New Car Time!

[Keith]

Yes, I've changed the car again. That's 4 times in less than 3 years. I'm bored is why. The 2 seater turbocharged Mercedes has gone. In it's place is a car I've always sought after. It's Italian, it begins with F and I can change gear with buttons on the steering wheel...!

Which is great except I took it for a first drive today (my neighbour does all the test driving at purchase as I'm none to good at transiting cars on demand), and the damned gearbox failed! That's to say it just went in to neutral and a big fat warning light on the dash said "gearbox failure". Oh crap. I've only got 1 hour of oxygen, no recovery service in place and I'm on an extremely busy and narrow main road 4 miles from home. I "rebooted" the system (turned it off, tuned it on) Nothing, same result stick refused to be put in any gear. so as a last resort, i selected reverse. Bingo! The car moved backwards and thus it all decided to work normally again.

Very worrying for me though. Got it being collected tomorrow so someone can have sniff around.

There must be a Law (similar to Sods/Murphys etc) that says no matter how much research you put into a vehicle before you purchase, you will only discover 1000 pages of faults and gremlins suffered by this particular model on the interweb only after you've parted with the cash.

Caveat Emptor indeed...

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Is it red? Congratulations!

 

[Keith]

No Pete. I avoided red as it's the most stolen colour in the UK. Why? :shrug:

It's a kind of metallic blue colour...

We're hoping I did something "illegal" that the gearbox didn't like - something similar to your computer when it says you have "violated something and will be shut down" that kind of thing.....Here's hoping.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I've had similar malfunctions not gearbox related but computer says malfunction go to dealer and turning the car off and waiting a few seconds before turning the ignition back on seems to work. Obviously reboots the computer
It's only happened twice in the three years I have had the car.

 

[Terry Oxandale]

Congrats Keith. All you need is an F1 steering wheel to match the gremlins, and you're set.

 

[Randy V]

When you bring it in for repair - just say::

Fix It Again Tony!!!

Sorry to hear of the maladies....

 

[Keith]

When you bring it in for repair - just say::

Fix It Again Tony!!!

Sorry to hear of the maladies....

Haha you nailed it Randy.....:thumbsup:

 

[Keith]

OK. "New" car was a pre-owned Fiat Punto. I quite liked it and it featured the Dualogic gearbox. Keen auto buffs will remember that this gearbox was developed for the Ferrari 355 and is essentially a manual box with regular clutch and was activated by hydraulics and electronics. You could leave it in auto or manually shift. I only drove it 5 miles but I really liked it, but that's before it suddenly locked itself in neutral when I was doing around 40 mph on a dangerously narrow and busy road.

Got it rebooted and managed to drive home. Garage picked it up the next day and of course, it worked perfectly. Next day (still at garage) it locked into gear again. Now, I've done a lot of research into this box (it's called a Fiat M20 Dualogic Automated Gearbox) and it literally cannot be fixed unless you are a) a Fiat main dealer and have the will to assist, or b) a Fiat specialist with intimate knowledge of the box. Average cost of repair, between £1,000 and £2,000 and that's if they can or even want to, fix it.

I call the dealer and he asks for time to try and fix it. In the meantime the garage I have taken it to is racking up hours on my account, so I tell him to stop. They fiddle with it for 5 days and can't find out which part of the system has failed even after reading the codes.

Under UK Consumer Rights legislation I have the right to reject the car as not fit for purpose within 30 days. Yesterday I did that. Then I realise, I don't have the guys surname and his trading post code (zip) turns out to be a hotel 10 miles from here. Boy! Am I on very thin ice! I stay calm and play the victim (which I am) and very much going for the sympathy route because as it stands, he could just walk away and leave me in the sh1t. Being disabled and essentially broke, I could not afford a civil action to find him and bring him to book, so I am playing him like a 25 lb Salmon with a 5lb line.

OK. To cut it short, I accepted a year older Renault Megane which he told me was "the same money". He's a lier. It's advertised on Autotrader for £400 less, but I'm not going to argue and I am now the "proud" owner of a 2005 Renault Megane with a fat ass and 1 bald tyre and an MOT which he can't find,

Damn, the stress has nearly killed me this week I can tell you. All the deals have been done in my front room and the test driving by my neighbour so I am completely vulnerable to this crap. However, I'm glad it was through a dealer and not private as I would have got a ringing laugh down the telephone.

By subterfuge, I got an email address and had my neighbour take down the registration number of the Mercedes they used to transport the car to me (they were going on to pick up the Fiat from the repair shop).

Next step after Christmas will be to engage a private eye to track down this man with full details and then I will invoice him for the difference in car price and my out of pocket expenses with amounts to almost £800 as I had the Fiat full serviced before the damn thing failed!

This was to be the last car I own as I may already be sailing close to the wind legally, and I had saved up for almost a year to buy something better than the Smart.

The moral: Buy a brand new car, or something you know you can fix yourself if you had to. These modern cars with all their electronics are a load of bollocks, and if someone mentions "Dualogic" to you - run for your life!

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Ferrari must have improved the unmentionable gearbox because I owned a 355 for about four years and no drama with the box. It was a pain in the butt though because you had to pull the engine to change the cam belts every two years, about an $1100.00 service cost.

 

[Randy V]

So sorry to hear of all the issues Keith... There are a lot of hucksters and shysters out there...

 

[Mike Pass]

I had a FIAT once. Never again!
I had a whole raft of Japanese cars and nothing ever went wrong.
I do agree with the idea that you get a new car ( on a lease) so problems get fixed under warranty or something cheap to fix that everybody knows about especially one where there is a local specialist who knows the car and is half the main dealer price.
Cheers
Mike