Another dud DS3-R

[Old Bloke]

It is very sad to read about your DS3 Racing. Whilst Citroen used to suffer from quality control issues, the worst being intermittent faults, the performance engines were bombproof. I had BX Gti' and 16 valves. Saxo VTRs and whilst the Xsara Coupe wasn't the greatest looking car the 2.0 VTS used to go like a train. It revved and revved. Those engines never failed. However Citroen, and they are NOT alone in this, would push the dealer and customer from pillar to post in the event of a problem. They should have gone beyond this by now,particularly in an obvious issue like this. The customer is the end user and not part of their research and development team. The VW Golf hasn't been without its issues in the past but VW have managed to maintain a reputation as have Mini and BMW. I hope that Citroen come to your aid with this as someone who has put their faith and finance into the product and been let down. It's a great shame, particularly as they have the finest rallying record.

[SomersF1]

We too have owned many Citroen/Peugeot's between us, infact we both still have Saxo's (mine a track car that used to be Supercharged and hers acts as her works car to enable her disabled client transport). This will be our last Citroen though as frankly it's not the entirely the issue with the car I have the biggest problem with but rather the way in which CUK have handled my case along with others. I'm now at the point of going public as I have a site with a rather loose connection to the topic that gets significant traffic...

Anywho update for today is that the dealer couldn't get the car to hesitate this morning whilst trying to retrieve live data (there's a surprise as it doesn't happen under all conditions) but CUK have insisted they must see more proof before going any further. Furthermore, they asked the dealer to check the ethanol level in the fuel (we can all see where this is heading and before anyone asks the car has only ever been fed Super Unleaded putting another hole in our pocket) to which he responded, I'm a mechanic not a chemist so I've asked how they suggest I do this.

[Old Bloke]

The manufacturer leaves the problem with the dealer and hope that you'll just disappear. Not cynical, true. They would rather lose a customer for one car than shell out large amounts of money. There is a vicious circle that exists. If you accept warranty work then you accept that the dealer has made an attempt to fix the problem and have a time delay whilst you go back and forth. But, if you don't accept warranty rectification and attempt to reject the vehicle the dealer/ manufacturer will argue that you haven't given them reasonable opportunity to cure the fault. Also the manufacturer's stance is that the warranty is there to deal with issues which may arise not to refund or replace the vehicle. If the product is a TV or washing machine and the manufacturer or its agents can't fix the problem they will replace it, but nobody at dealers or manufacturers can ever answer why this isn't the same with cars. The manufacturer leaves the dealer high and dry when it comes to any form of compensation. The cost to PSA of rectifying the DSR problem is relatively small and they should do the decent thing for their customers, after all the DS3 is a very good product and they should support it fully. When Jaguar (and BMW) had a problem with Nikasil engine lining they replaced engines outside the warranty period. The engines stood up fabulously in the race cars and were tried and tested on the track, but were no good for stop start motoring. Mercedes had dreadful rust problems, they paid up. Manufacturers need to accept that they will have technical issues which will cost them to resolve and deal with it. If you can, try and have a decent conversation round the table with the dealer and get them to work for you to get the manufacturer to take a proper stance. The truth is that the dealer appreciates and understands your problem but is not being supported by the manufacturer. My apologies for the long post.

[SomersF1]

Ok, an update, the car is still at the dealer and they have run numerous tests. CUK not happy with the data collated on the live runs suggesting that they aren't getting enough data in regard to temperature, rpm range etc but to be fair to the dealer this is the Isle of Wight, we have one dual carriageway...
They've also decided the ethanol test isn't conclusive so the dealer has had to order some new equipment to deal with that one. All in all we aren't getting anywhere and on the 2nd/3rd live data collection runs the dealer didn't get hesitation or fault codes :S

The GF has seemingly had enough and has decided to trade the car in, which I can't blame her for it's just frustrating that A. there really isn't an answer and CUK will keep sweeping the problem under the rug and B. that we will lose soooo much money on a car we should be keeping for at least another 2-3 years.