Scenic Lemon Resale?

Just read this on Carpoint.

Renault Scenic's a lemon
Having first read this article prior to purchasing our Renault Scenic, complete with leather trim and dual sun roofs, we believed that we had chosen a great car for our needs. However when we arrived to pick up the car brand new on the showroom floor, it would not start and had leaves in the sills around the rear hatch. Needless to say we have a lemon; it is now some 15 months since we purchased the car and it has broken down so many times we have almost given up.

We even tried to trade it in to the dealer where it was purchased but the offer of $20,000 is a long way from the original cost of $38,000. In the last week, I have made to calls to Renault's head office and had to leave messages on voice mail. Perhaps the only way to fix this type of problem with lemon cars is to sit them outside the dealer's yard with a sign with the full true report on this car.

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<a href="http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/news/blankstory.asp?ID=4779" target="_blank">http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/news/blankstory.asp?ID=4779</a>

53% resale after a year? Wow, heck, Citroen's now have better resale. I haven't been following the Scenics, but what's the resale like? I've noticed you can get some cheap Clios. I hope Nissan backs Renault up well, because some of their dealers aren't great.

This person must be doing something wrong. All Clio Sport owners who have ended up calling for help to the Renault offices have got great assistance. Dont know why this person keeps getting answering machines.

I wandered past a Toyota dealer the other day, there was a 2001 Scenic Privilege on the ramps with 15K kilo's for sale at an asking price of $31K.

I guess the $20K dealer offering could be appropriate depending on the number of k's and condition of the car, also the type of deal the owner was trying to do, outright sale or a trade. Also open forums like that are open to abuse by disgruntled rival manufacturers or dealers. Sort of like the old trick of saying old VW Beetle (or 2CV motors for that matter) wear out quicker because the pistons lie on their side.

Lemons do exist, no argument from me on that, but if you get a customer with a product and the horror story is one beyond belief, then you usually find there are reasons behind it & the customer is a bigger lemon than the product!
This is possibly a case where mum wanted the Renault & dad something more adventurous (like a Hyundapants with spoiler) roll_lau
Dad's workmates have warned him about French cars the gems of this info he has passed on to the family matriarch. They collect the car and he comments on the lightness of the doors, quality of trim, tinny sound when the door closes, rattly noises in the motor & so on and complains and "fault finds" all the way home. By the time he gets there, wife is totally disgruntled and can also see & hear all these faults and agrees she was wrong, they should really be driving something of greater quality; something Korean cry
He then proceeds to haunt the dealer with all these hypothetical problems & is never satisfied with the service so decides to "call head office" rather than the 24 hour service advisory number in his handbook and if he does, the machine possibly gives him a number to call in his State BUT, he doesn't want to know...he wants to talk to da beeg boss!! So he never gets through.
He then goes to the local Hyundies dealer & laments his purchase with the local car Guru who has been selling cars for the best part of 3 months now, who proceeds to light up another Winny blue, kick the tyres, dangle his gold chains on the paintwork, wipe his hand across the dash (twisting the speedo binnacle as part of this ritual), push buttons that he hasn't a clue what they are there for, lift the bonnet 3/4 way, slam it shut, half shut the door then re-open & slam, kick the front tyre & walk off proclaiming that "they've got a lot ta learn" & declarinbg the car's value at only 20 grand and "that's what ya get buyin' foriegn shit." 2_cents
That gives him all the ammo he needs to start whining and screaming in the hope that Renault will give him his money back (or at least a later model in a better colour) and gives the poor lifeless tosser something to talk about for the next 10 years. cry whip
It happens in more than the car business as I well know; lost count on the number of times I've witnessed that scenario. mallet mallet

Alan S

Just read on the Clio Sport list that someone's Scenic RX4 was replaced by Renault.

Peugeot gave me a complimentary major service as a result of the sagas I've had with the 307.

i think alan has hit the nail on the head....every manufacturer, no matter what the product, has created lemons but i suspect in many cases (not all obviously as some r genuine complaints) the purchasers are more at fault than the product....a bit like buying a four wheel drive and than saying that its BIG and hard to park...as if thats the vehicles fault...or buying a cheap hyndai and than saying its rattly and it dents to easily and that the carpets wear out 2 quickly....at $38 000 one should certinly expect a car of decent quality so this guy is either very unlucky and DID really end up with a lemon OR he s just a TOSSER...but i suspect its both...nothing pleases me so much than seeing a complete TOSSER end up with a LEMON that HE would have criticised ANYWAY wether the car was GOOD or BAD...

cheers
dino

I dunno guys, but I reckon you have to take people at face value unless convinced otherwise.

The road to hoe if you are that disgruntled is through the relevant fair trading department in your state of origin....although I don't know how far you would get.

There has been a fair bit of comment about Scenic reliability in overseas forums. I can remember that at one stage, there were issues with high oil consumption in particular and a dodgy batch of engines. The complaints made related to Renault in the UK being unwilling to take any responsibility for the problems. Bit of a worry really.

Given the current high resale value of Scenics, the figure quoted would be a shock to the owner...maybe the dealer wasn't really interested in taking further responsibility for the car by selling it twice.

Any car company, including Renault Australia, is capable of selling a dud and then avoiding responsibility we are kidding ourselves if we believe otherwise.

dance

BogMaster:

...maybe the dealer wasn't really interested in taking further responsibility for the car by selling it twice.

dance

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Maybe the dealer couldn't face up to wearing the same customer secon time around. I know someone who bought a new Cit from a Daewoo dealer & he's been given the rough end of the pineapple, but I still reckon this one to me looks as though he's going down the waving fists in air route than following the right course. mallet

Alan S snail

Yes, and manufacturer can make a dud, and a batch of dud. French car mag (amongst others) l'Auto-journal has a section every issue of where things have gone wrong in all sorts of models from every manufacturer they find.

Problem is.. Scénic has been one of Europe's top selling cars for years and years now. Its hard to claim the model itself is a dud!

My aunt and uncle got slapped with a lemon Common bore.. and I think they've unfortunately moved to a Hyundai Tragedy instead of the Scénic direction.

= but I still reckon this one to me looks as though he's going down the waving fists in air route than following the right course. mallet

Alan S snail [/QB][/QUOTE]

What's the right course Alan?...either the guy's been dudded or he hasn't.

That he has chosen to splash it over carpoint is his choice I guess.

Plain truth is that none of us know what happened, other than that this person is obviously unhappy with the purchase and after sales service.

It could just as easily be an incompetent dealership as a dud car...or as you point out he could be unjustifiably disgruntled and a complete arsehole to boot.

If the story about the low trade in price is right then you could understand why he would be doubly pissed off.

1) The dealership has failed to fix the vehicle after many attempts.
2) Attempts to get satisfaction with the companty have failed.
3) The dealer is basically adding insult to injury with the $20,000 trade in offer.

In that situation I don't know what the right thing to do would be...maybe waving your fists in the air might be a fair thing.

dance

<small>[ 27 March 2003, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: BogMaster ]</small>

This is interesting for me, because I'm in the throes of convincing my missus to get a Scenic, rather than a more 'car like' contraption (she wants a Focus). Interstingly, there was a 2002 model in the Quokka for three weeks, auto, quite high spec by what was listed (exact model name wasn't in the ad), for around $20,500. Jesus, I was tempted...but it's now gone. I did wonder about the reason and wanted to call them...

Stuey

I reckon this one is impressive.

2002 Scenic Privilege.
144,173km!!!
$24,898

What are they trying to do? Try and beat the Volvo in the Guiness Book of Records? Ahwell, there's still more than 3 million kays to go

- tried to fix up URL, but seems the software can't handle one so long.

<small>[ 28 March 2003, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: Pug307 ]</small>

probably 14173 id hazard a guess. Dont worry, one of my relatives has a 21 wagon and its well over 300,000kms.