Alpine A110: an owner’s experience

[stanlow45]

bcr5784 said:

While I think Alpine have been far too slow to get to a resolution of this issue - they are not alone. Toyota had a similar Denzo fuel pump issue with 3.36 MILLION (later revised to 6 million I believe) Toyota and Lexus cars from 2012- 2020. It cost Toyota $287 million to settle the class action that resulted!

[Kananga]

[Meonstoke]

Kananga said:

Meonstoke said:

What a sad but also incredible story - I have never heard of such poor service. I find it hard to believe that any dealer would deliberately sit on a car which is faulty and do absolutely nothing! My instinct tells me there's more behind this - I have no idea what, but something doesn't add up. And we need to be fair here, the dealer is not in a position to defend themselves. Perhaps best we stop this thread - there are always 2 sides to a coin.

I’ve been entirely factual and have the history documented.

My issue is more with Alpine UK and the brand.

I think the dealer was trying to do their best but was unable to diagnose/remedy the issue. Sounds like the next owner is having the same issues.

No concerns if you prefer me to stop posting about these issues, but just think good for prospective buyers to go into Alpine ownership with eyes open.

No worries, and no doubts on the bad service you experienced. However, over the years, I've learnt (the hard way) to assume there are things I simply just don't know - even in what looks like clear cut situations. I like to be fair if we're on a forum criticizing a third party who're unable to respond directly.

But if an Alpine dealer has deliberately and knowingly sold on a faulty car - I presume you were fully transparent about the stalling malfunction to the Alpine dealer whom you sold your car - then that is serious malpractice! In which case, the car's new owner who has inherited the car's faults would have every right to seek damages from that Alpine dealer!

However, if the dealer was unaware of the car's problems when they purchased it then we shouldn't tar them with the same brush. They should be given the chance to resolve the issues with the new owner. Fingers crossed!

[Kananga]

I bought it from a non-Alpine dealer when it was c.1 year old.

However, it wasn’t stalling when I bought it. The stalling started after the fuel pump was replaced.

Alpine insisted the car was fine, and also that they couldn’t replicate the fault. On this basis I sold it back to an Alpine dealer, given they were so confident the car was not faulty.

Curious that the dealership investigating the fault offered £3k less than WBAC, and I have all of this in writing.

I’ve tried to ensure I have worded everything carefully so as not to misrepresent anything in this thread. I strongly suspect (but have not confirmed) that I was deliberately misled. That said, the dealership’s insistence that the car was fine gave me enough comfort to sell it back into the Alpine network. I specifically opted not to sell it privately.

Edited by Kananga on Friday 29th March 17:55

[Simon Owen]

Frustrating experience, sad thing is I’m not so sure Alpine are any worse than a lot of manufacturers ? I know this doesn’t help when your the one with the bad experience!!

Several close friends & family with not dissimilar horror stories from Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Mclaren…

It’s really difficult to be balanced too isn’t it, our ND mx5 is 7 years old and beed ridiculously reliable, read the internet and you’d think they all had chocolate gearboxes !! Maybe we got lucky, I dunno !!

We’re doing ok with our A110 but that said it’s the only car in 25y+ that has stopped on me, alternator was our problem.

Good luck with your replacement

[Kananga]

I’ve had a lot of cars over the years. The Alpine is easily top of the league table for worst experience ever.

Anytime I’ve had issues with BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, etc, they eventually got resolved and the customer service was always reasonable if not very good.

[Meonstoke]

Kananga said:

I bought it from a non-Alpine dealer when it was c.1 year old.

However, it wasn’t stalling when I bought it. The stalling started after the fuel pump was replaced.

Alpine insisted the car was fine, and also that they couldn’t replicate the fault. On this basis I sold it back to an Alpine dealer, given they were so confident the car was not faulty.

Curious that the dealership investigating the fault offered £3k less than WBAC, and I have all of this in writing.

I’ve tried to ensure I have worded everything carefully so as not to misrepresent anything in this thread. I strongly suspect (but have not confirmed) that I was deliberately misled. That said, the dealership’s insistence that the car was fine gave me enough comfort to sell it back into the Alpine network. I specifically opted not to sell it privately.

Edited by Kananga on Friday 29th March 17:55

There you go, and like I said, there are always nuances / unknowns...

You bought the car from a non-Alpine dealer who may well have known there were issues with the fuel pump, and possibly even knew about stalling issues - who knows? And where were they in all of this?

Given the trials and tribulations, and that it was not a car you bought from them, it is certainly not surprising that the local Alpine dealer you were dealing with did not offer the best offer to buy the car! And clearly the Alpine Dealer you sold it too were unaware of the stalling issues...

I see your reasoning - "it's a damn Alpine issue, so let them sort it out!". Not so sure everyone would have taken the same tack TBH. Now some poor soul is stuck with a lemon...

Edited by Meonstoke on Saturday 30th March 09:37

[Albionmuz]

I am an old cynic and there is no way I’d buy a year old car from a non dealer. It would set alarm bells ringing instantly to me.

Sorry to hear of the problems you experienced and I totally get your disgust at Alpine cars. I am only a couple of months into ownership and have so far had an exemplary experience with the dealer I bought from, as did the previous owner who I tracked down from paperwork left in the manual wallet. Out of warranty alternator replaced, cracked windscreen, which happened after purchase, to be replaced, fuel pump recall a week ago, very very small amount of rear wheel arch corrosion to be sorted. Car is an Aug 2018 car

I am hoping your experience is a one off!

Edited by Albionmuz on Saturday 30th March 07:21

Edited by Albionmuz on Saturday 30th March 07:23

[Kananga]

Meonstoke said:

There you go, and like I said, there are always nuances / unknowns...

You bought the car from a non-Alpine dealer who may well have known there were issues with the fuel pump, and possibly even knew about stalling issues - who knows? And where were they in all of this?

Given the trials and tribulations, and that it was not a car you bought from them, it is certainly not surprising that the local Alpine dealer you were dealing with did not offer the best offer to buy the car! And clearly the Alpine Dealer you sold it too were unaware of the stalling issues...

I see your reasoning - "it's a damn Alpine issue, so let them sort it out!". Not so sure everyone would have taken the same tack TBH. Now some poor sod is stuck with a lemon...

I don’t think there is any issue with buying from a non-Alpine dealer. Before purchase, I was actually able to track down the original owner (and spoke to them in detail). The first owner decided they wanted a change, and bought a Supra, the Alpine was traded in as a p/x. I genuinely don’t think they were aware of the broader fuel pump issues at the time, and (as I’ve mentioned), the stalling issue only began after the pump change.

Yes, I did contact the Toyota dealer too and they were of no help whatsoever; basically just kept insisting that it was an issue that Alpine needed to fix as a warranty repair.

As for selling the car, i basically had two choices:
- sell the car
- keep sending it back to Alpine who seemed unable to fix it

Based on your comments, I guess you’d have taken the latter option but after ~5 months owning a car that i couldn’t really use, i gave up.

[Andy665]

Whilst the service received is / was undoubtedly poor the trade in price is entirely irrelevant.

Interesting that you made no mention of it being bought from a non-Alpine dealer in your original post.

How long did you have the car for - that alone could mean the £5,000 loss was entirely in line with normal depreciation. I recently sold a V8 Vantage and suffered a £12k loss after 16 months - painful but thats the market and I had to suck it up

No dealer is obliged to offer any specific price for a vehicle, there should be no expectation that an Alpine dealer would / should offer more than anyone else. Out of interest, did you get a price from the non-Alpine dealer that you bought it from?

Edited by Andy665 on Saturday 30th March 08:02

[Kananga]

I didn’t think it was relevant where the car was purchased from, but wasn’t trying to hide anything.

The issues here are:
A) the fuel pump issue should have been acknowledged by Alpine earlier (as a general point, not just for my car); and
B) that the manufacturer was unable to diagnose and fix a fault with my car

I wouldn’t mind suffering depreciation for any car that I’ve purchased and used. The fact is that this all occurred within a 6m period where I didn’t have much usage of the car at all. And I wasn’t looking to recover depreciation from Alpine.

I only mentioned the trade-in prices to illustrate the huge variation within the network. Will go back through my emails but I believe the supplying dealership was at £46k

Edited by Kananga on Saturday 30th March 08:11

[Andy665]

Kananga said:

Only mentioned the trade-in prices to illustrate the huge variation within the network.

Will go back through my emails but I believe the supplying dealership was at £46k.

Not really an issue is it though, you will always get that irrespective of the brand and absolutely unrelated to your issue re: poor service

[Pistom]

I feel for the OP and it's good that he shares this but it seems he's had bad luck on several counts.

I'm not sure if OP mentioned what if anything has replaced it.

My take on it is that most of us have had similar experiences with other brands.

I wouldn't expect premium brand levels of service or support from Alpine and I wouldn't have been so ready to throw the towel in so soon but I'm a car enthusiast who loves a challenge.

I'd be disappointed if I went on a road trip and didn't have issues. That's part of the fun.

As for Alpine ownership - I wouldn't be buying one in the expectation of Porsche levels of build quality or reliability.

[Andy665]

Pistom said:

As for Alpine ownership - I wouldn't be buying one in the expectation of Porsche levels of build quality or reliability.

Always makes me smile when I see this mentioned. For some reason regular mechanical issues and associated costs with Porsches seems to be accepted as part and parcel of owning a Porsche - threads far and wide from owners throwing big sums of money at very regular intervals to keep their cars on the road - not sure why Porsche problems / costs are seen differently

I'm too early into A110 ownership to know if service is good, bad or indifferent, I have experienced zero issues in 7 months, I do know that I would never buy a Porsche again and expect great reliability, my most reliable cars have been the Tuscan, Alfa GTVs and Jaguar S Type - none of which should be touched with a bargepole according to many

Edited by Andy665 on Saturday 30th March 08:43

[Kananga]

Pistom said:

I feel for the OP and it's good that he shares this but it seems he's had bad luck on several counts.

I'm not sure if OP mentioned what if anything has replaced it.

My take on it is that most of us have had similar experiences with other brands.

I wouldn't expect premium brand levels of service or support from Alpine and I wouldn't have been so ready to throw the towel in so soon but I'm a car enthusiast who loves a challenge.

I'd be disappointed if I went on a road trip and didn't have issues. That's part of the fun.

As for Alpine ownership - I wouldn't be buying one in the expectation of Porsche levels of build quality or reliability.

Thanks Pistom.

Yes definitely upset about the road trip but mainly due to my rotten luck and also the bungling delays from Alpine: eg. the recovery to the alpine dealership was delayed by 1.5 days due to the contractor not being given the approval from Alpine. Had I not been constantly chasing, I likely wouldnt have had the car back before leaving.

Can laugh about it now but just wish I’d taken another car on the trip, as I missed out on all the driving and had been really looking forward to it.

Think you’ve nailed it, I expected a more premium level of service, which was my own mistake. And yes, I threw the towel in because I’m a little time poor and life is too short !

The replacements are a 981S + GR86.

[Whaleblue]

Whilst I feel for the OP who lost a road trip and £5k, in exchange for hassle, I do feel this is an example of how just one experience can only paint a distorted picture.

It’s the classic 99 4/5 star reviews and one 1 star review. Is the product good, or do you shy away because of the 1% experience? Similarly, look at the Which? point-in-time review - is that an accurate reflection of the new cars folk are buying now? I rather doubt it.

I’m happy to qualify that I believe Alpine handled the fuel pump issue extremely badly - and that does leave a stain they were very foolish to allow.

Edited by Whaleblue on Saturday 30th March 09:23

[stanlow45]

Pistom said:

As for Alpine ownership - I wouldn't be buying one in the expectation of Porsche levels of build quality or reliability.

100% this, as evidenced by the latest Which survey.

[Kananga]

Whaleblue said:

Whilst I feel for the OP who lost a road trip and £5k, in exchange for hassle, I do feel this is an example of how just one experience can only paint a distorted picture.

It’s the classic 99 4/5 star reviews and one 1 star review. Is the product good, or do you shy away because of the 1% experience? Similarly, look at the Which? point-in-time review - is that an accurate reflection of the new cars folk are buying now? I rather doubt it.

I’m happy to qualify that I believe Alpine handled the fuel pump issue extremely badly - and that does leave a stain they were very foolish to allow.

Edited by Whaleblue on Saturday 30th March 09:23

Yup. I wanted to love the car as a refreshing alternative to Porsche and other makes. Absolutely adored the interior, ride quality, size, etc.

Someone should have been fired over the handling of the fuel pump issue, and i think they are lucky that there have been no fatalities.

The stalling is not a common problem but I just despise the way Alpine handled the situation. I had to refrain from speaking my mind when they offered me the £150 voucher.

As mentioned above, would have been happy if they had just refunded the £1,500 warranty cost as a gesture. Wouldn’t have cost them anything on a net basis, as it was money I’d paid them anyway.

[Kananga]

stanlow45 said:

100% this, as evidenced by the latest Which survey.

Yup. Their reputational damage is largely self-inflicted.

[moto63]

Thank you Kananga for a full and honest ownership report. I know own said Lemon and it’s the best car I ever bought even with its little problems. The car stalled on me on the drive home from collecting from the dealer and over the next 2 or 3 months stalled again about 6 times. It’s not a big deal just start button, D and away. Has not stalled for the last 3k miles now although I still see the revs dip in Normal, hoping it has sorted itself. My larger issue is wet braking. Can’t fault the brakes dry but after a wet m27 without using them they are awful first stab at the pedal. Why no back plates on the front to help keep the water off?
Easily the worst thing about ownership though is my service dept visit where I mentioned the brakes and stalling to be told after 2 hrs no fault with either. IE your brakes are fine in dry conditions ( er, I know that) and stalling is stop start!! Fobbed off and treated like a Burke is not what I expected.
Will be trying a different dealer but expecting more of the same.