why i will never buy another peugeot

[dave9r]

As the owner of a 406, I used my local dealers to source parts, which unfortunately for me turned out to be ************* of Newark. My areas of concen are that they:

Sold incorrect parts despite being given the chassis VIN number to identify, AND I provided photos of the correct parts AND where they fitted! They refused to accept these incorrect parts back.

Charged £55 for a 'diagnostic check' which only revealed the same results 2 independant garages found (they did not charge as they could not advise what was at fault. The tecnicians advise was to 'see what developed' and that 'harsh acceleration in any car would cause problems'. Sadly I was unable to collect my car in person otherwise I would have told the tecnicial what a useless pratt he really was.

Failed to sell me a car because despite being repetedly advised I was buying a car, he was more interested in attempting to sell it to my mother. I'm 28 for god sake. I stormed off in disgust.

After contacting the dealer principal I have had suck pearls of wisdom as 'the tecnician in unable to recall making these remarks', 'this is our standard fee', no comment on effectively stealing £55 and the cost of parts.

Peugeot UK state that 'we have no control over our dealers, they independant companies'. This is pure bull, the dealers are agents in that were Peugeot acting responsible, they would withdraw the dealer status from those rogue traders. Peugeot France refer the matter back to Peugeot UK, who repeat the same company line and advise I contact the dealer principal. He has not answered any question for months. Now the matter is in the hands of my solicitor.

If anyone is going through the decision to purchase a Peugeot car...please bear this in mind. If you have ANY problem, Peugeot as a company will not help.

I have purchased a brand new vehicle from an alternative manufacturer, and am delighted. My household did have 3 Peugeot vehicles, that is now 2. Unfortunately my mother has had a similar experience and that will fall to 1.

My work runs a fleet of vans...they are assesing several manufacturers products...guess what? No Peugeots though...

[mjb]

If you had such a bad experience at the dealer, why on earth did you keep going back there?

[DaiRees]

Hiya mate, sorry to hear about your bad experiences but welcome to the forum anyway!

I think your story says alot more about that particular dealer (Pratt by name..... ) than it does about the brand. Just a couple of hours ago I was talking to my neighbour about the local Ford dealership, he said "they were great selling the car but not so good afterwards", I think that's a common theme. Have heared lots of good reports about that Ford dealer too.

I've got a bit of a gripe on about modern cars full of sensors and complex electronic systems and the associated diagnostic costs, anything goes wrong and it's gonna cost you! I'm not really happy with the service I've recieved from my local Peugeot dealer but I don't hold out a lot of hope that any other dealer for any other brand will be any better. My local dealer charged me £60odd for a diagnostic just to confirm the code I told them when I took the car in ("Don't trust third party diagnostics Sir, they're never right"..... "It's the EGR Sir, yes that was what yours said wasn't it? Oh well we had to be sure....."), then charged £30odd (half hour) labour for changning the EGR valve, something that is literally a 5 min job. As I said though I think it's the dealer not the brand that's shyte. I've got 3 other peugeot dealerships within 30 miles so I certainly wouldn't let that one put me off the brand. I hear what you're saying abut the manufacturer not taking the dealership to task but all dealerships are franchises, and they'd have to have a barrage of complaints before any manufacturer would intervene. Maybe 1 in 100 customers is pissed off enough to complain, and of them maybe 1 in 100 will go so far as to write directly to the manufacturer, so all they see is 1 dissatisfied customer in 10000, so it's easier for them to believe that and the other 9999 people are right and you are just the awkward, stroppy one who's kicking off. Sad I know, but true!

I will however say that it's a pain in the ass not having a Pug dealership in my town, the closest one's only about 15 miles away but that's enough to be annoying. My next car will prolly be a new Mondeo or a New C5, apart from both cars looking really good there are both Ford and Citroen dealerships within half a mile of my house. There are also VW and Vauxhall dealerships in the same place, but neither brand appeals to me.

That Vauxhall dealership was the best I've ever dealt with when it comes to parts and service, years ago when I had a Nova I'd get 25% off parts and 33% off labour for no other reason than they got to know my face, mind you I was maintaining 3 novas at the time (mine, gf's & sil's) so perhaps they thought I was a trader or something....

[steve_earwig]

I reckon my choice for my next car should be based on how much the bluddy spares cost. Pug will loose of course

V6 estates don't exist here anyway

[teamster1975]

For the price I payed for the car, the only genuine parts I've bought are the cam belt and a new dipstick (don't ask!)
Everything else comes from Eurocarparts or ebay; nearly affordable motoring apart from the bloody petrol prices

[steve_earwig]

I must see if they deliver abroad, all the motor factors do here are "consumables" - pads, filters, light bulbs and furry dice.

[Blue406]

Right, you base your choice of vehicle on one dick of a dealer, rather than the merits of the vehicle itself?

Good luck with a mundano. Great car if you want to have a car thats as common on the roads as any.

[Eric]

I have found in all the cars I have bought (and that's a fair few) the dealers will do anything for you before you buy, they'll be your best friend and probably even do sex acts if you asked.
Once you've got the car they generally don't give a toss about you.
I've found that with indie garages as well as dealers from all makes of car.
It's pretty much a given, apart from one garage in Bristol who I'd recommend again to anyone as they were brilliant.
It's strange that garages don't see you as a repeat customer or don't consider word of mouth.
Are they really that short sighted!?!

Anyway, one thing I'd never do is consider the dealers when I was buying any car, the car is fine it's the dealers that are like politicians and can't be trusted.

[steve_earwig]

I must see if they deliver abroad.

Eurocarparts will deliver here , although I'll have to pay import duty (22% bastards ). I thought maybe it'd still be cheaper than gold plated Peugeot spares, even including postage so I had a try. Unfortunatly everything I've looked for says "Sorry, no parts were found matching your search."

[Welly]

To the original poster: you have not said what was wrong with your car but I can say that if they couldn't find a fault code then it would be something minor, if your car is a HDi and if you did accelerate harshly then your throttle position sensor will throw a wobbly and put the car into limp mode - I know this well as my car has done it. This sensor has the ability to play up but not record an accurate fault code but at the end of the day they are only about £50.00 to replace.

I'm not surprised that you are dissapointed about the service you got and my only advice would be to gather as much info as you can BEFORE you let them at your car. In fact when I have dealt with the man dealer I told them what I wanted doing, got menu prices for each job and hey preto the bill came to the same as my own calculation. The problems start when you 'let them loose' on the car.

Here's a true story: my friend has an 06 plate Mercedes 200 Kompressor and the battery kept going flat....enter main dealer.....>huge snip in story<.....£1,200.00 later is was all fixed The problem: an electric seat motor! The reason for the big bill: Mis-diagnosis of the cause by the main agent's 'technicians' and fitting of unnecessary parts.

So - it's wrong, it's common, it's getting worse, and there's little can be done about it, and worse of all NO-ONE CARES ONE LITTLE BIT once you drive out the shiney showroom they rub their hands and move swiftly on to the next punter.

[DaiRees]

So - it's wrong, it's common, it's getting worse, and there's little can be done about it, and worse of all NO-ONE CARES ONE LITTLE BIT once you drive out the shiney showroom they rub their hands and move swiftly on to the next punter.

Yup!

Good luck with a mundano. Great car if you want to have a car thats as common on the roads as any.

Having a common car's never really bothered me, should mean parts are cheaper and more plentiful. A car needs to meet a certain criteria, which will inevitably be a compromise between what you want and what you need, for me those criteria are varied but the summary is a large estate (or maybe hatch), diesel engine (as economical as possible), comfortable, cheap as possible for tax and insurance, cheap and convenient as possible for maintenance and servicing, as aesthetically pleasing as a car that meets all that can be and as many toys as you can cram in there . As long as I like it who gives a crap if others have the same?

[TooT]

Its not just Main Dealers that f*ck you over once you have bought a car. i had a right going on with Motorpoint of Derby in 1999 about the master key for a Punto i had bought, im not going into it now as im drinking , but it took over a year to sort out

[STALLED]

I don't deal with main agent servicing - there is no need to with a car which is 11 years old and has fairly simple tech under the bonnet!

[dave9r]

Gents, I think you've all had much better luck than me then.

I kept going back to that dealer as the next 2 are miles away -the most local was closed, although I am told there is another one opening in that town. I won't be going there though, as Peugeot France and UK both failed to act on my behalf. OK they are independant franchises, but above the door it says Peugeot. Offer a crap service through one dealer and tarnish your name for the good guys -which is it's important not to offer a crap service.

I had already provided fault code information from 2 sources. They could not determine what the problem was.

I work long hours, and provide my vehicle for work. The dealer were aware of this. That is why I was happy for them to sort it...yes I could have been given a big bill, but I would also have a car that worked. Unfortunately they were not capable of producing that.

The comment about harsh acceleration was made to my mum & partner as they collected it (I was 200 miles away). Erm, how can putting your foot on the accelerator produce a problem? It was fine for the previous 36K in my ownership...Honestly, if a dealer is stupid enough to employ people not qualified to answer technical questions, then employ them in the parts/service desk...what hope have we got?

I have always self serviced cars myself...unfortunately I had to also spend time fixing this fault (which I did). As I now have a new car, the warrenty is an issue -do you think I can say 'I'm better at it than your dealers & mechanics'?

There were 3 Peugeots in the household...rapidly being replaced though.

[teamster1975]

I'm sorry to hear that Dave. A least you've got a working motor now
The only time I've ever had my car worked on at a dealer was my volvo 440; £500 for a service, I never went back again.