Warrantywise repair claim declined

[Adrenalin]

Hi All,

As previously you have helped me with my legal issues and all went well I hope someone could help / guide me to the proper solution. Here is what has happened...

On 31st July 2018 I have bought a car for my fiance, Audi A1. We were quite happy with the car besides the clutch, I'm not a mechanic however in my opinion it was "catching" gear too late (you had to depress the clutch all the way to get the car start moving) I have told that to the dealer and he said it is all fine, it went through MOT and service and this is just the way it is with this car. I wasn't happy with that answer so I asked if he can let me know the garage where the MOT is done and I wanted to ask for more professional opinion. He came back with the garage owner and I've explained my concern again, he went into the car drove a little bit and said the same, car is fine it is just this model that acts like that. So I took his word for granted (oh how foolish I was...) and we bought the car with a 3yr Gold warranty with warrantywise. Just to mention the car had 27000 miles on it when bought.
Now here comes the best, last Friday on 24th May my fiance was going to work as usual and on her way back suddenly the car started to behave weird and gears were switching by them selves raves were totally out of control, so we took it to the garage. What was diagnosed is that the clutch was slipping as the clutch plate was extremely worn out! Bear in mind my partner might not be the best driver yet she's quite good and she has had previously driven other cars as well and nothing was wrong.
The warranty company obviously refused to pay for repairs which is nearly £800 ... since the entire clutch must be replaced and not only the worn out part.
What the company covers under this policy: (see attached)

Clutch:
Flywheel (includes dual mass flywheel), flex plate,
pressure plate, centre plate (excludes worn out
facing material) ring gear, release bearing, master
cylinder, slave cylinder, fork lever, clutch pedal and
cable.

well OK, fair enough not covering the worn part yet I believe if the entire clutch has to be replaced the company should cover at least rest of the parts?
Am I right? I wanted to compromise so I would pay for what is not covered and they for the rest, but no.

At this point I wanted to ask if I should chase the warranty company? If not, because they are, in their own way, right, can I chase the dealer who sold the car to me?
Just common sense, Audi is kind off premium brand and uses (one would expect) good quality parts, is it normal that a clutch needs replacing after 32K miles? (current mileage) ?
My fiance drove the car for 10 months exactly, 5000 miles she has done on the car. Am I at least right to demand refund for repairs from the dealer who sold the car?

Thanks in advance for any piece of information. I appreciate any help at this point as I don't know if I just have to pay £800 for my stupidity or I was just a victim of rip off. I will be happy if I could get some of my money back.

Kind regards
M's

[R0b]

Hello

Here's my high level take on your position (tagging des8 as he's more the car expert for problems):

1. I'm not sure whether you can claim against the dealer based on the opinion about the clutch. You made inquiries, asked for the garage doing the MOT and then sought the second opinion from the garage. It is a real possibility that by getting that second opinion from the garage, you have relieved Audi from being responsible for what was said about it being 'fine'. Of course that may not prevent you from claiming against the garage owner but I suspect that might be too remote.

2. What was the reason behind taking out the 3 year warranty and how does it fit in with the clutch issue. Depending on the conversation that took place, it could be that you were missold that package.

3. Based on what you've said, I presume the worn out part (clutch plate is it?) doesn't fall within the list of items under the clutch heading? If nothing else is worn out such that it needs repairing, you may not actually have a claim. If however, the worn out part was included but parts of the clutch isn't covered then it would seem sensible and logical for you to cover any parts not covered under the warranty - that depend on the terms though. I'll let Des answer this one.

[des8]

Hi
If, when you say you had to depress the clutch pedal all the way, you meant it reached the floor it certainly sounds as if there was a potential problem.
The clutch pedal should when pressed offer resistance, but it needs to be fully pressed. In the Audi A1 I believe this point is about 2cm off the floor.
If it isn't fully depressed (which might be the case if it hits the floor) it won't fully disengage the clutch discs which causes heat and burning out
Additionally the heat and the pressure of the pedal stresses the clutch release bearing.
In the end both - the bearing and the clutch discs - deteriorate sooner then normal.

labour time is about 6 hours, which is the bulk of the cost so while stripped down it makes sense to replace the lot and not just the clutch plate

There are reports of clutch burn out within 12000 miles, but it is hard to be certain if this is a fault inherent to the vehicle or driving style.

Whilst sympathising with you, i doubt there is much you can do due to the difficulty of proving any fault with the vehicle.

[Adrenalin]

Thank you for your replies. In terms of warranty company they do cover most of clutch parts however not wear and tear, the issue was that I had to replace all parts as all got damaged due to extreme wear of that plate which caused damaging of other plates. Warrantywise say that since it was not a case of a break down but just the part worn out and this is why they won't pay at all. I tried to explain that I'm willing to pay for the worn out part however I think they should pay for all other parts which are included under the warranty. Since I'm not good with all the legal language I believe I was fobbed off and I have no arguments to say ' look your wrong because .... and this should be covered at least partially'

In regards to the dealer, when buying the car I spoke with the owner / employee and then with the owner of the garage who did checks and MOT on that Audi so when told by both it's ok I just simply believed them. I mean like, come one, what world we live in that when you buy a car from dealer you should check it through out (which is impossible sometimes and way expensive) and if not just accept all repair costs. It's not like I've bought a car for £2k-3k , I've paid 12k for it and it had low mileage and is quite young.

In regards to the car, the clutch back then when pressed all the way it was 'catching' the gear and the car started to get in motion when you depressed it about 3/4 way back, so then you were left just with around 1/4 space before depressing it fully.

I will send a letter quoting Consumer Rights Act 2015 goods you supply must be fit for purpose. As there was a problem with the goods when I bought them, I request that you give me a full refund for the repair.

I just sincerely believe my fiance didn't do it and only other thing that comes to my mind is that this audi had a faulty part and this is why it lasted only 30k miles when apparently was designed to last around 45k

[des8]

Good luck with that.
You might be lucky and get a goodwill gesture of a partial payment,
Only partial as your fiance has had the car for 10 months, and you could have problems proving the car was unsatisfactory when purchased.