiliser to stop the engine running without authorisation.

From what you've said, I think you have a very good case to complain hard. Depending on what they respond with determines next steps, but there will be an association or ombudsman and if that fails, loads of bad publicity writing to the motoring press perhaps.

Personally I would contact the UK md of the manufacturer. As someone said stress how you chose this car because of their name.
Plus I would query, given that the repairs were under warranty, why you had to pay for insurance on the courtesy car.