Renault charges driver £11,000 to repair Zoe heater in Cost of Living blow

James Rodger
·2-min read

A Renault driver has warned the company sent them an £11,000 bill to repair their Zoe heater. "The car is just five years old, and now the company seems to be washing its hands of the matter," the motorist warned the Guardian's consumer affairs section.

"I took it to my local independent garage, which found and fixed two leaks and re-gassed the system," they wrote. "A few months later, the heater died completely." They added: "At this stage, the car was four and a half years old and I took it to an EV specialist garage, which diagnosed a compressor fault. Unfortunately, it could not source the Renault part to make the repair.

"So back to my local Renault dealer, which told me it could do the repair for £1,650. After a two-month wait, work finally started. On removing the compressor, it found it had exploded, sending shards of metal throughout the air-conditioning system.

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"Renault said the whole system had to be replaced – a total of 33 parts throughout the car." They added: "My husband contacted Renault UK customer service again to see if it could help but it couldn’t even tell us which dealers had the equipment to remove a battery. Eventually, we found one but we have now been quoted £9,121 to fix it.

"With the £2,000 we have already paid, this makes a grand total of £11,000 to repair a heater, making the car a write-off at five years old. On the basis it is out of warranty, and the matter wasn’t recorded when we first complained, Renault appears to be washing its hands of the matter."

Responding to the water, a driver sniped: "There really needs to be some strong regulations for auto repairers. My local dealership charges £150/hour for a technicians labour. Remind me how much a junior doctor earns a day. Every other cost is massively inflated.

"They really do treat customers like ATMs."

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