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

A mechanic friend of mine who is aware of the problem advised not to get the repair done by only other 3rd party, in particular because of the nature of the problem, i.e. airbag, and the need to use exactly the correct, authorised parts. He thinks they would be unlikely to approve a 3rd party repair even if you contact them to suggest it as a quicker way to get the vehicle back on the road.

Have you double checked the VIN that identifies if the vehicle is affected by the recall here:

https://www.citroen.co.uk/maintain/safety-recall-check.html

Citroën Customer Care at 0800 093 9393 or the Recall Helpline at 0800 917 9285 have been no help?

Has anyone organised a class action yet?

According to Google, TUI Cars rent to people 18+. And their website allows you to put in ages from 18. They have limited locations, but if you’re renting for months it’s probably worth it.
www.tuicars.com/en/

What an absolute nightmare. Majority of owners will be reliant on their cars. A quick google and there's lots about it in the press, talk of group action etc so surely something has to give.

In the meantime - I'm really not sure what you can do beyond sourcing another car for you or for her.

They don't have any engineers working for them at all...

OP not sure if anyone else has posted this, it's the guidance to MOT testers about this specific recall. It's to be placed as an advisory on the MOT certificate but shouldn't be a fail.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mot-special-notice-02-25-testing-vehicles-affected-by-the-citroen-c3-or-ds3-stop-drive-recall/mot-special-notice-02-25-testing-vehicles-affected-by-the-citroen-c3-or-ds3-stop-drive-recall

Yes, ClickMechanic doesn't employ them directly - it's a platform you can hire independent contractors through.. the important point I wanted to make concerns the very good experiences I've had using them - 3 times, 3 different engineers, one to fix what turned out to be a problem related to the normally excellent VW garage fitting the wrong part to my VW campervan in a bungled attempt to fix a problem with low torque on hills (long story)... DPF related.

HRTWT

My BIL has a similar Citreon recall and has been told...
MUST be rectified ONLY by Citreon dealership.
Appts now booking from 2nd wk Sept.
Car may ONLY be driven on that trip to dealership - insurance invalid if driven for any other reason.

Citroen have arranged a courtesy car via Free2Move for him and it was delivered yesterday - nearly new and just £1 deposit. Think yr DD's age may be against her?? Good luck.

No they're mechanics not engineers.

My son is in the exact same position at 18 with 1 years no claims he cannot hire a car. He regularly takes his disabled Dad to hospital appointments as he has a minimum of 5/6 a month. We share this so I don’t have to keep taking time off work as the sole earner. I use my car for my job so leaving it with him is not an option. He spoke to Citroen yesterday who said that he can be prioritised for a courtesy car if he has an appointment date (he’d previously only been asked by the dealer for details and then they’d contact him) He rang them back and booked in on 15th August they said they “should” have the part by then but no promises. On phoning Citroen customer services back he was told that he could be prioritised for reimbursement for costs of car hire/taxis/public transport (which we’d have to pay up front) up to a max of £22 a day. It’s a joke we haven’t got that sort of money to pay for a 45 min taxi ride up front to get him to appointments.

It is where I live, country roads around here don’t have streetlights and cars drive 60mph around the bends. There are parts I’m not keen on cycling in daylight so absolutely wouldn’t do it on a night…. But your next reply will be telling us something ridiculous about how bends make the roads safer.

plus your statistic… there are a lot more cars then cyclists, so it’s not a like for like comparison.

This is all irrelevant because a bike is not the solution for OPs DD, as she has explained several times.

DS has his now booked in for 2nd September, so over 6/7 weeks wait with no car. They haven't explained how he is meant to get it to the garage. Fortunately he can walk to work but still needs it to get to training events that are further afield and social events. I hope they will be compensating people !

I’m having nightmare trying to get through to any Citroen garages locally. No one answering the phone and I’ve left answerphone msgs daily but haven’t had a call back. It’s so frustrating 😤

I’m in the very fortunate position of being able to trade in for a new car. I feel very sorry for those who are stuck. It’s disgraceful.

Well I was really lucky and got my car fixed within just over two weeks of receiving my letter. Citroen were adamant that there was no way I could drive to the garage and the garage organised a low loader for transport. All good. However. I have lost a significant amount in wages. Does anyone know if Citroen are offering compensation? I know I can ask them but some info would be helpful. Thanks. Good luck to those of you still waiting for the work to be done!

I don't understand why you can't carry on taking her. If she works shifts and you don't then there shouldn't be any overlap. If it's simply because it's a bit of an effort and you have to get up a bit earlier or go to bed a bit later then that's just tough, that's what patents are for.
I've done drop offs and pick ups for mine and their friends at whatever time of the day or night they're needed and yes I do work full time. Often their friends parents are too lazy or won't go without their precious glass of wine to help their children which is inexcusable.

Aren't you lucky to live somewhere that has decent public transport?

The buses here only run from 9.15-5.45, Mon- Sat, completely useless for anyone working normal hours, let alone shifts that start as early as 7, and finish as late as 11, which I believe is what OP said.

I think this is appalling. I wonder if the dealer that sold it has any obligation to take it back and refund the money. It might be worth speaking to trading standards to see what your rights are, OP, it was clearly unfit for purpose when it was sold.

we work completely different hours in different directions. One of us either has to get up very early or go to bed very late and wait around for the other person. Sometimes this is do-able but if she has got back off a very late shift gone 1am before getting to bed, it’s not really fair for me to expect her to get up at 7am to drive me to work. Plus I struggle to stay awake to go drive to collect her from work on a late. It’s more than a ‘bit of effort’ it’s very disruptive. I’m not drinking wine FFS do you really think this is an acceptable comment to insinuate I am not making enough effort as a parent? She has full use of my car!

I am walking to the train station which is 2 miles away. It’s summer so it’s manageable BUT it’s one of those stations that the trains only stop there once an hour 😂 so you need to get it right

@MyMoneyIsAllSpent yes apparently but no idea how you get it back, we have all my train tickets and car insurance to claim back. I haven’t even organised the tow yet! I might call them again tomorrow and see if any update

So I finally got through to Citroen call centre and what a shit show. All I could hear was everyone yelling in the background on the phone.

I have now had to plead my case for a refund of the car insurance to someone who didn’t understand what I was talking about.

As she can’t hire a car as too young, and even if she could, it would be more than £22 a day, we bought £280 car insurance policy on my car, plus my train fares - these are less than £22 a day for the period it covers. Apparently I will get a call back later about this

And they have started a case for the tow truck apparently 🤷🏻‍♀️ who knows anything at this stage

I have the same issue. Our local garage has said that they have the parts but haven't yet had the funding or authorisation to proceed with works. The car has been on the waiting list for over two weeks and not even a date yet. The Citreon call centre is an absolute joke-they can't answer any questions or commit to anything. We have rung several times a day trying to speak to anyone who might be able to help us. On Monday we were told we had been authorised to receive a courtesy car. This was due yesterday but did not arrive. We then got an email from the rental firm requesting further details which we provided. It was due to be delivered today and did not arrive. Both my husband and I have long commutes to work and are unable to use public transport due to the timings of shifts. I suggest keep pushing for a courtesy car and hope that it turns up!

@Skinnyfries argh this sounds as bad as I was expecting… the call centre is a chaotic madness right? They have just taken random people off the street who don’t know anything? I was nearly crying with frustration that all their headsets were broken and there was so much background noise so I found if I just kept redialling there would be one person whose headset worked (eventually I did find them) so I could hear what they were saying. But then they didn’t understand how car insurance worked so… I expect maybe we would get the courtesy car a few days before the repair, having spent ££££ that Citroen will not let us claim back? I will be appealing the car insurance situation as we had no other choice and it’s less than £22 a day!

What a bloody nightmare! I just sold my old VW Fox for £300. It might be worth seeing if there are any cheap second hand vehicles near you? Auto trader has a v good app for this. Make sure you choose one that has a current MOT. I don’t know what her insurance was on the Citroen but if you have to give up on it, this might be a solution.

It’s ridiculous they are only paying £22 a day. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of group action afterwards.

It’s so expensive as it is to drive at this age!

It’s also an odd thing on Mumsnet that everyone thinks kids turn 18 and they magic away and do life on their own. Mine are both in their 20s and I happily help them with major issues like this - it’s what loving families do so do not feel you have to justify that.

What on earth are people supposed to do if they need their car to do their job? I'm an essential car user, and it while I could probably get to most places I need to go by public transport, it would take forever.

My previous job involved home visits in a mainly rural area, that would have been impossible without a car.

Bike @LakieLady you are meant to get a bike.

They are the answer to all car related problems.

3 weeks ago my dd was insured on our fleet hire car at 17 , with Europcar. This happened after her dad had an accident in her motability car. So some providers must insure under 21 ?