General Tale of Woe on a Used Sedici

[Too many cars]

We recently (6 Weeks ago) bought a 2 1/2 year old Sedici 1.9 Eleganza, From my user name you may guess I have had a lot of cars over the years!! 34 owned since I passed my test 16 yrs ago ( also used to be involved in the retail motor trade) We have had several issues with the dealers since then first one being when V5 arrived car turned out to be an ex rental although I had specifically asked history of the car being told at the time it was ex fiat central fleet, second being told originally by salesman car only had a 3 month warranty, so we added on an additional 2 years (spotted on there sales literature that all there used cars come with 12 month warranty) so after an argument they upped the complete warranty to 3 years.

The Sedici itself is a great car, but its reliability leaves a lot to be disired its currently back in the dealers again, First visit was for Airbag coming away from seat, Grinding brakes, Handbrake going weak with in days of collection , intermittent power surges and a sticking clutch pedal, car had only done 15k when purchased and I have added a further 1700 miles.

Collected the car after the first visit back to dealers they had fixed all faults apart from power surges (no faults recorded on ecu) and sticking clutch pedal as at the time it was only doing it when pushed going from 5th to 6th, this was a week and half ago.

Had to pay them a visit again this weekend as they still hadnt called back on the fact we had not recieved warranty paperwork or a letter confirming free service and MOT to compensate for the car being an ex Hire Car (not really moaning about the hire car bit too much as they over booked my trade in by £800 so sedici was cheap enough) wont go into too much detail but parked my car accross the showroom doors and refused to leave until they gave me the letter confirming 3yr warranty and free service, which eventually they did .

2 hours latter whilst in West Midlands safari park, started to smell a burning clutch, Originally thought cant be mine as im not in gear!!, whilst in the Lion enclosure (not joking!!) clutch started slipping to the point car would not move!! impossible to engage any gear but second, had to let it cool down for a few minutes the dragged it out in second gear, The Clutch pedal sticking has returned with avengance!!( luckily got to follow some works vehicles cross country out of the park, so only a 2 mile drive with a smoking slipping clutch) called dealers who said to get it recovered back to them and they would let sales staff in yesterday know it was coming in, but as all coutesy cars booked out today none available until lunchtime today, dropped car off yesterday, no one knew anything about the car coming in, salesman took keys said he would get service to call me first thing this morning.

No call this morning so called them, Told service busy and they would call back, 1hour later no call back called again, to be told no courtesy cars available today asked for service manager to call back, no call back so went in to see them, amazingly they found me a coutesy car!! (a lovely C1 Diesel nice!!) and although various call had gone in and when I dropped the car off they had been told what the problem was, service did not know why it was there!!

Now waiting for them to see what the issue is as they have not ever had a Sedici with a clutch pedal issue, also get a felling this may have wrecked the clutch!!

Wont name the dealer but in the last 12 months we have bought a new 500 and a new peugeot 107 from them as well as the Sedici and have never come accross a place so laking in customer service skills when a problem occurs (whilst there on saturday watched them ask an old guy to leave the building as he was complaining about the parts he had ordered not being there even though they had called him!!)

Overall the Sedici is a great looking car, But is turning out to have more reliability issues than my old Alfa GTV!!

 

[T14086]

have you looked on suzuki forums for similar problems?

 

[Too many cars]

Checked and cant find anything about pedal linkage issues, only slightly related one found is on the GM diesel same engine but not sure if box is the same, but obviously linkages will be differnt even it it is the same box.

 

[rallycinq]

Arnold?

Cheers

SPD

 

[Too many cars]

No its not arnold clarks, its a west midland based fiat dealership

Worse news today!! as expected dealer principal called and said they think clutch has gone and its not covered by warranty. Not taking into account clutch pedal has been sticking and this has already been reported to them twice and checked and came back as no fault, MMM maybe they need to consider a clutch pedal thats not fully released will slip the clutch and cause an burned out clutch or maybe the fact it was a rental may help with this as well!!

Turns out as well the sales manager my original call went into with the first few days has left the company!! and also this was the same guy I saw when I complained about the rental issue, DP is saying he will check with ex employee.

Explained I originally spoke about an exchange car due to original issues, he has said he will look into it and if they have the same car they may be able to do it (they do its the one I test drove unfortunately this is also an ex rental as its on same batch on registrations, and every used car they have is ex rental with the exception of there 500s which are cortesy cars!! sales manager who has now left admitted this to me along with the fact that unless DIRECTLY asked they would not say they are so)

So looks like my options are going to be settle for an exchange or pay for a clutch, unless I go down the court route which consumer direct have advised is a fairly successful route as It can be proven I have been lied to on the history of the car and if had know it was an ex rental it would have altered my opinion to purchase (yep wouldnt have bought an ex rental due the issues I am now having with rental cars tending to be abused)

 

[Too many cars]

1 1/2 weeks since the car broke down and still have the courtesy car!! dealer principal doesnt bother calling back and I have to chase them, last conversation was on saturda, when he said they cant find an exchange, and they would have to strip the clutch out to check if worn!! if its worn im going to have to pay (something not quite right here!! mm first offering an exchange now gone back to me paying!!)

Not recieved any calls since them, looks like if no response by tomorrow its time to go legal on them.

only upside so far is the mileage is racking up on the courtesy (I have done 1/4 of the total mileage its now done) and the getting 65mpg out of it has halved my fuel bill last week!!

 

[Scotsmiss]

Hi I bought a used diesel Sedici 6 months ago and have had constant problems with it not going into 2nd gear when it is cold. I got so fed up withe the dealer and Customer Services at Fiat that I ended up complaining to the General Manager Fiat UK and copying it to the CEO and VP in Milan and now I am finally getting some action out of them....As it is still under the 3 year warranty, I demanded that they fix the problem at their cost. They have ordered a new gear box, clutch and are waiting for some components to arrive from Tokoyo, so we will see if this finally solves the problems after 6 months....

 

[Geordie Amanda]

Hi I bought a used diesel Sedici 6 months ago and have had constant problems with it not going into 2nd gear when it is cold. I got so fed up withe the dealer and Customer Services at Fiat that I ended up complaining to the General Manager Fiat UK and copying it to the CEO and VP in Milan and now I am finally getting some action out of them....As it is still under the 3 year warranty, I demanded that they fix the problem at their cost. They have ordered a new gear box, clutch and are waiting for some components to arrive from Tokoyo, so we will see if this finally solves the problems after 6 months....

I have the 2nd gear problem and it is a well know thing, the local Fiat dealer had the temerity to say he hadn’t heard of it before. Either he is an outright liar or incredibly incompetent. Either way after several Fiats, I suspect I won’t be buying another. Shame as I am not upset by the fault if only Fiat would honour the warranty and fix it (is a very big job however). Thanks Lookers

 

[Scotsmiss]

Just to update you all. I finally had enough of being told that the fact that the Sedici wouldn't go into 2nd gear when cold was a "characteristic" that I lost it big time and sent a letter of complaint to the UK General Manager of Fiat and copied it to the CEO's in Milan and hey presto I'm finally getting action. They have agreed that there is a problem and have ordered a new gear box, new clutch and additional parts from Tokyo. Fiat have siad that they are using my vehicle as the test and when they find out how to fix my car, they will then use that fix to repair other Sedici's. At the moment Fiat are making the right noises and the car is due to go into the garage on Thursday of this week, so I will let you know how I get on.

 

[Geordie Amanda]

Just to update you all. I finally had enough of being told that the fact that the Sedici wouldn't go into 2nd gear when cold was a "characteristic" that I lost it big time and sent a letter of complaint to the UK General Manager of Fiat and copied it to the CEO's in Milan and hey presto I'm finally getting action. They have agreed that there is a problem and have ordered a new gear box, new clutch and additional parts from Tokyo. Fiat have siad that they are using my vehicle as the test and when they find out how to fix my car, they will then use that fix to repair other Sedici's. At the moment Fiat are making the right noises and the car is due to go into the garage on Thursday of this week, so I will let you know how I get on.

That is brilliant news. Would it be possible to attach a scanned copy of the letter to your post so we can print it off and go properly armed to invade our local dealers?

 

[Too many cars]

Well as an update got the sedici back on friday, as they had said before clutch plate failure, replaced both the dual mass flywheel and the clutch, they hadnt bothered to let me know any of this and no oppurtunity for a second opinion, not attempts by them to see if it was the flywheel that has caused premature wear on the clutch and as they had already fitted new parts, no real option but for me to agree to there contribution and I pay £300 towards it as the C1 was getting a little boring!! not bad little rally cars are those c1s ).

Car still has to go back in next week as alignment on steering is now out, found this out on test drive prior to paying, tech agreed they should have picked that up on a road test.

They were also shocked when I asked them for the clutch and flywheel to get it independently assesed told them then that if it is the flywheel thats at fault I will be taking them to court, I know a dual mass flywheel is designed to move about 180degrees when under load but I can move this one by hand!! strange thing is the car also used to stall if you tried a rolling pull away in second now it does it without any issues and gear selection is now smoother especially second!!

Well at least I have it back and Arburys have now lost my custom for both the 500 and Sedici, My parents 107 servicing and its replacement next year and couple of relatives who have been using this dealership under its previous name for the last 25 years for all servicing and 2 yearly car replacements!! so by there refusing to look into any other options and charging me £300 they have lost repeat car sales, long term customer loyalty and servicing thats going cost them a lot more than £300 !!

Arburys also managed to call me for my customer service satisfaction survey before they even called me about my car!!

 

[Ulpian]

Those dual mass flywheels eh!

 

[rallycinq]

They have agreed that there is a problem and have ordered a new gear box, new clutch and additional parts from Tokyo.

Doubt the parts will be coming from Tokyo, the car is built in Hungary.

Cheers

SPD

 

[Scotsmiss]

Update on the Sedici gear repair, they have fitted a new gearbox, gearbox cables and clutch and it did seem to be working until it started making a very loud metallic knocking sound and had to be towed back into Aberdeen. They now think that they have sorted the bearing problem that was causing the rattling.... so just waiting for them to redeliver the car back to me later today and hopefully! it will be resolved this time.

 

[Nello]

Sorry to hear the reliability woes - suffice to say in an attempt to show there are good ones the wifes 1.6 Eleganza has been faultless in its first year after 10K.........
I would not be paying for a new clutch on a car I only bought 8 weeks before - surely theres room for negotiation there....

 

[Too many cars]

Another update from me!!

We have problems again!!

Part of the issue was a sticking clutch pedal which I pointed out to them may have been causing clutch wear!! after covering 170 miles since picking up the car, Today noticed the clutch pedal is sticking again!!

Guess were my car is going 8am monday morning!!

Also had the original clutch plate loooked at by a trusted mechanic who has pointed out it did not need replacing as there is 4mm on each side of the plate!!

Looks like they WILL be giving me that £300 contribution back whether they like it or not until they fix it!!

 

[Too many cars]

Finally got a response from the dealers today!!

There is something wrong with the car!! (no****sherlock!! youve had the thing in 4 times and its now been in for 5 weeks of the 11 ive owned it!!)

They are waiting for fiat technical to come back to them next week!!

Looks like I am keeping the GP multijet for a bit longer (actually im impressed with the GP good little car)

 

[Too many cars]

Though I had better up date this.

Got the car back the second time and they would not admit to a fault (but they had removed the pedal box to check)

Service manager did admit the flywheel was high spotted which is why they had replaced it. Now as the flywheel is technically a mechanical part and the plate is the friction part they couldnt give me an answer as to why its not under warranty. So I had to pay for replacement

Now heres the intresting info I found out today!!

Arbury claimed under warranty for the clutch work from Fiat, Yet charged me as well!!

Arbury had replaced the slave cyclinder as it was faulty, never informed of this and no mention on my bill (now from my past experience a faulty slave cyclinder will take out a clutch as well)

Now in my book thats fraud not sure what Arburys would call it,

oh well off to seek advice tomorrow as an independent inspection of the flywheel has highlighted a possible manufacturing fault has caused the high spot not abuse and add in the fact the Arbury claimed money for the repir back from fiat we will see were this goes!!

 

[Geordie Amanda]

I bet Fiat UK would be very interested indeed! Good luck

 

[sa08]

I'm amazed at all the problems the OP has had mainly down to the incompetancy of the dealership!!

I've had my Sedici 1.9JTD Eleganza since new (56 plate) & the only issue i've had other than general wear & tear has been the turbo. A bird decided to crash into my intercooler at 60mph, beak first, piercing the intercooler resulting in the turbo spindle snapping (a few weeks later) after water/dirt had leaked into the system.

Apart from that, it's a great car + it's a LOT better to drive in the snowy/icy conditions we've had recently than my other car (a Honda Civic Type-R).