[UpsetOwner]

Hi All,

We bought our brand new Antara from Peter Vardy Aberdeen (Big Mistake!!)


We picked the car up in March and had a few issues.


Firstly when we got the cart home we noticed that in the drivers footwell on the left hand side we could see relays and fuses etc etc. There was oily fingerprints all over the dash and the seatbelt adjusters also had oil on. There were no owners manuals either.
I contacted Peter Vardy and went round and round in circles but eventually got all these things sorted.


Now with around 4500 miles on the car, smoke started coming out of the front of the car and there was this horrible burning smell. I contacted Vauxhall homestart and they sent someone out to look at it. He seemed to think it was the brake system but there was no evidence of carbon so he said take it to Vauxhall ASAP. Contacted Peter Vardy the next day and spent an hour on the phone going round and round in circles so decided to take it to a Network Q garage in Buckie.


They were excellent and very helpful.
They said it might be the clutch burning out but my wife and I are not in the habit of riding the clutch and it also has the Start/Stop function enabled. (It smells every time its driven)


On Wednesday next week it is going to have the gearbox removed and the clutch looked at. The guy at Network Q informed us that if the clutch is burned out due to rubbish driving then it will not be repaired under warranty. As I mentioned before my wife and I do not ride the clutch and have never burnt a clutch out on any of our previous cars.


They also informed us that a courtesy car would only be provided if it was going to be repaired under warranty!! Is this correct??? Also they wouldnt have a courtesy car for us until the 13th of August!!!


Does anyone know if this should be covered under warranty??? How much would it cost for a new clutch & labour?? Has anyone else experienced this problem???


Very very angry as we bought a brand new car so it would be reliable!!!


Any info greatly appreciated

 

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to the forums

I am sorry that you are having problems with your new car.

Firstly when we got the cart home we noticed that in the drivers footwell on the left hand side we could see relays and fuses etc etc. There was oily fingerprints all over the dash and the seatbelt adjusters also had oil on. There were no owners manuals either.

You know - I know - and Peter Vardy know full well that there was a problem with this car before it was handed over to you. The oily prints, relays etc. should not be there - full stop !!

smoke started coming out of the front of the car and there was this horrible burning smell

Obviously this is not right.
I am no expert - but I am unsure that a burning clutch would produce smoke.
The disks are enclosed completely. ( I may be wrong )

(It smells every time its driven)

To test the clutch hold the electric hand brake on > put it in 3rd gear ( assuming manual gearbox ) > attempt to drive away.
If the clutch is slipping it will spin and you will not get the torque on the hand brake.

if the clutch is burned out due to rubbish driving then it will not be repaired under warranty.

This, I am afraid, is true - BUT .... how do they prove that it was your driving ??

car would only be provided if it was going to be repaired under warranty!

This seems a bit harsh !!
If you have to pay I wouldn't use them - go elsewhere > make sure that they use genuine Vauxhall parts ( get it written on the receipt ) and your warranty will not be affected.
Also it will be cheaper AND you will get a courtesy car if you negotiate one before putting the car in for the work to be carried out.

How much would it cost for a new clutch & labour??

Sit down for this .................. I think you would be talking in the region of £1000


Do not be bullied by Vauxhall / Peter Vardy or anybody else!!
Find out what your rights are before you meet them next.


Also:
Check the VIN ( vehicle identification number ) against this website
click here


Your VIN is on your documentation from the DVLA
This will tell you WHEN and where your car was made.


If you have a 2013 plate you expect a 2013 built car or at the very least a 2013 spec car.
Check the radio / cd unit.
If this is CD30 ...... they were fitted to 2012 spec. 2013 HAS CD40


I suggest you gather as much information from the web as possible to back up your claim that there is a fault with the clutch ....


Here is one for starters :


This site
http://www.roadtestreports.co.uk/road-test-reports/Vauxhall/Antara/


<h3 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 3px 15px; color: rgb0, 51, 102; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb0, 51, 102; font-size: 1.7em; -: http://www.roadtestres.co.uk/media/small-title-arrow.gif; -attachment: scroll; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal; -: 0% 0%; -repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">John Jones, Newport</h3><div ="white-highlight" style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 10px; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: normal;"><h4 style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; color: rgb0, 0, 0; font-size: 1.2em;">Vauxhall Antara 2008</h4><div ="dot-repeat" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 1px; -: http://www.roadtestres.co.uk/media/dot.gif; -attachment: scroll; -: 0% 100%; -repeat: repeat no-repeat;">

Two new cluch kits needed so far at only 26,000miles!


Edited by: KenB

 

[Grumps]

I would be contacting Peter Vardy himself. Get onto their twitter or Facebook pages and tell them your not happy and why and I guarantee you a response from them.

 

[Spantara]

Thanks for a lot of interesting and good advice there Ken. The only bit I have a little problem with is that shown below:

Also:
Check the VIN ( vehicle identification number ) against this website
click here


Your VIN is on your documentation from the DVLA
This will tell you WHEN and where your car was made.

On-line VIN decoders are, generally speaking, not very good. The link you provided, when fed with my VIN, tells me the car was made by Opel in Germany and nothing else. As we all know, Antaras are made in Korea.

Other sites are worse. I understand the link to Germany as my car has an Opel badge however vin-info.com tells me it was made in Italy and has two doors. Who stole the other two? When I parked it it had 4 doors!

And it gets worse; vinfreecheck.com has never heard of the car at all and auto-vin-decoder.com is only slightly better, again telling me that the car was made in Turin.

decodethis.com informs me that the VIN is not recognised, carfax.com tells me the I have made a mistake and entered an incorrect VIN as does autocheck.com. vin-decoder.org was better and found the car but could give no information about it except that it is a 2011 model - in fact it is 2012 but they were nearly right.

At this stage I got tired of testing useless sites and gave up. All in all, I have little faith in on-line VIN decoders

Cheers all // Stephen aka Spantara

 

[KenB]

Hi Stephen

no information about it except that it is a 2011 model - in fact it is 2012 but they were nearly right.

Are you sure?
Just because you have a 2012 plate on it doesn't confirm it was produced in 2012.
I have a 2013 plate on mine - but know for certain it was produced in 2012.

 

[UpsetOwner]

Thank you very much for the info.

I have logged a complaint with Vauxhall Customer don't care services via email. I have tried the 08443690112 number at leat 40 times and its permanently engaged. I would hope they have more than one telephone


I don't have facebook or twitter so I am having to do everything old school.


The stereo is a CD30 mp3 which as far as i am aware means it is a 2012 model.


I am currently offshore on an oil platform on nightshift at the moment so this could not have come at a worse time.
I am trying to sort this all out every morning when I finish shift or get up early in the afternoon.


I feel sorry for my wife because she is at home with 2 children on school holidays and no car.


I would like to point out that I am not in the habit of moaning but when you pay £24000 for a new car you expect some kind of reliability and also some customer care.


Thanks for all the info and I will keep you posted on what happens when my wife takes the car to Network Q on Monday.

 

[piddy]

No doubt they will blame you for it and if they are true to form, some enthusiastic amateur will give you driving lessons over the phone.

It's a well known fact on here that I have a very dim view of VX Customer Don't Care Services...I have now got rid of my 10 month old Antara and there is a rather long letter on its way to the UK Chief Executive of VX.

If VX perform as normal he will pass it on to Don't Care Services and some babbling buffoon will try and contact me by phone.

The vehicle has been sold complete with the strange noise which occurs when I move off from rest and to date nobody ( VX related ) has been able to make their mind up as to what it is.
Vauxhall answer was to drive it till it gets worse and it might be easier to diagnose..Dream on you stupid people !!!!!!!


Best of luck and I hope you get on OK but I doubt very much that you will get the service that you should be entitled toEdited by: piddy

 

[Spantara]

Hi Stephen

no information about it except that it is a 2011 model - in fact it is 2012 but they were nearly right.

Are you sure? Just because you have a 2012 plate on it doesn't confirm it was produced in 2012. I have a 2013 plate on mine - but know for certain it was produced in 2012.

Hi Ken,

I take your point but my car is registered in Spain where they have no yearly registration plates. In fact mine has does not even have normal Spanish plates - the plates reflect the organisation for which I work and nothing else.

Of course, I may be wrong. Maybe the car was produced a year earlier but that does not detract from the fact that the VIN searches were way out.

Have a good weekend my friend!Edited by: Spantara

 

[UpsetOwner]

Hi all,

Just a quick update.


Since my last post I have emailed Peter Vardy's head office. I received a reply on Sunday morning at 07:50. The reply was as follows:-


Thank you for taking the time to email us. I apologise you are not completely satisfied with your recentservice fromPeter Vardy.

I will pass on your concerns to the branch and have someone contact you within 48 business hours to help resolve this matter.

I appreciate you patience,


Kind Regards


Sharron Townsley
<div style="line-height: 18px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 13px;"><div style="font-family: Tahoma;"><div style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="line-height: 28px;">Kind Regards[/b]<b style="line-height: 21px;">
[/b]<b style="line-height: 28px;">Sharron Townsley[/b]
<div style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="line-height: 28px;">Business Development Centre[/b]
<div style="line-height: 18px;"><b style="line-height: 28px;">AftersalesTeam Leader[/b]





Not had any phone call yet but I will give them the benefit of the doubt as the email states 48hours.


My wife also received a phone call from Vauxhall customer don't care services today so we now have a case number and someone assigned to said case until all the issues have been resolved.


This desk jockey started by saying it WAS possible to burn a clutch out after 4500 miles under normal driving conditions (comical or what!!). Anyway he informed us that our car WAS built in December 2012 (thought we were buying a 2013 model) and took 6-8 weeks to ship to the UK from Korea!! So he says in theory it is a 2013 car that had only sat for a couple of weeks before being bought by us.
My wife then mentioned the dreaded DPF! He said that the salesman should have made us aware of it!! We can guarantee he never mentioned it at all. He also said that if we were in any doubt to take the Antara to a local dealer. My wife said she already had but had to wait until a courtesy car was available. The local dealer she took it to last week have been brilliant by the way. The service manager Ian has been really nice to my wife and the other staff were great with my kids. Ian stated that his gut feeling was it was a warranty job.


The car is not going in this Wednesday because that would leave my wife without transport so it has been booked in for next Tuesday for full investigation and a courtesy car for my wife.


Await a phone call from Peter Vardy Aberdeen with baited breath. I just wish I was there to take the call.

 

[UpsetOwner]

Quick update.

Still no phone call from Vardy Aberdeen and the customer services manager has chosen to ignore main Vx customer services lady who is dealing with our problems.


Our antara went into Vx Buckie today to find out what the problem is. My wife is driving round in a Meriva courtesy car. She said driving it made her realize how much she loves the Antara.


Its just a pity we have had so many problems. Hopefully get them all ironed out soon.

 

[Grumps]

Poor show by Peter Vardy but not surprising to be honest.

It's about time VX started sorting their dealers out. If Peter Vardy can't do the job give the dealership to someone else. Arnold Clark would be quick to take it on. Not that they are any better but couldn't be much worse.

 

[KenB]

Good Luck - let's hope they sort it out for you

 

[UpsetOwner]

Clutch was removed today and it was a nice blue colour. They took photos and sent them to vx. So the outcome is it will be fixed under warranty and a new flywheel to. Couple of other things being sorted to. Temp sensor reading -0.5 intermittently and shroud round digital display popping up at the back. We were told that if clutch thing happens again it wouldn't be fixed under warranty cant understand that.
Anyways at least we will get our car back soon

Still not heard anything from vardy.

Thanks for the replies

 

[UpsetOwner]

Still no phone call from Peter Shady I mean Vardy Aberdeen. 4 weeks on and still nothing. Very very very poor customer service

 

[phill_colne]

I may be wrong but doesn't the V5 tell you everything you need to know?

 

[wilma08]

Still no phone call from Peter Shady I mean Vardy Aberdeen. 4 weeks on and still nothing. Very very very poor customer service

Get in touch with the omnibus man they should not be allowed to get away with it.

 

[vexorg]

.
Edited by: vexorg

 

[wilma08]

Get in touch with the press giving them your story in regards to the dealership, they will soon be in touch, have you asked to speak to the dealer principal, have you contacted the managing directors, threaten them with legal action, you could also protest outside there showroom make banners etc, the only thing is you have to make sure you are not within there promises then they cannot do anything about it. We done it against Renault due to break failure in a brand new car, they sone get upset when potential customers start asking question, they gave in due to us causing damage in perspective buyers walking away, even the local bus drivers used to pomp there horns. Get them were it hurts the pocket, good luck

 

[antara184]

This seems common across the Vauxhall dealers, they know the cars are

but have to sell them, they then completely ignore any attempt to contact them even by their own head orifice because they can't/don't know how to fix them.

I heard a rumour that Vauxhall were in trouble financially, I have to say that if that is the case I am not surprised in the slightest, I'll never buy another Vauxhall, even if Hell does freeze over.

As for banners outside their premises, you could get arrested or at the very least moved on for 'causing an obstruction' so be careful going down that route and make sure that any route you follow RE publicity involves the complete truth, a slander or libel case against you would be VERY expensive to fight.

 

[wilma08]

This seems common across the Vauxhall dealers, they know the cars are

but have to sell them, they then completely ignore any attempt to contact them even by their own head orifice because they can't/don't know how to fix them.

I heard a rumour that Vauxhall were in trouble financially, I have to say that if that is the case I am not surprised in the slightest, I'll never buy another Vauxhall, even if Hell does freeze over.

As for banners outside their premises, you could get arrested or at the very least moved on for 'causing an obstruction' so be careful going down that route and make sure that any route you follow RE publicity involves the complete truth, a slander or libel case against you would be VERY expensive to fight.

You can protest outside their premises as long as you are not on their ground they cannot do a thing if you are on the pavement or across the road from them I should know it was done against Renault before my daughter was born and then just after as long as you tell the truth to the press or watchdog you have nothing to worry about. We won our case and got what we wanted, our solicitors fees the car given back without cost to us and an apology
You can site on the pavement at the side with your placards as long as pedestrians can get buy.