 | Home > General & Technical (L663) > Dealer wants £200 to inspect my car still under warranty |
 
|
|
|
| Soup Dragon Member Since: 22 Sep 2023 Location: Cheshire Posts: 97  
|
So the saga continues…
Dropped off my car with the dealer at 09.00 today. They asked me to sign the piece of paper saying I’d be responsible for £198 if the fault was down to me damaging anything etc which I did. Had a call late afternoon. They only started looking at the car at 3pm, which was after the cut-off point when they could have ordered a replacement DPF for fitment tomorrow. Very poor work scheduling. No communication whatsoever from the Service Manager despite trying to call him and sending him an urgent email on Monday. Apparently he’s helping out in the workshop due to being short staffed. Sounds a cushier number than speaking to irate customers. Next issue. The technician who I’d requested to work on my car because he’d been able to retrieve the error codes during my last (second) visit to the dealer wasn’t available (he was working on other cars). The technician I was allocated could find no fault codes so from the dealer’s perspective, there’s nothing wrong unless they can confirm something is faulty on an extended test drive. Now they want me to sign more paperwork saying I’m responsible for £198 in order to continue with their investigations tomorrow. This directly contravenes the advice from JLR Customer Relations who informed me that in a scenario when they can’t find the fault, I don’t pay. I’m not signing and they’re not doing any more work (they have my car). A Mexican standoff. I am therefore forced to call the Customer Relations team again tomorrow to get them to intervene. So here’s how it is likely to play out: A) Customer Relations asks the dealer to get a grip and take responsibility for fixing the car under warranty. Most likely this will mean me bringing the car back for a fourth time if they decide to replace the DPF Or B) Customer Relations side with the dealer. Then I go and collect the car tomorrow and start looking at webuyanycar, Motorway etc. JLR dealers really are a crock of steaming stuff. |
||
16th Apr 2025 7:24pm |
|
| peanutbob Member Since: 12 Feb 2009 Location: UK Posts: 324 
|
JLR Customer relations are quite friendly but they don’t have any power imo.
I had a fairly torrid experience with the agreed replacement of my lower suspension arms. After calling out LR Assist who agreed that the front suspension arms required replacing in October 2024, there then was a litany of failed attempts to replace these parts, due to all manner of excuses - incorrect arms, incorrect bolts, delivery van didn’t arrive and so forth . JLR customer relations apologised and said they would raise the issue to senior management . After a long series of trail mails, on tne recommendation of another dealer, I mailed Adrian Mardle the CEO of JLR with copies of all the correspondence and within less than a day the correct parts apparently arrived at 0400hrs and fitted at 0900 hrs on 31st Dec. |
||
|
16th Apr 2025 8:11pm |
|
| F-Typical Member Since: 05 Sep 2024 Location: Hereford Posts: 54
|
When I owned a Jaaag, the dealership appeared to pick up the tab for correcting manufacturing faults, and hence weren't keen to take the car in let alone collect/deliver (as they also weren't prepared to offer a courtesy car).
But, do you have a record - provided by the dealership - of the codes found last time? |
||
|
17th Apr 2025 12:52pm |
|
| lightning Member Since: 23 Apr 2009 Location: High Peak, Derbyshire Posts: 3094
|
l just don't understand what's happening here.
lf the vehicle is doing a DPF regeneration every 30 miles (with the resulting poor fuel consumption) then it's clearly defective. lt probably won't show any codes, as the vehicle just thinks "l need to do a DPF regeneration" and it probably doesn't know that it did one yesterday. l can't believe the dealer is repeatedly bouncing the vehicle back to the customer, do they think the customer is lying? Why would they lie? lt probably comes down to the modern way of working where if the computer can't see a fault then there's nothing wrong. l have been looking at late model Puma Defenders because l dread having to deal with this kind of thing, although my 2022 Defender has been pretty much fault free so far. ls it possible to get an independent inspection and take legal action to resolve it? |
||
|
20th Apr 2025 8:27pm |
|
| Soup Dragon Member Since: 22 Sep 2023 Location: Cheshire Posts: 97
|
Thanks for the further comments:
- “JLR Customer Relations friendly but have no power”. Agreed. It doesn’t help that you can’t speak to the same person when you call back (25 people in that team in Coventry). Some definitely have more empathy than others. They said they would send an email to the dealer GM outlining my issue but I doubt that will make any difference. Would be amazed if he/she replied! - “Do I have a record of codes downloaded from dealer”. They won’t share this with me. I’ve been given contradicting info. They downloaded lots of data during the second visit, the technician told me he could see that my last DPF regen happened only 2 days before. Customer Relations also told me that the dealer advised them that the data showed that regen was not due to my driving style. The dealer now say no fault codes were found. I can only assume that the data shows the DPF is not working properly but that hasn’t generated a fault code which would be the trigger for warranty to step in. “Get an independent inspection and take legal action”. I’m not sure the upfront cost would be worth it (probably cost me £500 in diesel but how do I prove it?) and even if they find something, JLR are so slippery that they’d probably try and discredit the garage in question. Lightning - you have hit the nail on the head. In the words of David Williams / Little Britain “computer says no”. My dealer has no interest in resolving my problem, they are preoccupied with ensuring that the JLR warranty people will pay them for their investigations. Without a fault code, warranty won’t pay up. This demonstrates to me that JLRs warranty model is broken. I’m now very disenfranchised with the whole ownership experience. At least it won’t cost me a fortune to change due to the low depreciation I’ve seen and the fact I secured a 10% discount when ordering from new. Took a look at a Lexus NX 450h at the weekend, quite impressed and the aftermarket experience would be otherworldly compared to JLR - Just Loves Repairs. |
||
|
21st Apr 2025 10:42am |
|
| Crazymind Member Since: 11 Jun 2024 Location: Glasgow Posts: 249
|
Lexus clearly tries to make up for their painfully unattractive designs with top-notch customer service and shockingly poor resale values. They’re a sensible choice—if your plan is to run the car into the ground.
As I’ve mentioned before, the only language JLR seems to understand is legal pressure. I’ve seen dealers jump into action the moment they receive a solicitor’s letter—£250 well spent. As for the DPF, that would be a warranty-covered component, which the dealer would simply reclaim from JLR. They’d bill the agreed labour rate—can’t recall exactly, but I believe it’s around £70 an hour. All they need to do is unplug the DPF sensor to trigger a warning light, then have their master tech sign off on the issue. Job done. |
||
|
21st Apr 2025 3:06pm |
|
|
|
| All times are GMT + 1 Hour |
< Previous Topic | Next Topic > |
Posting Rules
|
Site Copyright © 2006-2025 Futuranet Ltd & Martin Lewis
