Alfa 159-Clutch Gone At 35,000 miles, Garage Not Interested

[daveco]

A mates car's clutch has just gone, 5 months after he bought it. He drives it normally, doesn't thrash the thing and the garage he bought it from are saying that it falls under your standard wear and tear i.e. pads, tyres etc. In short they're telling them it isn't their problem.
I think this is incorrect; surely it was a duff clutch if it's only lasted 35,000 miles of which only 5,000 were driven by my mate?

[Whitean3]

I think it is a case of wear & tear. You rmate bought a second hand car- you don't know how the car had been driven for the first 30000 miles. Also, the garage could easily claim that the clutch has worn out through poor driver control (slipping the clutch), through towing etc. I can't see any comeback. If the clutch had gone a coupl eof days after purchase then you may have had a case. With an extra 5000 miles on the clock, it's a case of sucking it up and forking out for a new clutch in my opinion.

[daveco]

Thanks for the info chaps. How much for a new clutch? 750 quid reasonable

[Justin S]

we lost the clutch in our Honda diesel at 23k miles. We had owned it from 3k miles.It was out of warranty and the car was a fleet honda when new. The wife ( ex driving instructor) and me do not slip the clutch and as said , we don't know how it was treated before our ownership. Honda paid for the clutch and half the labour as a goodwill gesture, although never showed us the clutch taken out, even though I asked to see it. But £400 notes was cheaper than paying the whole lot. Clutch bite is totally different now, to what it was before strangely...................Mate, who has is own garage buisness checked the car over afterwards and said he could see the box had been out..................

[Si 330]

My dads jaguar which he had from new, clutch went 6 weeks after the 36 month warranty expired. The car had done 32,000 he had it serviced by the main dealer just 8 weeks before at a cost of £600 he got bugger help with the clutch.

[daveco]

Justin S said:

we lost the clutch in our Honda diesel at 23k miles. We had owned it from 3k miles.It was out of warranty and the car was a fleet honda when new. The wife ( ex driving instructor) and me do not slip the clutch and as said , we don't know how it was treated before our ownership. Honda paid for the clutch and half the labour as a goodwill gesture, although never showed us the clutch taken out, even though I asked to see it. But £400 notes was cheaper than paying the whole lot. Clutch bite is totally different now, to what it was before strangely...................Mate, who has is own garage buisness checked the car over afterwards and said he could see the box had been out..................

That's interesting. Did you go above the dealer you bought the car from or did you approach the dealer about this gesture of goodwill?

[sklar]

Justin S said:

we lost the clutch in our Honda diesel at 23k miles. We had owned it from 3k miles.It was out of warranty and the car was a fleet honda when new. The wife ( ex driving instructor) and me do not slip the clutch and as said , we don't know how it was treated before our ownership. Honda paid for the clutch and half the labour as a goodwill gesture, although never showed us the clutch taken out, even though I asked to see it. But £400 notes was cheaper than paying the whole lot. Clutch bite is totally different now, to what it was before strangely...................Mate, who has is own garage buisness checked the car over afterwards and said he could see the box had been out..................

2.2 CDTi perchance? When I had mine in a Civic and was frequenting Civinfo.com I heard many stories of premature clutch failure on there.