Technical radiator problem advise needed

[bobian81]

Hi, we have a 16 month old grande mj. It was loosing coolant so we took it in to jordans of hull, they said the radiator was damaged by stones, not covered under warranty, and would cost 350 to repair. we brought it away, I picked up a new radiator through trade for £85, stoneacres fitted it for £100.
Stoneacres said to me, why havent you done this through warranty, I told them what jordans said, they said rubbish, its leaking on the seam, theres no stone damage, i have attached a photo, what do I do now ? I have complained to fiat, this experience has put me off fiats for life

 

[Ffoxy]

Hi, we have a 16 month old grande mj. It was loosing coolant so we took it in to jordans of hull, they said the radiator was damaged by stones, not covered under warranty, and would cost 350 to repair. we brought it away, I picked up a new radiator through trade for £85, stoneacres fitted it for £100.
Stoneacres said to me, why havent you done this through warranty, I told them what jordans said, they said rubbish, its leaking on the seam, theres no stone damage, i have attached a photo, what do I do now ? I have complained to fiat, this experience has put me off fiats for life

The fault only has to be due to materials or manufacture process (rather than wear & tear) and Warranty should cover it, your garage probably made an incorrect assumption.

Go back to them, complain calmly with the evidence in hand... failing that speak to Fiat UK Customer Relations.

 

[panda4x4x4x4]

do you belong to the AA / RAC .........if so get their legal department involved

 

[Andy Monty]

You dont have much luck do you bobian :bang:

 

[bobian81]

its now a week since I contacted fiat customer relations, and sent them the photos of the old radiator, and nothing back, does anyone know how long they normally take to respond ?

 

[johnlad27]

Fiat Uk took around 3 months in all to get any response from over my airbox issue (for the 3rd time i might add). The seal around the throttle body has disintegrated and was letting in road grit, causing a nasty noise in engine. Anyway i had to ring Fiat in Italy to get any sort of chance of getting it fixed under warranty. Put me off fiat for my next car, would get rid now but got finance to pay off.

 

[bobian81]

Finally got a response from fiat yesterday, they contacted my local garage stoneacres, who replaced the radiator, for half the price jordans quoted, who confirmed in their oppinion that the radiator wasnt stone damaged and therefore should have been replaced under warranty, their response, pretty typical " we cant refund you because it wasnt replaced at a fiat dealer" my response to them hang on a minute, it went into a fiat dealer, who wrongly said it was stone damaged, so what have you got to say about one of your dealers misdiagnosing - probably because the grande radiator is a C***t of a job to do, and the technician at jordans probably couldnt be arsed to take the radiator out to have a proper look at it, anyhow the best I could do was a £100 voucher to spend at fiat on goods or services, speaking of services, has anyone noticed that fiats cost more to service than even bmw's and mercs if you go to the main stealers ?
Anyhow i'm getting rid of this punto in april, no more fiats for me after this experience.

 

[adamcot]

has anyone noticed that fiats cost more to service than even bmw's and mercs if you go to the main stealers ?

Not true, my Dad recently paid £370 for a basic service on his Merc. Came with a free can of brake cleaner rolling around in the engine bay too

No manufacturer is perfect, you can go and buy yourself a VAG car, pay £4-5,000 more and not have some of these problems. If you spend less than the £4,000 premium you pay fixing the Fiat, whos better off? You pay for what you get?

 

[bobian81]

hi adam, i've just had a 2 year main dealer service on a skoda diesel for £130, the staff at stoneacres remarked to me that they thought fiats were expensive on main dealer services

 

[adamcot]

I had a 2nd year service from Fiat Piccadilly in Wakefield for £139.... An extra £9

If you shop around, it becomes cheaper. Fiat also offer fixed price servicing for cars older than 3 years, which seems to me to be good value. For my diesel, they are offering a full service, inc diesel fuel filter (retails at £70 by itself) for £159. I don't think thats bad value for money personally.

The problem you have is that its the dealerships word or opinion against yours. They will always pick the dealer, sadly. Ive had a couple of problems like this. Its a fact of owning the car sadly. As I said above, you pay for what you get.

 

[bobian81]

adam it wasnt my oppinion, it was stoneacres goole versus jordans of hull, stoneacres confirmed to fiat that the radiator wasnt stone damaged, I accept what you are saying about shopping around for service prices, I always do, I still think its a bit much to have been facing a £360 bill on a 16 month old car for a new radiator, especially when it was done through stoneacres for half that money

 

[punto_matt]

Its not Fiats fault its the dealers for being incompetant.

They really arent more expensive to service than BMW's either. BMW's have smart servicing where you only replace what the competer says which turns out alot more expensive in the long run.

 

[T14086]

Matt is 100% correct, the radiator is a known GP weak spot...any garage that does not know this is 'at it' or very poorly informed.

 

[bobian81]

thanks for that t, I knew puntos were weak on the radiators, its just a pity I didnt take the car into another fiat dealers for a second oppinion, the problem is my wife relies on the car for work, so we couldnt afford to have it sat around, so we just accepted jordans word and let stoneacres replace the radiator for £185. What do you think of stoneacres price ?
I still think under these circumstances fiat should have paid at least some of our bill, instead of a voucher.

 

[bobian81]

T, because fiat havent paid any of my bill, I have told them in an email I wish to complain about jordans misdiagnosing the radiator problem

 

[punto_matt]

I would get a written report off stoneacre if you can then write a letter to jordans dealer principle explaining all the above and asking them what they are going to do about the imcompetance of their techs.

 

[T14086]

T, because fiat havent paid any of my bill, I have told them in an email I wish to complain about jordans misdiagnosing the radiator problem

was it misdiagnosed or just the service manager or another member of staff trying to reach financial targets?

 

[reprobate]

I think you have a good case to take to the Small Claims Court.As a first step, contact your local Trading Standards. IMHO this is incompetence on the part of the original Fiat dealer.
The diagnosis of the second garage,and Fiat`s own admission of a leak from the seam should give you a watertight (boom,boom) case.

 

[bobian81]

thanks everyone for your advise, now I have all of the evidence together I have written a polite email to the dealer principle, since 2002 as a family we have bought 3 new doblos, 3 new pandas and a grande, all through jordans, I am hoping that there will be some loyality and they will settle our repair bill, If not then I'm afraid it will be trading standards and small claims court, but I'm hoping it wont come to that

 

[T14086]

evidence.....why! Why should you (assuming all you have told us is true) have to justify yourself opver a 'known' defective part? The emphasis is on the garage to prove it was neglect/stone chips not you, like hell i'd be wasting my time doing all this....it'll be quick phone call to customer services with the link to this thread.

One the other side isn't it a 1.3 you have? not seen a rad go on one of those to be honest.