Had to have the AA today, twice the pedal went down and didn't come back up again, not ideal.

Anyhows, got to the dealership and they said they had no courtesy cars til Wednesday and bascially tough luck (the car is only 14 months old).

I kicked off and in the end they did give me a vehicle, a manky Nissan Note that stinks of ****.

What's the deal here are they obligated to give me a vehicle, as if this happens again I want to know what my rights are?

Anyone any idea what the clutch pedal problem was?

Generally you need to book a courtesy car. Dealerships only have a limited number of courtesy vehicles. They don't have to give you a courtesy car. No point in kicking off just because they're all booked up. It's not a way to win friends and you're more likely to not be top of the list of nice customers...

In the end you got a courtesy car. It might have been a Nissan Note, but you should be happy enough with that.

your clutch master cylinder has developed a leak...have been a few reports before, couple from the 100hp owners. fairly straightforward for the garage to diagnose and sort. i think for most the main issue was availability of the part.

as for the courtesy car, well that's down to the individual dealer. i don't believe it's a right, and it can be difficult on short notice to get one. in these harder days, dealer may decide to hold a large fleet is unviable.

you got something, so regardless of it's state you're still on the move

The dealer isn't obliged to give you a courtesy car, however, I would expect Fiat UK to make arrangements if the car is in for warranty work and the dealer is unable to supply a car, even if it's just reimbursing you for hiring from somewhere. Actually, you might be able to get a courtesy car through the AA too - I can't remember if they still supply them as part of the breakdown cover.

The clutch itself is hydraulic so it could be a leak in the system or it could be a problem with the pedal box (had this in the Fabia). Will be interested to hear when you find out...

Chris

ScoobyChris said:

The dealer isn't obliged to give you a courtesy car

Click to expand...

Ah, this I did not know, thank you.

As for kicking off, you buy a new car so you dont have to worry about breaking down, not unreasonable for them to find me a courtesy vehicle, which strangely appeared after I complained. I was oringally told I could have a courtesy car on Wednesday and it was tough luck. The guy was a real old school misery, no sympathy at all, I pointed out rather vociferously that they owned 3 dealerships on this site with over 500 cars here, and that they must think I am an idiot if they cant rustle me up a **** heap for a few days. To be fair, they obliged, the Nissan is truly awful.

fieldsy said:

Ah, this I did not know, thank you.

As for kicking off, you buy a new car so you dont have to worry about breaking down, not unreasonable for them to find me a courtesy vehicle, which strangely appeared after I complained.

Click to expand...

Perhaps they didn't want to give you a Nissan Note which stinked like **** which is why it only appeared when you kicked up a fuss??

306maxi said:

Perhaps they didn't want to give you a Nissan Note which stinked like **** which is why it only appeared when you kicked up a fuss??

Click to expand...

Anyhows, they have fitted it in and fixed it, a 'linkage' problem, whatever that means.

I'm sorry, but I agree with Mr. Fieldsy here - it sounds like the dealership could have been a lot more helpful.

a bit of a side step from the topic in hand i know and glad to hear its getting fixed but ...just wondering what kind of questionable ownership history that Nissan Note has to smell like that lol

stephenbeetleman said:

a bit of a side step from the topic in hand i know and glad to hear its getting fixed but ...just wondering what kind of questionable ownership history that Nissan Note has to smell like that lol

Click to expand...

Wonder if my gran's been in it

Maybe its Nissans new car smell???

As somebody who runs a fleet of 12 courtesy cars I can say that having one or two kicking about 'just in case' is totally uneconomic. As far as I'm concerned, I never want to see any of them. If I was going to leave one spare, I may as well save the cost and just run 11.

Remember it's not Fiat UK providing and financing the cars, it's the individual franchisee. They'll not get any support from Fiat UK so they have to make their own commercial decisions.

Ultimately if you'd kicked up enough of a fuss, there would have been somebody at the dealership who could have called UK and pleaded your case, potentially resulting in a centrally sourced vehicle. I've done this before with a client and VW.

At the end of the day though, it pays to be nice rather than get the 'ump - as generally that gets you nowhere - and I can say that having experienced both sides of the fence.

Ben