DD20 car serious safety recall - left with no car?

[Doornon]

DD20 lives at home and drives a car to work that’s had a stop drive notice put on it urgently. You need to get a slot with a dealer to carry out the recall but some people are having to wait months for the repair. We couldn’t get through to anyone yesterday by phone so I will try again today. She won’t be insured to drive the car as it’s unsafe

DD is too young to hire a car as you need to be 21. I think the manufacturer will maybe give some compensation if there is a long wait, but we don’t know this for sure. They are NOT giving courtesy cars.

I am not sure what to do.

DD’s job is shifts, 10 miles away so I’m having to take and collect her as no direct public transport at all. I also have a FT job in the opposite direction! I’m already exhausted

She can’t work from home or change her shift times

Public transport doesn’t run at her shift times and isn’t direct (would involve 2 hours of changing/waiting)

She could get taxis but this will be very expensive there and back and not sure if she will be able to claim any costs back.

Insure her on my car at our cost and then I hire a car?

Ask my job to WFH so I can lend her my car?

WWYD? I am frazzled by this

Totally insane that they can’t do courtesy cars
make sure you speak to somebody today and tell them what you said here
what exactly do they expect her to do

Could she/you afford to get a cheap old banger just to last a few months?

A no drive recall or where the repair will take an unreasonable amount of time, a replacement vehicle should be offered.

Thats from the industries own trade body.

Even if they gave her a courtesy car she’s legally too young to be allowed to drive it you must be 21+

No they are not giving out any solutions it’s all in the news

this is just one article but we have read all the info from Citroen

www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rpk6j52xxo

This is so serious the DVLA have had to issue refunds to people who had a test booked in one of these cars

It’s the insurance, she would need to be insured on both and it’s about £1,000! We don’t have any place to SORN her other car

The cheapest option would be for you to lend her your car and use whatever combination of WFH/Public transport/lift with a colleague orjiring a car that you can make work.

Keep all financial records along withproof that you have chosen the cheapest option.

If Citroen don't automatically agree to pay out for consequential loss there will be a group action to sue them for it, which DD can join.

She may have a case for claiming for the cost of taxis rather than a hire car.

What’s the car, and what’s the defect?

It’s a Citroen c3 and a degraded airbag ignition, it’s had fatalities

I saw on Reddit someone had said they might allow £22 per day, it would be £60 for DD to get taxis. It is cheaper for me to lend her my car and I make do with a combo of public transport and WFH

www.which.co.uk/news/article/stellantis-issues-rare-stop-drive-recall-for-uk-drivers-adbx11x1JNof

My car broke down citroen C4 due to a known issue that it should have been recalled for which i wasnt made aware of. We had it towed to a local garage who then said the engine was a goner. It only had 60,000 miles on it. Realised Citroen could have contacted us about the recall as they emailed my DH 10 minutes after saying the car has thrown an engine fault. The garage we bought it from new, no longer existed so we took it to the next closest. It took them 5 months to change the engine even though it was parked on their forecourt! After 2 months of hire cars they very begrudgingly gave me a courtesy car. (Never got a refund on the hire car) but they did install a new clutch for just the cost of parts.

Whatever deadline they give you take it with a pinch of salt! Also if you can find a local hire company we found one that 3 weeks was the same cost as 4. But we would probably have bought a cheap runaround if we knew how long it was going to be.

Have you spoken to the garage? Or Citroen? They might have a car they can loan you. Not a hire car, a fleet car.

A Hire car yes - 21yo is usually the min age... but Citroens own car, driven under your DDs own insurance, will have no such restriction... my DD has had garage owned cars several times, once as an 18yo, as a student on a NHS placement.

Its up to Citroen to sort this out for her, not for you to work around their problem.

Not able to get through yesterday. People on hold for hours to Citroen. Am trying garage again today

10 miles each way in the summer is easily doable on a bike, if not get an ebike

I borrowed an E bike to do my 8 mile very hilly commute recently. It took about half an hour on the way there, 45 minutes on the way back (more uphill) much easier than regular bike. Maybe an option?

At 5am or 11pm? I’m not stupid but this is stupid I’m afraid. It’s shift work I said that: it’s not normal hours in the daytime

buying an E bike? We can’t afford that. Please 😂

Surely this is covered on insurance?

I would make clear that taxis are the only option and that an insurance claim will be made either by the manufacturer or by your insurance, phone each of them and get this clarified.

I wouldnt be cycling on normal roads, ebike or no ebike

You can put lights on a bike and traffic will be quiet at those times.
Can't afford a bike but can afford a modern car?

I would take the car to the dealership and tell them they have three options.

• Fix the car this week
• Provide a hire car that a 20yr old can drive
• Buy the car back off you for the price paid

There are consumer rights regarding a reasonable amount of time to carry out repairs. I’d be tempted to call Citizens Advice and see what they suggest.

Did you pay any portion of the car on finance or credit card or loan? The lender is jointly responsible for the vehicle and so you may be able to claim through them for taxi’s / refund etc.

Does she have a colleague who can give her a lift?
Or a taxi/ Uber that she can bill back to Citroen?
(But why are you doing the legwork to solve this for her?)

That is not true. They can extend their insurance to provide a courtesy car.
I run a garage and we can offer a car to young drivers when we have their car in the workshop.

Oh, and to add, is it worth changing her insurance to 3rd Party, fire & theft given it’s not going to be driven?

This argument makes no sense. They’ve already bought the car, it doesn’t mean there’s money floating around to buy something else without a refund.

And it’s ok to not want to do that trip on a bike.

Does the repair have to be done by a dealership garage, given they are inundated and cant do peoples repairs wouldnt it make sense for citroen to give permission for people to get it done at other garages, identified ones they are happy with to get this done?

Or in fact, is it less faff and quicker and possibly cheaper to get it done yourself by another garage?

I hate posts like this.

Why wouldn't a family member help? It isn't infantilism, but just how a well balanced family works.