"All started
when we, my wife and I (but very more "I") decided to buy
another Renault - another because I had already owned three in Europe.
And as we wanted and needed a car we thought Renault looked like what
we wanted. We bought our NEW Renault Scenic 4x4, on paper a strong
car and nice to see. It costs a lot of money and because of this anyone
would expect a very good car a very very good treatment and a very
very very good post sale
treatment. Instead ...from the start the problems.
At the Renault
dealer (Tynan Motors Sutherland 2232 Sydney) before driving the Scenic
away, I asked to have a look at the car with the salesperson. I
noticed that this person did not like my request, however, he left
me alone to have a look .... I understood immediately why he did not
like my request, as I found out that the plastic of the inside front
left wheel arch was broken. I asked the salesperson about this problem
and the answer was "I would have never looked there, and I cannot
believe there is this problem, but I cannot do anything, if it's not
too expensive we'll fix it under warranty, but if it is too expensive
I, said "I" will not pay for it ... this is a NEW car and
is under warranty". I insisted they change the car, but with
all the documents prepared and the fact that I had to go back to Canberra
in the late afternoon, (of course the salesman would not even speak
about replacing the car already at the beginning), I took the car
unhappy but hoping things will improve.
As I wrote, we
bought the car in Sydney, dealers are all the same unbearable people,
but in Canberra even worse. In addition to bad behaviour, prices are
higher because there are fewer dealers around, and only one each for
European maker. The next day I called National Capital Motors (NCM)
in Tuggeranong ACT, the only Renault dealer in Canberra, and I took
an appointment to fix the damage. Our new car barely driven already
had to be fixed. We lost a lot of time carrying the car to the dealer,
having it checked, waiting for another appointment for the repairs,
and after a short while we found other problems. Plus the Renault
dealers and NCM Tuggeranong never give a substitution/courtesy car.
I was constantly
worried about the car so I checked it quite often. During one of these
checks I discovered that the paint was peeling off the front shield
under the front bumper bar. All this in a NEW CAR. So another trip
to NCM to check the extent of the damage and more lost time. We had
to go to
a professional beater/painter, because NCM does not do that, so even
more time and worry in trying to find a place to get the car painted
and so
on. No it's
not finished, not at all. After that we found in our NEW CAR:
(1) Another plastic part - cover for a rear seat belt was broken.
(2) Both front side windshields were coming down.
(3) Most of the leather steering wheel was discoloured and stained
and by their own admission to change under warranty. I repeat the
steering
wheel, made of leather.
The steering wheel
has actually taken 1.5 years to change, and incredible to say: NCM
(National Capital Motor Tuggeranong ACT) managed to order the wrong
steering wheel. Another lost day, plus I had to go back again, when
they finally got the right one, however, no courtesy car even though
the repair took them hours. However, the last and the worst chapter
is about other damage, again not our fault, that we found in one of
our innumerable visits to NCM. In the engine compartment several cables
and pipes are loosing all the plastic/rubber that is covering and
protecting them. We could not tell if the inside cables were damaged
too, but this time NCM Tuggeranong ACT charged us $100 to check the
car.
These problems
with the pipes will not be fixed under warranty by those people at
NCM Renault, even if the car has another 1.5 years of valid warranty.
The repair will cost more than $2500 plus labour. To make it short,
we have a car (practically new, 8.000Kms. ), that has way too many
PROBLEMS since we bought it and now these last ones are too much to
bear. We have been very reasonable, and we have not created many problems
for Renault and its dealerships, even if we have a faulty product
and we are not satisfied at all with them. This is outrageous, especially
after so many problems, lost time, and the fact that I have owned
4 Renault cars. Every single fault has to be treated as manufacturer
fault and fixed under warranty.
After so many
complaints to Renault Australia, they staged interest and called us
to make one more check of the car, as an excuse to make us go and
lose again time and money for nothing. At the time of the check, they
said they would repair the car as a "gesture of goodwill".
However, after not hearing back from Renault for about one month I
started to write to them again and complain. This eventually prompted
a response from David Wynne, the manager of the after sales distribution
in Renault Australia. He wrote to me, saying they will not repair
the car and if I want it repaired I will have to pay for it myself.
At this
point we are entitled to have the car exchanged with a new similar
one, an exchange Tynan Motors Sutherland (Sydney), where we bought
the car, did not want to do at the time when I took the car and found
the first fault. We are "fighting" at the moment with them
and we have promised them that if we did not have any help we will
inform magazines, TV and Internet."
L Ferrari
