I believe every word you have written Gordy29. You are not the only one who is desperate.
I broke down on April 26th in the South of France in my van. I am a lady in my 70’s who has been recently widowed. I was travelling alone with just my young rescue dog for company.
I waited five and a half hours on a busy road junction before a low loader picked me up. I was then taken to a Fiat dealership an hour away. It was too late for the van to be looked at that evening, so the following morning the mechanic did a diagnostic test on it but could not find the fault.
I was low loaded again to the bigger ‘parent’ garage another 45 minutes away. When I got there the service manager didn’t want the van. I insisted that as it was still under warranty with only 9,125 miles on the clock…they had to accept it.
The van was taken off the lorry but put in a hotel car park next door. I was told they could not look at it until they got permission from Fiat Technical France. I said this was rubbish, as if I had broken down at the roadside someone would have inspected it,,,,as they had already done do at the first garage!
My van was left for 9 days without anyone looking at it at all. When I complainEd to Fiat Assist International/Allianz they said they had been told by the garage that someone was checking it regularly! I said this was NOT true. (I was still staying in it) at that stage). Still nothing was done.
Eventually work was started but the fault could not be found. An E-Tool had to be sourced from the U.K!
It is now six and a half weeks since I broke down and my van is still in a garage in Castres, France.
Yesterday I was informed by Allianz that Fiat is still waiting for some parts to complete the repair and they won’t be available until 21st-28th JULY. - That will mean my 21 reg van will be off the road for over 3 months.
The fault is with the automatic gear box. - A valve problem. They are waiting for the delivery of joints/seals to finish the repair. I am going to attempt to ask them to put a new gearbox in when I try to get hold of someone senior in the company on Monday. If they cannot do the repair in a reasonable amount of time then they need to look at replacing the whole unit…..which will not need the joints/seals.
I would never recommend anyone to buy a Fiat vehicle again after this dreadful experience. At the moment I am still stuck in France, as repatriation by train, plane or even driving by car from the South of France to the SW of England is not an option with a young rescue dog who gets car sick.
I would never have attempted this trip if I had been in an old vehicle. I felt I was being quite responsible in a new van. If anyone has any suggestions of how to move this matter forwards/contact details for someone senior in Fiat, I would be very grateful.