Alpine A110: an owner’s experience

Just want to apologise to all members of the Alpine fan club in advance. My experience of the brand was - by far - the worst automotive experience I’ve ever had.

I have been lucky to have owned a number of interesting cars over the years, including a couple of cars from Lotus, which have been faultless. Just wanted to share my experience in case helpful for prospective owners.

I will also apologise for the long post, have tried to keep it relatively concise, but needed to provide some context.

Having heard many brilliant reviews of the A110, I bought a A110 GT to join some friends on a road trip to Spain. Having worked hard for 25+ years, this was a special trip for me: my first ever euro road trip. Ironically, I was the only member of the ‘convoy’ that wasn’t in a Porsche. For context, my A110 GT was a 2022/22 car which I bought when it was a year old and with less than 5.2k miles. I even extended the warranty at a cost of £1,500.

The fuel pump failed on the first day of the trip, leaving me stranded on a mountain road which I blocked for 4 hours. Alpine Assist were useless but thankfully I was ‘rescued’ by a friend in his 993 who managed to obtain a tow rope from a nearby hotel and move the car out of harm’s way.

I fully appreciate that sometimes “things happen”, but:
1) I’m convinced Alpine were fully aware of the fuel pump issue, given the growing number of documented failures (and their subsequent acknowledgement); and
2) Alpine were woeful in terms of non-existent customer service: initially, pure incompetence in terms of coordination between manufacturer and their subcontracted roadside assistance on the continent, requiring constant chasing and involvement from my side to get things resolved. Lack of replacement car provision, etc.

I must admit that Alpine Santander were very helpful and responsive. However, delays caused by Alpine UK and Alpine France meant that the car was only returned to me 8 days later (just in time for the return ferry to the UK), after a new fuel pump had been fitted.

On my first drive after the car was delivered, I experienced an issue whereby the engine would stall every time it came to a stop (eg at traffic lights, roundabouts, etc). For clarity, this was not the stop-start system.

I decided to get back home to the UK and the car was recovered to my nearest Alpine centre upon my return. After investigating the car for two weeks, the dealership gave the car a clean bill of health, and returned to me (albeit the dealership was very vague on detail). The stalling issue occurred immediately on my first drive and so it was recovered back to the dealership who kept the car for another two weeks for further investigation.

The dealership claimed that they couldn’t find any faults, and somehow were unable to replicate the fault. Consequently, I collected it from the dealership and… the stalling issue presented itself on my first drive.

I took videos of the stalling issue as evidence, on each occasion, as I had begin to feel very weary of Alpine. Being candid, I am convinced that the dealership lied to me (eg about not being able to replicate the fault), which I suspect was under instruction from, or in collusion with, the manufacturer.

Alpine customer service made me a ‘generous’ offer of compensation: a £150 voucher to be used at an Alpine dealership. I politely declined but hoped they would shove this £150 voucher where the sun doesn’t shine.

At this stage I simply gave up on Alpine, and felt I had no choice but to sell the car. Given that the Alpine dealership insisted the car was not faulty, I called 3 Alpine dealers to bid on the car.

Bids received:
- £43k my local Alpine dealership (who knew the car well)
- £46k We-buy-any-car
- £48k Alpine centre #2
- £50k Apine centre #3

My local dealership offered £3,000 less than the WBAC offer, which says it all. I’m not a difficult person but cannot help but feel very bitter about the whole experience.

In the end, I was able to reduce my overall loss to c.£5,000, but the episode has left me hating the Alpine brand with a passion.

For additional context, I was in contact with some very senior people (including new head of Alpine UK) in an attempt to find a constructive solution. Sadly, I did not feel that anyone cared and their only response was to insist I take the car back for more investigations.

Most rational individuals would forgive me for losing all confidence in any further investigations. One of Alpine’s customer care representatives confirmed my suggestion that I was essentially stuck in an indefinite loop: ie. keep returning the car for investigation —> no diagnosis —> car returned —> fault still present —> back to square #1…

For me, the Alpine A110 was an expensive ornament. If I was more wealthy, I may have considered just setting fire to it, as this may have given me some mental solace/closure!

Sorry for the rant, and apologies again to the Alpine aficionados.

Nice to see that Alpine have finally acknowledged the issue. I will be taking them to court to try and recover some of my losses, but will NEVER consider any product from Alpine again, based on how I was treated as a customer.

Potential buyers be warned!

Yes. Poor service I can deal with.

But my experience left me feeling that they don’t care at all about their customers and are unwilling to stand behind the product.

Desperately wanted to like/love the car but in the end, just gave up.

I believe these difficult situations allow the brands to demonstrate their values. Was very clear to me that Alpine don’t have any.

Incidentally, the service manager at the dealership told me that the ECU on the engines is quite basic which limits their ability to diagnose issues.

Sorry to hear OP, and of little comfort but the Which survey was similarly scathing about Alpine reliability.

Thanks. Agree the stalling issue seems to be quite unique.

The issue for me relates to:
- their inability to diagnose the fault
- lack of willingness to propose any other solutions: ie I was just meant to keep going back for more diagnosis
- in my view, the absolute lies about not being able to replicate the fault (given I was able to experience it immediately).

I had a similar experience a number of years ago with a Skoda Octy than means I'll never buy another VAG product. Unfortunately cars are complex and some will have problems, but the way you are treated when they occur says a huge amount. I'm amazed in this day and age where reputations are so much easier to damage still how skinflint some manufacturers are when it comes to putting things right.- particularly when you look at their marketing budgets and think about how a positive experience might give much more good PR than advertising could buy.

I agree with you entirely. Spot on.

Glad to hear your experience was better than mine.

As @jont- said, it’s when things go wrong that you judge the manufacturer and their agents.

Thanks. It went back to the closest dealer each time, which I thought was a good thing (ie knowledge of the history and consistency).

I was in contact with another tech outside the London area who was very helpful. However, apparently the dealership was in contexts with the special Alpine SWAT team who deal with complex technical issues, but still no joy. It seemed as if they had the best brains involved, but still no joy.

As mentioned above, I was told unofficially that the ECU is quite basic and apparently limited in terms of diagnostic info.

In terms of the stalling issue, occurred in normal mode when the idle revs are lower (vs sport mode). Also interesting that this issue only began after the pump was replaced.

Seems the Which survey was right, with Alpine at the bottom of the table for reliability.

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/new-and-used-cars/...

Does not surprise me at all sadly.

Alpine & Renaultsport in the UK after sales care is appalling. My Renaultsport was abused & damaged at the main service it even came from the factory order with faults that were not immediately apparent to me until much later.

When Renaulsport got retired as a brand Alpine (same parent company Renault & same engine as the Renaultsport Megane MK4s which they put in the Alpine) was supposed to be the replacement car line but after sales care for both is terrible I only use independents who care about me as a customer & treat my RS with respect. It means nothing to RUK I bought their (at the time most expensive flagship car).

Also the fuel pump issue affects many MK4 Renaultsport Meganes & has left owners stranded left right & centre! Its been known about for at least 2-3 years now....