RCZ Ownership Discussion Thread

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen.

I have created this thread due to to the overwhelming amount of issues that have cropped up over the last few weeks (months? years) by various members - myself included.

Being the community specifically tailored for RCZ owners rather than the Peugeot brand as a whole we find ourselves in a bit of a niche. We spend a lot on our cars with them being the flagship model but our numbers are not as vast as say those in the 207 or GTi communities and sometimes we are neglected because of the exclusivity.

The simple fact when dealing with Peugeot seems to be this. Those who shout the loudest will be heard and those that don't will be discarded. there have been a few members already adding their own experiences into other threads but they tend to get lost in the banter and clutter.

This is aimed to be a discussion thread where we can highlight the main and recurring issues we have with our ownership experience which, once completed, will be sent to Peugeot UK in an attempt to get dialogue started.

Ideally it would be helpful when it comes to collating the issues if we kept this thread on the rails...as hard as that may be

Lets give ourselves a voice that will be listened to!

Richard

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF KEY ISSUES TO DATE:

RESPONSES TO DATE:

Right folks, Ive added two new posts under the main one with Key issues raised and Responses received. Once (if) the thread picks up steam and people use it as intended then I can collate the info into one easy to find post and then also record any responses I get from Peugeot about them when we decide to submit the issues to them.

blitzeh wrote:

I have had my RCZ for about 6 months, bought it 2nd hand from an approved dealer. I noticed an oil leak coming from the engine bay so took it in for what I thought would be some simple warranty work.
To cut a long story short they charged me £270 to fix it because it apparently isn't covered by my extended warranty. Looking on here it seems this is a regular problem with the RCZ and I just wondered if anyone had any advice because I can't help but feel I've been ripped off paying that 6 months after buying the car.

Thanks

First issue I think needs to be addressed is the issue of the THP and its infamous timing issues.
Forum member Blitzeh was forced to fork out for a new tensioner.
This has been the Prince engines achillies heel regardless where its used, Citreon, BMW, Peugeot, all suffer the same issues.

It can be rectified in two ways.

Firstly and less costly is that the tensioner fails, this is basically a spring loaded item that keeps tension on the cam chain. When it wears down the chain rattles as its no longer in tension.
The item costs about £50 new but as Blitzeh found out its a job the garages do charge a lot for (forums across the mini / ds3 / pug boards give a time of between 45 and 90 minutes to complete.)

Secondly is when the whole timing assembly needs replaced, usually if the tensioner has not been replaced in time and the chain stretches requiring replacement.

These items should really last for 80,000 Miles +

Clarity is needed on why not all garages recognise this as an issue / why some members have been denied warranty claims when it is a sudden and unexpected failure and also why there has not been a standard procedure issued to all Peugeot dealerships on the correct course of action when a customer comes in with suspected timing issues on their THP Engines

Second issue to be raised is regarding the service interval confusion, service price variation and general customer service from franchised dealers as raised by Snowy87

Snowy87 wrote:

Can somebody there please tell me why there is so much confusion regarding servicing intervals/costs and requirements? You only have to read a few different posts on this forum to realiise that it is an absolute shambles.
We have many people on this forum who have already had a two year service on their RCZs and have not even been spoken to about the possibility of changing brake fluid, let alone actually changing it. I was told by my local Dealer that it was necessary to change the brake fluid every 2 years to keep the warranty live. So does it need to be changed or not? If indeed it does, you are going to have a lot of angry customers out there that in theory have voided their warranty through no fault of their own. If it does not have to be changed, why was I told it does after only 9600 miles in 2 years?
You also have Dealerships out there saying that their RCZ's NEED to be serviced EVERY year. Is this true? If its not, there are a lot of Peugeot owners being conned out of their hard earned. If it is true, why was I told that it is a Bi-annual service unless high mileages are achieved.
Why is there such a difference in various servicing costs. Dealers seem to pluck a figure out of the air, add a tenner and thats the cost.
Also I have noticed that the standard of dealership seems to be very different, quality wise around the Country. You dont have to look to far down the recent posts on our forum, to see that one of our members is receiving absolutely disgusting treatment from the garage that "supposedly" serviced his RCZ. He is still awaiting the response call they promised him 3 days ago!! The deeper you dig on this subject the worse it gets.
Hopefully somebody there can throw some light on the above, as I am getting increasingly concerned by the inconsistency of it all

I understood it was 1 year or 20.000 miles


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CatherineF wrote:

I understood it was 1 year or 20.000 miles


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It was, originally. But not anymore on the newer models. I think from 2012 onwards but stand to be corrected on the date change. Was changed to make the Pug workshops busier


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Well I am pleased to say that after 5 weeks my sat-nav was replaced and I can enjoy the brilliant sound system in the RCZ.

I am still awaiting the resolution of "another issue" that I have so far refrained from mentioning on here because of the potentially harsh effect it could have on the dealer I purchased the car from. Ill recap the story and see what you guys think.

I live in Aberdeen and found the RCZ I wanted down in Letchworth at a dealer called Norton Way Peugeot. An Official dealership so I was happy to buy and managed to get a deal thrashed out that suited both parties.

Before accepting the deal I made it perfectly clear that I would only be coming down to drive the car back home and as such needed full details of any imperfections, in particular the alloys and needed to know if there were any dents or scuffs that I couldn't see in the photos. I also requested Higher Resolution pics to be sent to my email address.

After a day or so the sales rep got back to me and advised that there was "very minor kerbing on an alloy or two" but it looks great and there was no paint imperfections. He sent these photos, obviously taken from his phone but everything looked Spot on and the one close up of an alloy which showed minor kerbing looked like something I could live with. Deposit of £1,000 paid and date arranged to collect.

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As some of you will remember collection day was a bit of a nightmare and it was already getting dark by the time collected the car having also been up for about 12 hours with a 10 hour drive up north ahead of us. The deal was done quite quickly - they had already posted the V5 away for me and we drove off.

The day after and in daylight I got my first look at the car and found this.

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Not only had the lass before me kerbed about 75% of EVERY rim there was also this massive chunk out of the tyre.

The garage had used some very very shiney wet look wax to hide the extent of the alloy kerbing when I colelcted the car in the dull dusk light which had came off over the 600 Mile drive home.

Worse however was the fact that that tyres still had tyre shine on them... including that chunk. meaning that someone cleaned my wheels, hid the kerbing and then tyre dressed the chunk before sending me on my way to a 600 Mile drive up north.

With the sat nav issue I had a bit of correspondence from Steve Jones (Peugeots Customer Relation manager) and brought this tyre issue up the Monday after I collected the car (5 weeks yesterday).

The replies to the tyre issues is as follows

03/03/14
"...I should also point out that we have no involvement in used car sales, and all of the money you paid for the car went to Norton Way Motor Group PLC.

It is of course a great shame that the car should have malfunctioned on your very first journey, and I've asked Norton Way Ltd to respond directly to you on this point, as well as discusssing the tyre issue with you.

In the meantime, I do hope that you will soon be able to enjoy your motoring in your RCZ without further concerns... "

12/03/14

"...I'm really sorry to hear that you've not had any contact and that the issue with the audio/satnav system is not resolved
I'll contact both dealerships again today on your behalf and see what I can do to help.

Thanks again for letting me know..."


25/03/14
"...Thank you for your further e-mail.

Gillanders now have the replacement unit and will be contacting you to book the car in shortly. I hope that this will resolve the issue.

I've also asked Norton Way to contact you again.

Thank you for contacting us..."



So a week on from that still nothing from Nortonway.

I have contacted them several times and when the receptionist or "juniour" sales rep tells me they will get the manager to call he never does and is never in when I call and they cannot deal with it themselves.

So it looks like an unexpected bill of £200+ for a tyre and also about £250 to repair the absolutely ravaged alloys... And when I say 75% of every rim is messed up I mean it.

Personally, having been assured of the condition of the car, asking for photos that clearly show any kerbing and emphasising the point time and time again I need to know the cars condition 100% accurately before I jump on a plane, am I off the mark expecting that damage of this kind should have been mentioned prior to me making travel arrangements.

At the very least I made decisions, booked flights, cancelled insurance and sold a car on the basis of information they provided which in my opinion has been inaccurate.
For what its worth Ive not held a fuss about the alloys to peugeot yet.

The tyre on the other hand I am raging at.. letting me go on a 600mile drive home on a tyre that could go pop

Watchdog? I would suggest Sunday Post "Raw deal", but that's hardly going to knock Norton Way in the nuts!

If I had seen that, I would've cried ....they let you drive a car with a (downright dangerous) tyre!!



I assume Peugeot UK are washing their hands of it by the sound sof it? Dealerships like that should have their franchises revoked......

I dunno donna.. sure sounds like Peugeot want to distance themselves from dealers.

Sounds like deliberate deception to me. Have you got any friends in the legal profession?

Unfortunately all the law buffs I know work for legal departments in Oil Companies rather than pure law firms.

That's appalling and something desperately needs to be done about it.

Figo, can I suggest you PM Peugeot Group (forum member on here) who should be able to get some response from the original dealer that sold you the car.

They do always say though, don't ever buy a car without seeing it in the flesh yourself. Someone else's idea of a car being in good condition is another person's entirely.

Money claim online? Using the photos as evidence?


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Figo wrote:

The day after and in daylight I got my first look at the car and found this.

kerbagelying.jpg

I'll bet your not too impressed with the rusty calipers and brake discs either I know I wasn't with mine

Jimbrodie1 wrote:

Figo wrote:

The day after and in daylight I got my first look at the car and found this.

kerbagelying.jpg

I'll bet your not too impressed with the rusty calipers and brake discs either I know I wasn't with mine

To be honest id expect that with non coated calipers and 19" wheels

Thats an hours work with a wire brush and tin if VHT I could live with sorting that myself.

4 goosed wheels and a dangerous tyre on the other hand... thats not pocket money!

Had some more correspondance with Peugeot UK today so i've basically told them I need an answer to what (if any) will happen now... Further to that I think I may need to look at replacing the tensioner as theres a little rattle developing so I have made them aware of that. After my Nav problmes it will be interesting to see if Peugeot UK decide to step their game up a bit.

The alloys is just plain disappointing and dishonest, the chunk out of the tyre is downright dangerous/potentially illegal. I would keep on ringing them every day until they paid for a replacement tyre at the very least (and I'd also want some money towards a refurb as the car was not sold in the condition it was described to you). If they don't play ball I'd threaten to sue them for covering up a dangerous defect - you could have had a blow-out! (or threaten Watchdog and/or Trading standards - Citizens Advice may be able to help also). Could understand if it was from a private sale, but a dealership should know better...

The law:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/c ... worthy.htm - I'd argue it is potentially not roadworthy with that damage, if the Police had pulled you they would certainly have made an issue of it!

Have you got a local MOT place you use, as you could ask them if it would fail an MOT with that tyre? That way you have something more concrete to go to Trading Standards with...

A bit on tyre law (get measuring but looks >25mm to me from your pics): http://www.ashcrofttrailer.co.uk/faqPDF ... %20Law.pdf

Sidewall damage is usually caused by "kerbing" (in other words, when your car comes into contact with a kerb that's too high) and can harm the tyre internally without giving any visual clues and also affect the suspension alignment (or "tracking") that will increase tyre wear. Any cuts found on the tyre in excess of 25mm on the outside of the tyre are also illegal. For older cars, trailers or caravans that stand idle for long periods of time, the sidewalls can perish due to sun and age degradation so check thoroughly and consider renewing any tyre that is suspect or over ten years old. It is worth supporting the vehicle using axle stands (never bricks that could collapse) to prevent the tyres from going out of shape.

See also:

http://www.tyresafe.org/media-centre/la ... re-problem (partworn tyres but you get the gist)

Hope this battle doesn't spoil your enjoyment of what otherwise appears to be a decent car... beer:

RCZ1 wrote:

They do always say though, don't ever buy a car without seeing it in the flesh yourself. Someone else's idea of a car being in good condition is another person's entirely.

Agree, or in the rain/dark! - but if he was told "very minor kerbing on an alloy or two" they are downright lying... Problem is, proving it!