Brand New Citroen DS5 - plenty of faults and bad paint job

[mbrad26]

With these feet said:

Occasionally Ive looked at a panel Ive repaired and thought it not good enough as I can still see, however slight, a mismatch that most people would not notice and do it again.
This is such a poor match, though the finish looks original (would need to look closely for repair or dirt etc) its almost as if they have removed the bumper from another car just before delivery.

Also the initial brake issues would concern me, 3 miles on the clock? What happened to the PDI road test? Most of the cars we handed over had at least 10 even 20 miles on them.

From what I saw it was an almost perfect job, although a little less clear coat - there wasn't to much depth...

There wasn't any PDI. I understand that this PDI is done by the Dealer at the expense of the manufacturer?? Is this correct or is something that is not mandatory?

Cheers

[mbrad26]

shost said:

I spotted a DS5 yesterday in that same grey. Whilst driving past I could see a colour mismatch on the front bumper!

Mbrad, it may be worth seeing a another grey car to check the standard of paint from factory.

Maybe is the same car

If this is Citroen's standard then is safe to say is a substandard - but I strongly believe that this is not the case.

Cheers

[mbrad26]

Hi

I got news. Citroen UK called and informed me that they've been in contact with the Dealer all this days. The Dealer's Customer Service Manager is preparing an answer for me together with their legal team. I should expect to receive their answer later today.
Citroen UK will receive a copy of their answer as well

I'm so curious...

Citroen UK agree with me that there is a serious colour mismatch. They also told me that if during the transit a car is damaged, the transportation company usually informs Citroen about the damage and the repairing costs and so Citroen has a database with all the vehicles damaged during transit. However Citroen UK doesn't have any information about my car in this regard. This a proper mystery because clearly there is a colour mismatch.

That's all for now.

Cheers

[mbrad26]

Hello again

I have a letter from the Dealer Customer Service Manager. According to their letter I have no grounds for rejecting the car and they are all-ready charging my for car storage.

Here is you can find the letter

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26371319@N02/1376033...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26371319@N02/1376033...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26371319@N02/1376035...

Cheers

[mbrad26]

I think they work now

[mbrad26]

Thanks

• ****'s just called my wife to tell her that they have nothing to do with this because this is between us and the dealer. Unbelievable.

I will file a complaint to Financial Ombudsman Services and Motor Trade Standards

Edited by mbrad26 on Tuesday 15th April 18:01

[mbrad26]

Any of you guys know any publication that might be interested in helping me? I already written to WhatCar but so far nobody contacted me.

[mbrad26]

Thanks

I'm waiting for Citroen UK to have their say on this.

Putting aside the steering faults, the Dealer's Customer Service Manager doesn't consider I have grounds to reject the car solely because of front-bumper's miss-coloured issue. I don't think they are taking me seriously. This is not customer service... She should immediately resign imho. Unbelievable

Tomorrow morning we go abroad for 10 days. When we return we should send them a check...that's so nice.
I'll show them ... You don't mess with the Zohan

Cheers

[mbrad26]

Already spoke with the General Manager and he directed me to their Customer Service Manager, who in the end sent the letter.

I'have returned the car to them 2 times. I have also took the car to another Citroen Dealer to have it inspected but with no result.

They still don't consider that I have the right to reject the car even for the simple reason of the miss coloured bumper.

The Dealer is trying to intimidate us by charging for the storage of the car. If this is Customer Service ....

[mbrad26]

Good morning

I've been told by users on other forums that they had their cars changed with no problems by the dealers for similar paint issues. No other inspections or reports.

The steering problem is now secondary if I want the car replaced with no other headache. There is more then enough evidence to reject the car.

[mbrad26]

WinstonWolf said:

Hope you get a result. One thing, the letter says the geo was set for a C5 and not a DS5. I think that needs to be clarified in case it comes back to bite you on the bum..

The C5 description is just a description. The values used for my car are the standard ones for a DS5 2.0HDI 165 HP Manual. The garage who did the tracking is ready to back this. Also the letter received from the Dealer doesn't make any reference to the fact that the print out from the garage was approved by the Dealer's Service Manager, ***** himself. I personally asked them to check the wheel alignment and I've been told that this is not necessary as this was done properly by the Wheel Alignment Centre.
Also, when my car was inspected by the Citroen Southampton, I asked the wheel alignment to be checked and once again they told me that its not necessary.
The independent garage that has done the tracking is very well known in Southampton - and is frequently used by high performance cars owners.

Why did the Dealer failed to do a proper wheel alignment??? What stopped them to do so when I returned the car to them for the second time? The easiest way to prove that wheel alignment done by the independent garage was wrong, is to check the tracking by a Citroen Dealer using manufacturer values. Why the Dealer just didn't do it?? Is beyond my understanding.

I chose to share the full content of the letter with you because I want you to have the full picture. Judge for yourself who is wrong in this story.

Cheers

Edited by mbrad26 on Tuesday 15th April 18:04

[mbrad26]

TooMany2cvs said:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/26371319@N02/1376033...

Para 6...
OP - you've already test-driven a demo, and you agreed that drove exactly the same as your car?

I didn't want it to test drive that demo but Mr ***** insisted. As I told to Mr *****, it is irrelevant how that car drove compared to mine, because it was a Dstyle DS5 2.0 HDI 165 Auto. DStyle models come with 18'' wheels with different seize tyres and that particular car, also, has around 7000 miles. And I did not agreed that drove exactly the same - that's a nice little untrue.

Edited by mbrad26 on Tuesday 15th April 18:05

[mbrad26]

vrsmxtb said:

I love how they throw the road traffic act at the OP!!!

From the letter I can't help but get the feeling that the OP comes across a tad aggressive? No excuse on their part, still lousy service but the letter sounds very defensive.

I hope it's resolved though, if the car is so normal why not just like for like swap it with something else on the books to keep a customer happy.

How else was I supposed to demonstrate how the steering behaves??? In what other possible way was I supposed to show them that the steering rubbish. The only way that came in my mind was to take my hands off the steering.

[mbrad26]

TooMany2cvs said:

Where did they get those settings from? Because every time I've seen somebody using a computerised four-wheel tracking setup, they just pick what car it is from a list, and it gets the correct settings from that. If they put the correct settings in manually, why would they put so much detail about the wrong car in?

The DS5 doesn't even share a platform with the C5 - it uses the platform from the C4 Picasso & 3008, a longer version of the 307 platform. The C5 uses a completely different setup, shared with the 407.

I really can't tell you how he sourced those settings. ********* Stourbridge agreed initially with the data from the print out and later change their minds. Although they now argue that the alignment was not done properly, they didn't corrected the alignment when I have returned the car to them not once but two times.

Edited by mbrad26 on Tuesday 15th April 18:06

[mbrad26]

Crafty_ said:

Ref to the wheel alignment shop that corrected the car for the OP, they are affiliated with supertracker, Nick who runs the place used to work for Supertracker and went out on his own to provide a dedicated centre for alignment & setup. If you go in he has all sorts of cars adorning his walls from classic corvettes to late model porsches.

OP: Screw the paint I'd send the photos below to Citreon and the dealer and ask them if they think this is the quality that customers should expect, its absolutely awful.

[img]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3690/13621654305_39c6641ea0.I jpg[/img]Citroen Files 001 by mbrad_26, on Flickr

Citroen Files 010 by mbrad_26, on Flickr

I don't think its been pranged, its just st.

Absolutely true. As soon as you enter the garage you know that is a professional place. Immaculate place, just like a surgery room, with all the echipment shining and in tip top condition.

[mbrad26]

WinstonWolf said:

I'm on your side, just trying to help you dot the i's and cross the t's.

Thank you. Never doubt it.

Once again a Big Thank You to everyone one, for your amazing support. Much appreciated.

Thank you

[mbrad26]

Hi there

Just to let you know that nothing significant has changed so far. Citroen UK has promised to send me an email as soon as the Dealer will send its response letter. The letter was received last Thursday and ... I still don't have any news from Citroen UK other than the following message received today on my FB page:

"Hi, our team is working hard to resolve this for you as quickly as possible. We do apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience"

Cheers

[mbrad26]

Hi

I have some news. Today I have received two emails and one phone call from Citroen UK.

I couldn't take the phone call as I was up the mountains, trekking. The first email came to inform why they didn't got in-touch with me as Citroen UK was waiting for the Dealer to have their say in this story. This is a little ... as I'm convinced that they received the letter at the same time as I did.

The second email kind of gives me a little bit of hope:

[i]I called you and left you a voicemail and of course you don't have to return my call as I know you're currently out of the country.

Just a courtesy email to let you know we won't accept at this stage the dealer charging you for holding your Citroën DS5. I'm going to continue speaking with ********* from ***** and try my best to resolve matters amicably.

I'll keep you updated via email whilst you're away and of course will call you once you're back in the UK.[/i]


It's clear that the pressure on Citroe UK is mounting because some of you took this story to their Facebook page and kind of forced Citroen UK to take damage control actions. I really, really THANK YOU for everything you guys doing and for your amazing support. When I begun posting on this forum, and others, I didn't really expected this kind of reactions from you all. You are truly amazing and I hope some day I will be able to return your help.

One more thing happened today. WhatCar Helpdesk has contacted me on Facebook requiring more details about my story. Hope they will help as I have read about many difficult situations resolved by their enquires. Citroen UK knows them very well and many other manufacturers as well, including prestigious ones.

Thank you guys

[mbrad26]

Superhoop said:

Whilst I sympathise with the OP and agree that the bumper fit/colour match is shocking, I'm a bit confused as to what is happening on PH...

This thread names the dealer. so what happened to the 'no naming and shaming' policy?

This isn't the first time that there has been threads like this, most get deleted, some are allowed to stay, but most seem to be either new members who once they've got what they wanted out of PH, disappear never to post again, or like in this case, a member for a while, who has no posting history, then starts a thread like this one.

Looking at the Citroen UK site, a couple of the OP's posts on there read like a threat to Citroen because it's posted on PH, and there's even one post to another Citroen owner with an issue advising him to post on PH to use as leverage.

That said, good luck to the OP and I hope you get this sorted

Took notes of your observations and as I may not agree with them totally I do understand what you are saying and I have decided to edit all my posts and censored them. Hope this will help. If I may have missed something please bring them to my attention.

If it wasn't for PH and other forums the manufacturers and their dealers would be in a clear leveraged position over the consumer. My post, not posts, on Citroen's FB, that you refer at, is my advice to someone who is in a similar position as I am, fighting for his statutory rights to be recognised without any delay. This fight is clearly unbalanced without forums and social media platforms. Hope you will never be in my position. But if you will...this forums and social media platforms will appear as gold to you.

I didn't planned this thread to hurt Citroen or someone else...this is ridiculous.

[mbrad26]

trama said:

Of course only the op can get hard evidence but maybe he should have done so before rejecting the car. He can't really say the car has been in an accident because the people on pistonheads say so.

I have no relationship with citroen, I read the op first on the consumer action forum but he never went back there so I thought I join the discussion here.

Trama what are you saying? I have started a thread on the consumer action forum on 10th April 2014 and I have returned to that forum yesterday and today. Only yesterday I have found a way to post links to the thread started by me as I didn't had the right to post links to other sites. Here is the link to that thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthr...

I respect your opinion that I have rejected the car to early but I do not agree with it. A brand new car should be fault free. The steering and suspension faults are only part of the problem. The front bumper miss colour issues is not acceptable for a brand new car not even if you live in North Korea. I have bought a BRAND NEW CAR and is my statutory right to receive one for the amount of money that I have paid for. There is no mention in any law that I should give the Dealer 3 -4 or 100 occasions to fix it. A brand new car once again should be a brand new car.

If you go by a T-shirt from a high street store that has a flaw that you discover when you arrive home - you have the right to return it back no questions asked. The same for a TV set or furniture or game console or bicycle or printer, PC or mobile phone.

If my car's problems seems so trivial that a Dealer should have given the opportunity to fix it why didn't they fixed it when they had the chance. What about the first time when I have returned the car, in the delivery day, and the Service Manager failed to recognise a bad wheel alignment symptoms - like the car pulling to one side and the steering wheel being off center, leaned to the left. This is truly ridiculous, for a Service Manager not to be able to spot a tracking problem so obvious. Or he knew the history of the car and tried to hide it.

All the best

Edited by mbrad26 on Tuesday 15th April 19:00