Hi All,
Sorry to put another tale of woe in the altea forum, but I'd appreciate your advice (sorry for the long post as well). Here goes.....
I bought an ex-demo Altea FR Tdi (9K miles, reg in june last year) from Dealer 1 in February. About a week later it went into limp mode so it went back for visit 1:
Fix limp mode fault, fix broken button on radio, fit missing boot light, replace passenger mirror bulb which had blown (didn't they check anything before handing over the car)
Bulb replaced, parts not available to replace the radio or the bootlight, ECU software update as the fault wasn't logged
Limp mode fault came back, but this time it came up with the engine error message. Dealer 1 phoned to say that the radio was in stock so I put the car back in the garage
Visit 2
Limp mode fault diagnosed as a faulty thrust sensor (not in stock), radio not in stock despite previous phonecall, boot light fixed
Fed up of dealer 1, I went to another Seat Dealer. Phoned to book car in for new thrust sensor and replacement radio. Dealer 2 agreed to get radio in advance but needed me to pop in so they could get the part number (various different manufacturers apparently).
Visit 3 – no courtesy car as I didn't buy the car from the dealership
Sensor replaced, radio replaced
Fault comes back, and cruise control gets an intermittent fault
Visit 4 – no courtesy car again :-(
Car went in for two days, ECU needs replacing and cruise fault might be related to that
Visit 5 – no courtesy car again :-(
Car went in for a day, new ECU fitted, cruise control fixed
Limp mode comes back, but not shown on the dash. By this time I'd pretty much run out of workmates to run me up to the garage and back, so I got a bit more pushey with Dealer 2 for a courtesy car. They say no but maybe I could get one from dealer 1 (WTF?) or phone seat UK and see if they can do anything. Phoned Seat UK listed the issues, although not hugely interested they did say that they have a warranty car release program (or something similar) whereby if a car is in for warranty work then the dealer should give them a car (Eh? Have I been strung a line for my last 3 visits by the second dealer?). Seat UK puts me on hold and speaks to dealer 2 who have magically found a courtesy car for me.
So the car I've owned for five months is going in tomorrow for its sixth visit to the garage. Dealer 1 was uncommunicative and generally useless in prepping the car and then fixing the problems, dealer 2 is a lot more willing and better at keeping you informed (apart from the courtesy car issue that really pissed me off) but hasn't managed to fix the fault in 3 visits.
What do I do next? I love the car but I spent £14.5K and I've not had a month where it hasn't gone to the garage. As it's ex-demo I didn't have the same expectation as buying a new car but surely it should be better than this? (and as for dealer support?!)
Jon
Sorry to put another tale of woe in the altea forum, but I'd appreciate your advice (sorry for the long post as well). Here goes.....
I bought an ex-demo Altea FR Tdi (9K miles, reg in june last year) from Dealer 1 in February. About a week later it went into limp mode so it went back for visit 1:
Fix limp mode fault, fix broken button on radio, fit missing boot light, replace passenger mirror bulb which had blown (didn't they check anything before handing over the car)
Bulb replaced, parts not available to replace the radio or the bootlight, ECU software update as the fault wasn't logged
Limp mode fault came back, but this time it came up with the engine error message. Dealer 1 phoned to say that the radio was in stock so I put the car back in the garage
Visit 2
Limp mode fault diagnosed as a faulty thrust sensor (not in stock), radio not in stock despite previous phonecall, boot light fixed
Fed up of dealer 1, I went to another Seat Dealer. Phoned to book car in for new thrust sensor and replacement radio. Dealer 2 agreed to get radio in advance but needed me to pop in so they could get the part number (various different manufacturers apparently).
Visit 3 – no courtesy car as I didn't buy the car from the dealership
Sensor replaced, radio replaced
Fault comes back, and cruise control gets an intermittent fault
Visit 4 – no courtesy car again :-(
Car went in for two days, ECU needs replacing and cruise fault might be related to that
Visit 5 – no courtesy car again :-(
Car went in for a day, new ECU fitted, cruise control fixed
Limp mode comes back, but not shown on the dash. By this time I'd pretty much run out of workmates to run me up to the garage and back, so I got a bit more pushey with Dealer 2 for a courtesy car. They say no but maybe I could get one from dealer 1 (WTF?) or phone seat UK and see if they can do anything. Phoned Seat UK listed the issues, although not hugely interested they did say that they have a warranty car release program (or something similar) whereby if a car is in for warranty work then the dealer should give them a car (Eh? Have I been strung a line for my last 3 visits by the second dealer?). Seat UK puts me on hold and speaks to dealer 2 who have magically found a courtesy car for me.
So the car I've owned for five months is going in tomorrow for its sixth visit to the garage. Dealer 1 was uncommunicative and generally useless in prepping the car and then fixing the problems, dealer 2 is a lot more willing and better at keeping you informed (apart from the courtesy car issue that really pissed me off) but hasn't managed to fix the fault in 3 visits.
What do I do next? I love the car but I spent £14.5K and I've not had a month where it hasn't gone to the garage. As it's ex-demo I didn't have the same expectation as buying a new car but surely it should be better than this? (and as for dealer support?!)
Jon