I have been looking at the brand new Renault Megane 1.9DCi 130 Dynamique models for sale at £9999 (3dr) and £10999 (5dr) on www.motorpoint.co.uk, a saving of almost £5k against the UK list price.
I called Motorpoint to ask about the warranty and was told that the vehicles were built for the Cyprus market but would be covered by the manufacturers warranty. They could not be any more specific.
These models at UK dealers come with a 3 year / 60,000 mile warranty with 10,000 mile / 12 months service intervals.
Renault UK Customer Services tell me that because the vehicles were destined for Cyprus they would need to be serviced to that country's schedule, which is every 6000 miles or 12 months, and that the warranty would only be for 2 years / 25,000 miles.
I can understand why they are saying this in principle, it is obviously a method to try to discourage people from buying the imports in the first place. What I find annoying is that the car is to the same spec as the UK equivalent, yet they are able to make such a restrictive condition just because they feel like it.
What do others think on this?
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I suppose you could ask: Why should Renault UK support the warranty on a car supplied by Renault Cyprus?
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EU regulations make is impossible for a UK based distributor not to honour a purchase in another EU Country - Cypus is EU and therefore Renault and any other importer to the UK must honour a warranty.
If the car comes from outside the EU then they have no duty over any warranty.
VW were fined £60m a few years back for interfering with purchases between EU members.
Recently Subaru UK said they would not honour Malta/Cyprus warranties but changed their mind with the EU reulation was brought to their attention.
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Peter, is the service interval down now to every 10,000 miles? My Scenic dci 120 is 18,000 mile services. Wonder if this is as a result of all the alleged problems with the 18,000 mile service?
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Bobby, I was told 10,000 miles by Renault Customer Service.
Bill, you quiet rightly ask why should Renault UK support a Cyprus vehicle warranty. You could also ask how Renault UK can justify charging almost £5k over the odds.
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I've been looking at the Laguna 2.0 Sport Tourer 2.0 dCi 175 and the service interval appears to be 9000 or once a year.
(Source: Diesel Car March 2006)
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Renault is not forcing you buy either the UK model or the imported model.
So whats your beef. YOu want it you buy it, you want to moan about it buy a volkswagen.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It shouldn't matter what country it was originally destined for. We are supposedly in a global market aren't we?
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In reality, the price of a UK 5 door is £12441 from somewhere like Broadspeed. So the difference is only £1500. For this you get the extra warranty and extended service intervals, possibly better residuals, AA cover, and less hassle at the dealership when you get a problem. Seems about right to me, you pays your money and takes your choice.
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Could the warranty be similarly affected if a car was sourced from a EU state?
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Sorry, I missed the previous post raising question I just asked and yes, I do believe Cyprus are now members of the EU. So how can a warranty from another EU state be ignored?
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Sorry, I missed the previous post raising question I just asked and yes, I do believe Cyprus are now members of the EU. So how can a warranty from another EU state be ignored?
I think the EU requires a warranty of 2 yrs, and that's what was offered on the Cyprus sourced cars.
If push came to shove, maybe Renault would back down, but does anyone really need that hassle?
Of course, legally, the buck stops with the supplier, Motorpoint in this case. It would be interesting to take a failed car back to them at 2-3 yrs old and tell them to fix it under their Sale of Goods act responsibilities.
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It is quite interesting that many goods sold in this country (particularly electical/electronic goods) still only come with a one year warranty. Yet, for example, digital cameras bought from France come with a 2 year warranty, when the same camera bought in the UK has only a 1 year warranty. Sony were notorious for offering only 90 day warranties on their digital cameras at one time (in the US I think).
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It is quite interesting that many goods sold in this country (particularly electical/electronic goods) still only come with a one year warranty. Yet, for example, digital cameras bought from France come with a 2 year warranty, when the same camera bought in the UK has only a 1 year warranty. Sony were notorious for offering only 90 day warranties on their digital cameras at one time (in the US I think).
I thought I'd read some time ago that the EU were insisting on 2yr w'tees for everything.
However, warranty is 'in addition to your statutory rights' - and they, amongst other things, demand that the item should work for a reasonable period of time. Difficulty is with the timing, but with domestic appliances for example, it's generally considered to be 5yrs.
I've never understood why the same principle's don't appear to be applied to cars? Although, to be fair, when both rear springs broke on wife's 4 yr old Clio (and this was a 1998 car with a 1 yr w'tee) Renault replaced FOC after nothing more than a firm request.
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