C3 out of warranty, developed gearbox problem citroen garage made problem worse!

[unhappy_c3_owner]

Hello All,

Hope someone can give me some advice. I have a citroen c3 1.4 SX automatic and its done 41,000 miles. Its developed a gearbox problem already where sport and snow modes are both on.

I took it to citroen service place and they said would do a diagnostic and said can do service as well. Said ok. They phoned up and said done diagnostic and not sure what problem is but fill up ATF should fix it. So they did theat and said lights have gone off so ok now so they started service. Had to replace bulb and wipers but nothing major. Then they phoned up and said lights come back on and have no idea what problem is!

So they said they had to call citroen technical helpline and i had to pay £23! Why do I have to pay?

They said had not heard of this error code before and the help line advised them I need a new hydraulic block. I don't trust them to fix the problem and imagine there will be some reprogramming involved as well which they haven't thought of/mentioned.

So said I want to part exchange (as i only wanted it fixed to part exchange as fed up with citroen now) and they said they advise not to drive it as problem worse now! I asked them to phone the dealership part up (about 3 miles away from service place) and they said wouldn't do valuation over the phone - even though it would be a citroen member of staff describing the car and i can't drive it away now!

The car is a 52 reg so outside warranty. But why is a low mileage car getting these problems. I took it to the specialists and they have made it worse - they shouldn't have done the service if they hadn't tested it properly?

So now I have to pay £310 for the service - they want me to pay £23 for the helpline call all for a car that they haven't fixed and have made worse.

They are saying it will cost £740 for a new hydraulic block but i imagine it will have more costs than that. I can't even drive it to another garage! What should i do? Will only get up to £3500 for a normal working car in part exchange - let alone one that they've broken. I'm thinking that they can replair it for cost price so still viable for them whereas i just want rid of it.

Am I entitled to anything? Is there anything i can get them to do? the car is still at the garage.

All i can think of is complain to manager and try to get a member of a show room to go to the service centre and get them to value the car and do me a deal in part exchange?

Anyone any ideas or experienced similar? What did you do? Thanks!

[LancerQRL]

is this a citroen main agent? all main dealers should be able to use diag equipment and get a 'live' responce to fault codes on-line

[unhappy_c3_owner]

hello,

yes was main dealer. I phoned up and spoke to the manager who had been away through out this and he spoke to the sales part and they got to agree a price for it. So i've exchanged it for the focus and the salesman agreed to pay all my citroen costs so am happy now. The service manager and this salesman were both helpful.

The salesman dealt with other makes of used cars and said never get a citroen lol

Anyway i'm happy there a re a few good people working there and they helped me out.

Thanks