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New C4 GP - not a good start

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Dave_Retired.   
Mon Nov 10 2014, 10:52am

Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006
Location: Northumberland
Anhunedd wrote ...

The latest news.............

But it is looking more likely this will go to a legal resolution now where I try and get a proper refund, and hopefully some compensation too.

Given that statement, then it's time to stop posting on an open forum as what you write, could be used against you.

You need to carefully consider what you do next seeking appropriate advice.
BusterDan   
Mon Nov 10 2014, 11:10am
Member No: #37679
Joined: Oct 12 2014
Location: UK
Anhunedd... I respect Admins suggestion... I just wonder of it might be with publicising your problems elsewhere, perhaps in a member only Facebook group (as that gets the most coverage). At least that way you choose who sees what.
Anhunedd   
Tue Dec 09 2014, 12:53pm
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
Keeping this factual as I am well aware of the rules.

The Citroen engineer finally attended my car on November 19th (41 days after dropping it at the dealer) and spent 4-5 hours with it. It then took 20 days for him to write the report, which I have been informed today is "there's nothing wrong".

This contradicts the dealer who said within a couple of days of it being dropped off that they had seen a number of faults recorded on the computer, including those I had reported.

I have now been told I have to accept the car as it is, or I have been offered the nominal value of my trade-in car, plus five months' payments in recognition of the fact that I was not in the Citroen for that time. Total offer approx. £2,350.

In comparison, my total spend, including all deposits paid, trade-in value on the invoice and payments to date is £8,300. So that's an offer I cannot afford to accept.

My only choice appears to be to accept back the car and wait for the next fault occurrence, then return it once more to be repaired under the warranty, which Citroen agreed they couldn't ignore.
BusterDan   
Tue Dec 09 2014, 04:14pm
Member No: #37679
Joined: Oct 12 2014
Location: UK
Difficult to say what to do but I think you need to at least speak to trading standards or get a specialist independent report done (although this will cost you).
Anhunedd   
Mon Jan 05 2015, 08:02am
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
A minor update - although the engineer said they had done nothing to the car, they had in fact put new software onto it - this is the latest I think that has been reported here:

SMEG5.2.A.R9
CD: 26028
Date: 03-09-14
DbDw_281/Gr_406

It didn't fix anything however, the intermittent Inter-Vehicle Distance warnings still happen*, the radio interference is still there, the bluetooth still disconnects and the SMEG unit reboots every now and then. I have now ruled out the iPod as the cause of the reboot though - it was not connected at the time of the last reboot.

*my first one of these was literally as I drove off the forecourt having picked it up after over two months.
bluehdi   
Wed Jan 07 2015, 05:04pm
Member No: #2617
Joined: Mar 02 2008
Location: Essex
Thought I better update on my situation as it has been some while.

My car broke down from new with only 350 miles on the clock (and just two weeks old). It was off the road languishing in the dealers for just short of five weeks before it was finally fixed and I got my new car back.

You know when you’ve got a problem when you unlock the car and the top screen remains dark before you even try and start it (ie. no press foot on brake + Start message showing). Starting the car results in two or three beeps, no park brake light and no lit top screen and therefore no speedo, gauges or anything. The lower 7” screen works just fine.

Switching off, locking and restarting still didn’t clear the problem either, despite Citroen suggesting it would. It also generates a stored error code (which I believe is U002896 Inter System CAN Loss of lighting of engine diagnostics lamp) and usually the engine management light fault, but you can’t see this as the screen is off!

With my car, I found that leaving the car off, parked and locked for a few hours cleared the warning lights and the screen came back on as normal, for it to all fail again when I went to pick up the car up from the dealers after they had said it was working OK.

It seems that there is a bad batch of Cirroco top screens (also noted here and in many French and European car forums – we are certainly not on our own with this problem). This hasn’t affected early build vehicles or press cars, but seems to have affected our cars built around slots between June - November 2014 period.

There are still no Inforapides or technical guidance for dealers on it (although I think there will have to be at some point) and it seems dealers have to raise a ticket with Technical, wait and go through all the usual clean contacts, reset error codes, return to customer, car breaks down at the dealers (like me) and start again! Eventually approval was finally reached to order me a new screen.

This intermittent fault is it seems slightly different from the 'blue screen in reverse' which was being picked up on some earlier cars. I think Citroen are trying to find a software solution for this one and hoping customers can live with it.

After further delays (another couple of weeks) to the part which was on backorder due to the amount it seems being ordered by other dealers, a brand new Cirroco top screen was fitted and since then (touch wood) the car has been perfect. No new software updates were done to fix the issue, just fitment of the new screen, which did have a different part code to the original fit one I believe.

The screen fitment requires removal of the large piece of trim in front of the screen. During this initial removal to check my screen, the trim was damaged by prise marks and I asked for it to be replaced. They didn’t refit the replacement trim until the new screen arrived to ensure it stayed 100% perfect. Do check yours if they have the screen out at all.

It still does seem very odd to me that the Picasso top screen continues to remain fully lit for a while after locking the car up and walking away, but I believe this is quite normal as my car did it before the fault and after the new screen was fitted.

During this time my supplying dealer has been fantastic with their support and communication. They also provided me with a brand new loan car for the duration and have helped me to recollect my car again, fully valeted and starting afresh!

It did rather spoil the whole new car experience, but as has been said before, it pays to stay on very good terms with your dealership. Their help in resolving this eventually was as frustrating for them as it was for me!

I am loving the car despite this initial problem!

Any queries please PM me.
1 User said Thank You to bluehdi for this Post :
 ColinB (25 Jan 2015 : 08:46)
Anhunedd   
Sun Jan 11 2015, 06:21am
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
I'm glad your problem is resolved, bluehdi. Your dealer experience couldn't be much further from mine - my dealer refused to help me in the end and told me it was up to Citroen to sort me out with a hire car etc.
rusky   
Sun Jan 11 2015, 07:18am
Member No: #27768
Joined: Oct 13 2012
Location: Hove
Remind the dealer that your contract is with them not Citroen UK!
Anhunedd   
Sun Jan 11 2015, 02:38pm
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
Actually, I've been looking into this, and as I am on a hire purchase lease scheme (Elect 3 in my case), my contract is with the finance company. The warranty and dealer support is on top of this.

I found out that for any fault at all, an owner can just tell the finance company to deal with it. It is just usual that people go to the dealer and make use of the warranty etc.

I am currently referring my ongoing issues to Citroen Finance. Hopefully they'll help sort them out, although it'll be an uphill struggle, as Citroen (as the manufacturer) claim there's nothing wrong with the car after they sent an engineer to inspect it.
johntech   
Fri Jan 16 2015, 05:55pm
Member No: #37957
Joined: Nov 02 2014
Location: Yorkshire Dales
Hello
I am so glad that you have finally (hopefully) got sorted!
These sort of carry on's can be very stressful and not helped by the manufacturer who will never admit there is a problem or issue as we have to call problems these days!
If they would come clean and admit they had had a bad batch of screens and were struggling to fix the situation one would side with them rather feel you are the only person in the world with a duff Citroen!
Happy motoring ahead John
Anhunedd   
Mon Feb 09 2015, 10:18am
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
Unfortunately, johntech, it isn't all fixed. Still issues with the SMEG unit and the cruise control/distance warning. Plus the reversing camera has now slipped (like another owner's car on here).

The reboots on the SMEG are nowhere near as frequent as on the first car, but still happen. The main problem is now the FM Radio suffers lots of regular interference from (I presume) the car systems. I live in a non- DAB area, so FM is my only choice unfortunately.

The cruise control keeps throwing up warning messages - another user here has reported a similar issue and was having a part replaced, but I am no closer to finding out what part that is. Dealer knows nothing about it of course.

Citroen Finance refused to deal with my case, saying Citroen had advised them there was nothing wrong with the car, and I refused their offer to pay me just one quarter of what I had spent buying the car. The dealer say it is Citroen's problem and they won't help me. Citroen say there is nothing wrong, but anything that does happen is the dealer's problem.

It's now with the Financial Ombudsman, so I don't expect any movement for another 3 to 6 months now.
Anhunedd   
Mon Mar 09 2015, 03:18pm
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
As I reported in another thread, my car has now suffered ANOTHER top screen failure.

I took it to the dealer - Swansway Citroen - and they refused to help me, and asked me to leave the premises, saying it is Citroen's problem.

Build problems are showing now - the driver's door window isn't seated properly, so it rattles while driving, and the accelerator pedal is squeaking (which happened on my first car too).

I just want my money back. I hope the Ombudsman rules that way.
macraezy   
Mon Mar 09 2015, 06:28pm
Member No: #38803
Joined: Jan 13 2015
Location: Moray
Jings I have my fingers crossed that when my car arrives beginning of April that it was someone sensible in the factory who bolted it together.
Anhunedd   
Thu Oct 22 2015, 04:45am
Member No: #34658
Joined: Mar 11 2014
Location: North Wales
It's been a while...

Just to update I am finally rid of this car. The complaint to the Ombudsman took a while to resolve, not helped by them losing some of my correspondence, but eventually the adjudicator ruled in my favour.

Of course, it didn't stop there, as Citroen Finance decided to appeal the decision, so I had to wait for a full Ombudsman's ruling. That also went in my favour, so I got a partial refund (not quite as much as I think I was due, but a substantial result anyway) and of course closure of the finance etc.

At the end, the fault list was approaching three pages long (pretty much every fault reported on here by various people), the independent inspection found nearly 20 serious faults logged in the diagnostics (remember Citroen claimed there were no such faults) and recommended the car's safety systems were unfit for purpose and made the car unsafe to drive. In their words - "I wouldn't want to be responsible for fixing that mess".

Twenty months of hell are (nearly!) over. If anyone gets offered a cheap low mileage C4GP registration DG64FHU, I'd advise you don't take it.

At the moment, it's sat waiting pickup. Citroen Finance have spent the last 6 months ignoring me - funny how the day their direct debit payment was due and they found I'd cancelled it on the direction of the Ombudsman's ruling, they were suddenly in contact through every possible method they had to reach me.
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