I have a Vauxhall Grandland 1.2 and the last 8 months have been delusional, I don't know where to begin. I have seen that people have complained about wet belts, and I am also in this mess. For 2 years my car ran smoothly and then in November last year I had a red oil warning light come on, so as it was under warranty and was due its service I took it back to AC where I got the car from. after a few days i get a call saying i can collect as they cannot find the problem but gave it and oil change, mini service and charged me for this, we thought everything was fine and i could continue in my routine. a week later the light returns and back we go , this is where they decide they have found another problem and it’s a Wet Belt fault and after a few weeks of umming and ahhing it has been decided that the best option is a for a full engine replacement was required. This is in December, a busy time for work and family and i have no car but what they can offer me is a car through there service plan that i can have for 72 hours, not a full courtesy car but one where i would have to pay for extra use and i went over by 12 hours so I paid what was owed - still no car though. as i was never even offered a courtesy car i was borrowing from family which luckily got me around in this very busy stressful period. new year comes and goes and then sometime in the second week in January i get a car with a brand-new engine (apparently). The car has also had its MOT and full service completed whilst it is here, so i collect the car knowing that I only have to come back after 500 miles to do a mini check to ensure things are running and then i won't have to return till next service day............
in my current work and travel I do about a 1000 miles month and quite regularly update the app with my mileage. Its nearly September and the car has done 5000 miles since I collected it with new engine.
April 26th Saturday afternoon on way home from Football RED warning lights appear and the car eventually breaks down 4 miles from home, I do a call out and RAC get me home to find there is no water in the car and after some tests they find that one of the pipes that the water flows through hasn't been connected properly and insist i take it back to the garage for a check-up, it goes back in on the Monday and they say there are no problems with it and i can have it back. 2 weeks later same warning lights appear and i'm losing water again, they have it for a week cannot find no faults and send it back to me 162 miles later warning lights appear again no water. whilst they had it for a month doing tests, I was given a car to use and when they said it was ready to collect i returned the car and picked up mine. You know what happened next warning lights on the way home and no water, this time they send it to a Vauxhall dealer to solve the problem, which they say is a water tank fault and will need replacing and then present me with a bill for £500 as to which i look at them with a blank look on my face and tell them NO wrong person as everyone cannot seem to find the problem and have wasted my time and why should i Pay for it AC agree to cover the cost - oh yeah i should say they still hadn't provided me with a courtesy car. when Vauxhall decided to take on the job I asked for a courtesy car so i can get around and ferry my disabled partner around, they said that i would have to speak to Arnold Clark regarding a car, and they said that they did not have any available, this went on for another month by which time we are in July woo hoo 3 months later and that car is ready. oh dear here we go again, so originally i had dropped my car at the Arnold Clark garage and they had it moved to the Vauxhall dealership, however they were short staffed and had nobody available to collect the car for me they said it could be a couple of days before i get it back, in the end i got fed up and had a lift to collect the car. Really poor service all-round no help to me the customer who had been paying for the car (PCP) all the time its was in garage.
120 miles later on my way to work i get stuck in roadworks on M1 4 lanes of solid traffic fight to get into one lane and then it happened, i notice the temperature heading towards the RED line again and then we all know what happened there RED WARNING STOP vehicle immediately. i forced my way over to recovery bay to see that we had no water again (WHY!!!!!!!!) i limped it to work and then first thing that morning Back To Arnold Clark we go and they said i needed to take it the Vauxhall dealership. i may have lost it at this point and said NO this is where I have to bring it and this is where it needs to be fixed.
here we are now 4 weeks later they eventually provided me with a courtesy car that isn't up to scratch, it was meant to be valeted but was left with dog smell and hairs in the boot, it feel like it could break down at any time and in this time and just my luck i got something stuck in the tyre as to which they said bring it in and we will set you off in another vehicle, when I got there I was told different and that i would be priority and they would change the tyre it took over 2 hours. this is an issue to me as I work nights and i had t wait 2 hours for the AA to help me get to Arnold Clark and then i had the next 2 hours waiting for repair. i got to bed about 1pm i had been up for 29 hours at this point and ruined the rest of the week as sleep was all over the place. but this brings me to where i am now and i still don't have my car back because i found out this morning that they are waiting on a decision from Vauxhall head office that this vehicle may need another engine replacement.
so, as you can imagine i am not very happy.
I have been going to this dealership for about 10 years now and I have never had any problems until this year and I am done once my finance company come back to me and I think they are looking at backing me over this lack of service from Arnold Clark. I have struggled with the use of a car for nearly 5 months and me and my disabled partner are very lucky that our family have been there to help but we have not been able to do or plan anything else as we have not known what is happening. This year has been rubbish not only due to this but this company has been this biggest problem in it causing too many stressful issues.