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We bought a 4 year old electric car at the very end of Feb from a main dealer. Since then it has been back to them six times, ranging from minor irritations to replacing an inverter (~£3,500), and now the A/C condenser and touchscreen display (>£5,000).
All the repairs have been covered under warranty, no questions asked, but in less than 4 months the car has spent more (non-service) time at the garage than our old Volvo V70 did in 14 years.
Having had so much go wrong with it in such a short time we decided to reject the car and get our money back. I spoke to the general manager last week and he has been disarmingly excellent.
He has proposed three options:
- We reject the car under the terms of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and they refund us the money we paid for it, less an allowance for wear and tear. The figure he has proposed is very reasonable.
- We trade it in for a replacement car, with a fair negotiation on the trade-in price.
- We keep the car, and they add 2 years of full main dealer warranty to the existing one - ie we would have another 2 years and 8 months of warranty.
Other than the problems it has caused we really like the car, which we chose after plenty of research. The dealership is walking distance from us, while all the alternative brand dealerships are quite a way away.
I’m increasingly tempted to take option 3. We have already spent far more than we wanted to buy this car (not far short of £30,000) and don’t want to spend more. Option 3 carries the risk of continued hassle, but not of more expense, and the manager has said in writing that they will honour the opportunity to reject the car for a reasonable period beyond the statutory 6 month limit for rejection - I have no reason to doubt that if it gives us serious trouble at 9 months he will take it back.
Any views on this? Am I being a mug? Do Friday afternoon cars still exist, or have we just been unlucky? Or was the original owner a rally driver…?
option 3 sounds good to me and that also sounds like a good dealership. Id want that all in writing tho
I'd probably go with option 3, but then I am a terminal optimist.
It depend a lot on what the car is and how much they think it is worth now vs what you paid for it though really.
Indeed, @doomanic…
Thanks @tjagain - that’s helpful. It’s all in an email from the manager so we’re fine on that point.
I’m really impressed by the way he has dealt with this. The car may have cost what I regard as an absurd amount of money, but even though compared to most of their customers we’re small fry he has gone out of his way to resolve this to our satisfaction.
Option 3 sounds fair as you've already had some major parts refreshed but I'd check places like reddit and owners forums for any common issues with the car. If there's anything extra to what you have already experienced I'd then want the dealership to do detailed checks on those and/or to specifically state that you will be covered under warranty if they arise before XYZ.
Option 1 involves a very fair deal - not quite what we paid for the car, but entirely reasonably after almost 4 months of use, even with a fair few days at the garage.
I haven't found major concerns with the car on Reddit etc, but we'd have almost 3 years of full dealer warranty anyway so anything that's not wear and tear would be covered.
Thanks everyone - it's reassuring to know that you don't all think I'm delusional to favour option 3...
It’s all in an email from the manager so we’re fine on that point.
I would want a lot more than an email - I would want a signed contract. I suspect they would only give you one of those useless insurance based guarantees. Be very careful. I cannot see a full manufacturers warranty being given
Sounds like you have at least got a good dealer to deal with, out of curiosity what is the car as that might swing my decision.
If you take option 3 and then 1 month after the extended warranty expires something else goes wrong, how much is it likely to cost to fix? It's not like e.g. a water pump fails and you're looking at a few hundred £. Are you happy to accept this risk?
I'd be considering option 3 but only if the dealership accepted the car will be getting returned if anything else major went wrong.
I'm all for the move away from ICE cars but almost everyone I know that has an electric vehicle has never-ending issues with them - the only trouble-free one being a Chinese MG. It seems like the current generation of electric car owners are just beta-testers and are paying for the privilege. E.g. in 2 years of ownership my sister has had the car ECU completely fry itself while parked up resulting in around 4 months off the road while the dealership/manufacturer argued about who needed to pay to fix it, the security system failed after a new ECU was installed rendering it undriveable and resulting in around 1 month off the road while the dealership/manufacturer argued about who needed to fix it, the electric brake fail causing it to roll down the drive into the house resulting in another 10 days off the road, and now the AWD/PSM/traction control/airbags have all failed simultaneously and it's off the road again. For comparison my ICE car has had to get the handbrake cable adjusted twice in the 3 1/2 years I've owned it, and I once had to take the door card off to dry out the electric window motor. The point being if something goes wrong on my car, I drive it to the garage when I have time and get it fixed, and I still have the car in the meantime. Something goes wrong on my sisters car it needs a low-loader and an electrical engineer and she's getting taxis everywhere.
Thanks all.
@tjagain. We'd have the extended warranty from the dealer, so there would be a clear contractual arrangement there, but I'm not clear what else could be in a signed contract, other than an agreement to allow us to reject the car beyond the 6 month CRA 2015 threshold.
@MrOvershoot. It's a Volvo XC40 Recharge. Having looked around online they don't seem to have any particular reliability problems.
@TheFlyingOx. Very sorry to hear about your sister's experience, but none of those things sound tied to it being an EV. Aside from regular services our old Volvo V70 genuinely only had 3 days at the garage in the 14 years and over 120,000 miles we had it, so I take your point. But it was smelly and polluting, and having owned an EV - even with the problems it has had - I can't see us going back to petrol or diesel now.
I can't 100% guarantee that the dealer will remain decent and honourable, but based on my experiences to date I believe that they will. Whatever happens we will trade this car in before the extended warranty expires, so while there is of course a risk of continued hassle we won't have to contend with any major repair costs.
We'd have the extended warranty from the dealer,
is that insurance based? I could be wrong but I do not see how they can extend a manufacturers warrenty
Yes, I think it is an insurance based warranty. I still need to confirm the details - in writing as you suggest - but I was told that this would appear seamless to me in terms of coverage for repairs.
It’s an important point, so thank you for pushing me on it! If it turns out to be a poor relation of the warranty I have now I won’t keep the car.
I've had good results from a "Volvo Select" warranty on a seven yr old car, garage had to pass everything by the warranty company before action but was still good. At one point had an xc40 T5 recharge loan car - not my kind of car but very nice (body roll aside) none the less.
Given it's a Volvo then I would be happy going with option 3. I had 2 Volvo's well passed warranty that the dealer just treated as though it was new. I didn't have any problems though so perhaps that's something to consider
I'm not sure I'd consider running any modern car without a manufacturer warranty, so I'd go with 3.
Thanks all. Good to hear the positive views on the Volvo warranty. And yes to the three year warranty either way!
I'm not sure I'd consider running any modern car without a manufacturer warranty, so I'd go with 3.
\Its not tho is it. Its an insurance policy that are normally full of exclusions
I really don’t think it is full of exclusions - I’m confident that it is a full-on Volvo warranty - but I will definitely make sure that’s correct before committing to it.
On option 3, the devil is in the detail. A "warranty" could mean anything.
They will "honour your opportunity to reject the car for a reasonable period" where "reasonable" is defined by whom? A month outside of CRA's statutory 6 months? An additional 6 months? 6 months and a day?
Whatever they offer, get it all in writing and read the small print before agreeing to anything. Hell, make them sweat a bit. Other cars are available.
Oh yeah,
If you haven't already, start a diary. Faults, times, dates, costs, duration without vehicle, etc.
Thanks again everyone for all your input.
The extended warranty I’ve been offered is the standard main dealer Volvo extended warranty. It’s the same one I would get if I replace my current car with another one, so unless brands other than Volvo offer an extended warranty that is appreciably superior (which seems unlikely) it’s not a major deciding factor, as long as it will cover me for any substantive problems - which I will have confirmed in writing.
@Cougar - other cars certainly are available, but one that matches what I have already, with a warranty of almost 3 years, will cost me quite a bit more and still, inevitably, present a risk. My dilemma is whether I stick, at no extra cost, or twist at a cost of at least a couple of thousand pounds (to include the cost of the warranty) to end up with something comparable to what I have.
I really, really don’t think the dealer is trying to stiff me. They have been thoroughly reasonable through all of this. I’m not going to be a mug, but I can’t pin down all possible outcomes and at some level this has to involve a degree of trust, unless I want to change car every 6 months to stay within the legal threshold for rejection…
Check on any mileage limitations for the life of the warranty. All very well the dealer paying the extended warranty but they may have mileage limits just like the manufacturer ones.
I'm all for the move away from ICE cars but almost everyone I know that has an electric vehicle has never-ending issues with them - the only trouble-free one being a Chinese MG.
I'm 2 years in to my electric BMW X1 lease and it's been faultless so far, just as the i3s I had for three years before was.
Also make sure the warranty is a direct contract between you and the warranty company. There's a thread on Reddit at the moment about a warranty company denying cover (albeit wrongly) claiming that because the dealership who arranged it no longer exist then the contract is void.
Cripes, what an unlucky experience. Glad the dealers seem to be very good but I feel for you. Tbh, with that many problems, I'd want to reject the car and find another.
My first Specialized Levo (Gen 1) had the motor replaced twice. Specialized extended the warranty by an extra year. Just before the end of that year the motor was replaced again. I would go with option 3
is that insurance based? I could be wrong but I do not see how they can extend a manufacturers warrenty
Manufactures do allow warranties to be extended, I have one on my Seat Leon 👍
It's a very comprehensive cover with no mileage restrictions and zero excess to pay. But I do have to use a Seat main dealer to undertake the work.
Thanks again everyone. I'm going to meet with the manager at the dealership in the next few days and the responses have been very helpful for me to work out what I need to ask. I'll update once I've spoken to him.
I've now met with the manager and been through the extended warranty documents in detail. It is effectively the same as the existing, and excellent, Volvo Select [sic] warranty that we have, with the sole difference that we'd be tied to repairs being done by the dealers we bought from, or others in the same group. It has no limits on mileage or number of claims.
Given this I'm inclined to stick with the car as we would have no additional repair costs for a total of 3 years. Replacing the car will inevitably end up costing us more for any replacement, plus the £1,200 cost of an extended warranty to match what the dealers will provide free.
We still have another 2 months to reject the car under the terms of the Consumer Rights Act, and I believe the manager when he says that he will honour this beyond their statutory obligation, up to a reasonable limit. On balance I think the risks of keeping this car are less than the combination of the additional costs a new car would entail, plus the unavoidable risks attached to any car.
So fingers crossed for the next few months, and thank you all for your input!
With so many faults not found/not properly sorted by the dealer before they sold you the car I'd be taking option 1