General Grossly overpriced Fiat spares.

[Norrie911]

Well, we finally got our motorhome back after eight and a half weeks.

They finally admitted that the ABS Pump was faulty and was irreparable so a new one was ordered.

The final cost for replacement part, codes, carriage and Labour was a fantastic £2850.

During the waiting for it to be repaired I contacted Fiat Motorhome head office in Italy, hoping for some kind of reembursment, bearing mind it was six months out of three year warranty and one owner from new, 15k on the clock, and full service history.

The lady duly asked the obvious questions VIN Reg etc, then what Fiat dealership is the motorhome at?, I told her it was an independent Auto Electrician, that’s when she put her couldn’t give a **** hat on and told me they don’t want anything to do with the repair.

I tried my best to explain that Fiat charge £1000 per eight hours or £125 per hour at the dealership, and it fell on deaf ears, at that point we parted phone company.

I will give Fiat my utmost promise.....I will never ever buy Fiat ever ever again.:bang:

 

[Peter James]

Well, we finally got our motorhome back after eight and a half weeks.

They finally admitted that the ABS Pump was faulty and was irreparable so a new one was ordered.

The final cost for replacement part, codes, carriage and Labour was a fantastic £2850.

During the waiting for it to be repaired I contacted Fiat Motorhome head office in Italy, hoping for some kind of reembursment, bearing mind it was six months out of three year warranty and one owner from new, 15k on the clock, and full service history.

The lady duly asked the obvious questions VIN Reg etc, then what Fiat dealership is the motorhome at?, I told her it was an independent Auto Electrician, that’s when she put her couldn’t give a **** hat on and told me they don’t want anything to do with the repair.

I tried my best to explain that Fiat charge £1000 per eight hours or £125 per hour at the dealership, and it fell on deaf ears, at that point we parted phone company.

I will give Fiat my utmost promise.....I will never ever buy Fiat ever ever again.:bang:

Fiat are not responsible for the independant auto electrician. Only the price of the spares which, despite it being the thread title, you haven't stated.
Motor factors can usually undercut vehicle manufacturers spare parts prices by stocking only the fast-moving profitable spares. Leaving the dealers to stock the slow moving unprofitable spares.

 

[Eklipze3k]

The part on ebay is only about £400, sounds like you got stiffed for labour costs. I'm also surprised at the attitude, as the vehicle was 6 months out of warranty why would you expect Fiat to pay for anything?

 

[Norrie911]

The price of the new abs pump was £1880 plus vat, I’d have expected Fiat to maybe reemburse some of the cost of the part only, but as I said, they were having none of it.
The hourly rate was around £45 plus vat.

 

[corcai]

Fiat parts are crazy prices alright better to buy those kind of parts from peugeot, citroen or iveco. Citroen are about 60% of the price for the complete pump and the electronic part of the pump ~ approx €1270 + vat for the complete and €570 + vat for the electronic part.

 

[Peter James]

The price of the new abs pump was £1880 plus vat.

Trade or RRP?
The parts I get from ECP or their sister cheaper site Carparts4less generally have a RRP far in excess of what they sell for.
And I fail to see why you think Fiat should be responsible for the pump (or non-approved fitter) when its out of warranty. In this case low mileage doesn't count for much as these things can deteriorate faster when standing idle.

 

[corcai]

Trade or RRP?
The parts I get from ECP or their sister cheaper site Carparts4less generally have a RRP far in excess of what they sell for.
And I fail to see why you think Fiat should be responsible for the pump (or non-approved fitter) when its out of warranty. In this case low mileage doesn't count for much as these things can deteriorate faster when standing idle.

I agree re: third party fitter but Fiat sometimes contribute toward the cost of parts as a 'godwill' gesture. Under UK and European trading standards, an item must be fit for purpose and last a reasonable amount of time which can often be long after the warranty has expired, you could try a small claim case against them.

 

[Peter James]

I agree re: third party fitter but Fiat sometimes contribute toward the cost of parts as a 'godwill' gesture.

Yes but, as far as I know, only when its done by one of their approved dealers who verify what needs doing and the 'full service history'.
I don't understand why it took so long either.
Ther OP states '
They finally admitted that the ABS Pump was faulty and was irreparable
But who is 'They'?

 

[portland_bill]

Parts prices for all the 'joint venture' vans seem to be higher than expected. I've seen this before with Fiorino door handles, and some other stuff for Scudo and Ducato. As these are identical vans to their Peugeot and Citroen cousins, sourcing parts form Peugeot or Citroen can often be significantly cheaper.

My guess is that Fiat get a raw deal from Peugeot on parts prices.

Sadly, an ABS pump failure is more likely to be attributable to lack of use than faulty manufacture. Any manufacturer is unlikely to consider out of warranty goodwill unless the vehicle has been serviced within the dealer network.

 

[corcai]

My guess is that Fiat get a raw deal from Peugeot on parts prices.

Based on what? Sevel Sud is 50:50 owned by FiatSA afaik, in the last round of investment in Fiat put in 550m into the Sevel Sud versus 150m from PSA.

Fiat nearly doubled the price of parts for the 244 after the 250 came out they're just gouging.

 

[portland_bill]

Based on what?

See if you can spot the clue!

Parts prices for all the 'joint venture' vans seem to be higher than expected. I've seen this before with Fiorino door handles, and some other stuff for Scudo and Ducato.

 

[corcai]

See if you can spot the clue!

I got that but it hardly explains how Peugeot could somehow exert extortionate prices on a 50:50 partner who in recent years has invested far more money than them.

 

[jackwhoo]

If the auto electrician knew what they were doing why the heck did they source the part from FIAT main dealer?
Or did they find out what price was from main dealer but use an OEM part and charge fiat price?
Fiat don't manufacturer the abs units themselves .
I don't see why any of the OPs complaints are actually caused by FIAT.

 

[BGD]

Am I missing something here.. The van had a 3 year warranty. Faults within all that 3 years would be sorted. But this fault did not happen in that warranty period at all. It happened well after wards. I don't think anyone would expect a warranty payment when the item is not under warranty.

 

[corcai]

Am I missing something here.. The van had a 3 year warranty. Faults within all that 3 years would be sorted. But this fault did not happen in that warranty period at all. It happened well after wards. I don't think anyone would expect a warranty payment when the item is not under warranty.

Your rights don't end with end of warranty. There are UK and European laws to protect the consumer and plenty of case history to support them.
(Although some of that protection may be in doubt after Brexit)

Lots of - persistent people - in Europe and UK have gotten 'gesture of goodwill' from Fiat outside warranty period in cases like this. I think failure at 15k miles is a good basis for arguing that the product wasn't of 'merchantable quality' or didn't last a 'reasonable amount of time' as required by the sale of goods acts. Would be a simpler legal case if Fiat had carried out the work of course. I would assume Fiat would be looking for the ABS pump to conduct their own technical analysis.