jasnelgrove Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 Although very pleased with our 2008 Summer Edition Van from Dethleffs, Ford are being a little difficult. I wondered if anyone else had similar experience... We had breakdown, turns out that the Turbo pipe was not tightened properly - 'jubilee' clip on a rubber pipe.. Anyway that is what RAC man suggested. But tried calling Ford Assist first and they could not find me on the database - 'You must have an Import' was the suggestion. Following this up with both the dealer (UK) and Dethleffs they say we have full UK warranty, but I feel it was being left to me to try and sort it out. I have been firmer with both dealer and Dethleffs and Dethleffs seem to be trying to sort it out. Dealer is staying quiet (Dissapointing!). Worth checking this before you need it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted March 30, 2008 Share Posted March 30, 2008 had a similar problem with our ford base. They started the warranty from when it was sold to euramobil, not when it was sold to me! Anyway, you have to get a price for a warranty, and say to who you bought it from that they will have to pay for it, as the contract of sale lies with them. i phoned almost every day for 2 weeks, sent a bill for warranty, threatened legal action, contacted trading standards etc, and finally they did something about it. The dealer said they returned the correct paperwork to euramobil, and euramobil didnt do their bit............i didnt care whos fault it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 jasnelgrove - 2008-03-30 10:07 PM Although very pleased with our 2008 Summer Edition Van from Dethleffs, Ford are being a little difficult. I wondered if anyone else had similar experience... We had breakdown, turns out that the Turbo pipe was not tightened properly - 'jubilee' clip on a rubber pipe.. Anyway that is what RAC man suggested. But tried calling Ford Assist first and they could not find me on the database - 'You must have an Import' was the suggestion. Following this up with both the dealer (UK) and Dethleffs they say we have full UK warranty, but I feel it was being left to me to try and sort it out. I have been firmer with both dealer and Dethleffs and Dethleffs seem to be trying to sort it out. Dealer is staying quiet (Dissapointing!). Worth checking this before you need it! So, Is it a LHD import? and if so did you register your new van with a UK Ford agent when you imported it? Because if you did not you will not exist on the data base for recalls etc.... I have heard of similar problems with the turbo pipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 either way, it doesnt matter. Its the dealers problem. you bought a van with a full uk 3 year warranty, it doesnt, so it has a worth. Phone trading standards in the area of the dealer for advice. you want to act within 6 months, as you have more rights before then. (although they were unsure about motorhomes, they knew about cars) I would phone dealer, and say you need them to sort it out. You have a quote £2000 for a warranty (google for warranty prices on vans). You have been told that a 3 year warranty has a worth of about £5000 on a 40K van (thats a guess). Whats really expensive to fix? Say the van has thrown a rod in the engine, and ford will fix it for £3000, and you will be pursuing them for the money you have to now pay up. The exhaust is expensive to fix. One week into my big push, i told them it was knackered and would cost £1200 to replace under warranty, and they were going to pay for it if they didnt sort out the warranty This really got my dealer to move, as i said i would be pursuing them for the money, as the problem legally lies with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasnelgrove Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 No, RHD and I bought it from a UK Dethleffs dealer. I expected it to have full UK warranty and it appears it does..although Ford does not agree at the moment. Dethleffs tell me that they buy the base and pay extra to Ford for the UK warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Ours is LHD, and was imported from Germany, so has the Euro 2 year warranty. Broke down en route to Dover due to a blown turbo tube, and was fixed by Ford assist (or whatever they are called) at Dover. Later the same day the other end blew off in France, and was again fixed by Ford, in a campsite just outside Guines. I think your's must have fallen through the net - 'though I did have to quite the VIN and not the UK reg no as the van had only recently been registered. The service was, actually, quite good both side of the ditch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 My understanding is that the warranty duration of a motorhome's 'chassis' normally matches the duration of the chassis-manufacturer's warranty if the chassis were used on a commercial vehicle sold in the country where the motorhome is constructed. So Ford-based Auto-Sleepers models get a 3-year warranty because that's what 'commercial' Transits sold in the UK have, whereas Chausson, Hobby, Hymer, Eura Mobil, etc. Ford-based motorhomes imported to the UK (whether 'officially' or 'personally', or in RHD or LHD form) get a 2-year base-vehicle warranty because that's what Transits marketed in France or Germany have. It's quite possible that Dethleffs have some sort of arrangement with Ford to increase the warranty duration to 3 years, but I believe what I've just stated is the norm. Because it's far from unknown for motorhome base-vehicle warranties to start too early, it's always worth checking with a motorhome (particularly an imported one) what's shown on the chassis manufacturer's database. I personally imported my Hobby from Germany and, when I checked at a local UK Ford agency, it was already registered on the Ford database and had the expected (2-year duration) warranty start-date. Unlike JudgeMental, I didn't need to do anything in the UK to get this to happen, though I think (similar to Brian Kirby's experience) the Ford database was accessed via the motorhome's VIN Number rather than the vehicle's UK registration number. Besides checking that the warranty start-date is correct, if the warranty includes road-side assistance/breakdown recovery services, it would be wise to confirm (by phoning the help-line) that these will operate as one might expect should they be needed. Prevention is better than cure, as the saying goes. There may be an inclination to think there's some sort of conspiracy when warranty details are incorrect or not registered. This is not the case - it's just that the bureaucratic system has screwed up somewhere down the line. The snag is, when this happens it can be a devil to unscrew and bad news if you experience a warranty-related problem in the meantime. That's why it's always best to nip in the bud any warranty registration-details errors and check that everything's OK as soon as possible after the motorhome has been purchased. As handyman rightly emphasises, it's academic whether or not it's the motorhome dealership's fault that warranty details are wrongly recorded as it remains the dealership's responsibility to resolve the problem. I get the impression that jasnelgrove feels able to make progress via Dethleffs directly without the vending dealership getting actively involved, but that will often not be the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Hi, we have a Peugeot Boxer and when we got it last year, new, the map clip on the dashboard snapped off. I contacted the dealer who suggested I needed to go to Peugeot. I Went to a local dealer and they too had no record of my van on their computer. The service reception guy came out on to the forecourt to see the van and got the VIN number personally, even then their computer wouldn't accept it. He eventually contacted Peugeot in France and they updated it, They blamed Compass, the van builder, who blamed the dealer, who blamed Peugeot! In the end though the job was done and I have not had any trouble since with the van so I am assuming that I am now registered. So perhaps Ford might be having the same problem. It seems that because the vehicle moves from chassis/engine manufacturer, to van manufacturer, to motorhome dealer and finally to the customer over a period of time, which is unlike a car, the system falls down. It might be worth other owners of different chassis/engine suppliers checking their registration before they need to claim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 We had a similar problem with one of our Fiat based motorhomes bought from Browhills, it turned out that they had forgotten to register with Fiat that it had been sold to us. They also forgot to tell us in the first place that we had a 2 year breakdown cover on it so we ended up paying for a cover for a year for nowt until we found out ... we made them give us the money back though seeing as it was their fault! We also had the loose turbo pipe problem on the Fiat so it is not just a Ford problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasnelgrove Posted April 2, 2008 Author Share Posted April 2, 2008 Thanks for all the comments Folks, waiting to hear from Dethleffs who have promised to sort it out...! Ford say they can't do any more. Brian, our Turbo pipe blew off twice as well. Garage called out by RAC first and refitted and tightened one end, he shot off and we headed North (on the A9 in the snow) and 500 yards later it went again - the other end. RAC took an hour to turn up but at least he followed us for 10 miles to ensure all was OK. If I change again I'll want a quote from the dealer that states a full UK warranty as it is amazing how they lose interest once they have your money no matter how popular they claim to be... John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancer Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 A good way to check your warranty details is to pay a visit to your nearest Ford dealer, speak nicely to the receptionist, (try to visit either mid morning or better still mid afternoon, quieter then) ask them to put your vin - all 17 digits - into their computor. The program used to be called OASIS when I worked for Ford 5 years ago. This will give an immediate response of the full vehicle details. Ask for a printout and keep it with your vehicle documents.As stated earlier, the warranty starts the moment the vehicle is sold to the m/home manufacturer, not to the end user.The warranty can be dated from the date of first registration but this has to be requested very soon after sale from a Ford dealer.I once had a statement from a senior Ford employee that all warranty claims are viewed as fraudulent in the first instance, it is up to the dealer to prove otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I'll have to ask my motorhome dealer pal sometime about what's involved when it comes to ensuring that a new motorhome's warranty start-date coincides with the date of hand-over to a customer, as I suspect it may depend on the manufacturer of the base-vehicle. (I do recall mentioning to him in the dim distant past that there had been complaints on this forum of English-language handbooks and warranty documentation not being provided with (Fiat-based) motorhomes at hand-over. He gave me a disbelieving look and said it was inconceivable any of his canny customers would let him get away with that.) Coming back to Fords, there's a Jonathan Lloyd moan on page 156 of April 2008's MMM about a Ford main commercial-vehicle dealer telling him they couldn't furnish the technical specification for a (Transit) platform-cab chassis as Ford had never built one. The dealer's statement is actually semi-true as the platform-cab chassis used for all FWD Transit-based coachbuilt motorhomes is only made available to motorcaravan manufacturers and details of it don't appear in any Ford documentation. So, even if the Ford dealer had been aware of the platform-cab chassis's existence, there's no way he/she could have provided JayLo with the data he wanted. (Journalists - what are they like!) In fact, when the VIN Number of my FWD Transit-based Hobby was fed into the OASIS system as Dancer recommends, what came out were details of a panel-van with various factory modifications, not of a vehicle based on a platform-cab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 Slightly off topic, but I asked Ford UK if they could give me the full build spec for ours, as the handbook refers to all the bells and whistles and it isn't immediately clear which of these is, actually, included on the vehicle. Ford UK's answer, in a nutshell, was that they couldn't because:a) the vehicle was a LHD platform cab, and no RHD platform cabs are are supplied in the UK,b) the vehicle was specified in Germany, for supply to Germany, and all the details were in German for which Ford UK did not have translations, and c) The Flex Packet, details of which I also wanted, differs from country to country and, as above, what is on ours is all in German.My informant declined to print the list in German and let me have a copy, but I've now discovered that it is all stored in the on board computers, and that data is accessible in English.Who'd be a multi-national car maker, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 well...............what happened? All sorted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasnelgrove Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Not sorted yet. Dethleffs have had answer from Ford saying that they see there is a problem transferring serial numbers to destination countries for chassis supplied to German motorcaravan manufacturers and that they are going to fix it. Or words to that effect. Ford customer care in UK has received a lot of communications from Ford Germany and they called me (!) from a case they told me on the last conversation they were closing as there was nothing else they could do. They still insist there is no way this vehicle can have a full UK warranty - there is nothing that Dethleffs could have paid for that could give it such a warranty! I am sending communications to them from Dethleffs where they insist that there is. Does look like it is worth checking if you have a German motorcaravan but maybe the system does work some of the time or with certain manufacturers. I'll keep updating although I'm sure it is getting boring now..... John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 All European Fords come with a manufacturers 2 year warranty the 3rd UK year warranty is an extra provided by Ford UK only...... So, if you import a LHD European model you will have the 2 year warranty :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 you must now find out a value for the 3rd year of warranty, and go to the dealer saying this is what you want them to pay you. There will probably be a specialist who will give you a quote in writing. (probably the difference in value of selling the van with 1 year to go, and out of warranty) dealer will refuse, then just take them to the small claims court, as its a no brainer you would win...........as i presume you have it in writing somewhere? Hope you get the initial warranty sorted soon, it was driving me mental with my one. It magically sorted itself out when i told the dealer the exhaust system needed replace under warranty, and they were going to pay for it (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 Errr.........my Ford went in for it's first service yesterday as it's one year old. ford garage tell me that on their system warrany kicked in Dec 06(presumably when chassis cab sent to converter) I purchased it in April 07... so ford garage is saying I am out of warranty as service was due December. now I know this is rubbish as service book is stamped and dated by euramobil when I presume they sent it to Belgian dealer late march 07. will try and sort out with Ford costumer service on Monday *-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 it appears that it was between euramobil and the dealer where the problem lay. I couldnt do anything with regards to ford. I would presume you need to get on to the dealer to sort it. As I said when i had these problems, everyone should check with the base vehicles dealer that the vin plate matches your purchase date on their records Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 I have emailed dealer and will contact Ford next week :-D have lost a set of keys, try not to as it is expensive to get a ford key! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 My understanding is (as I said earlier) that Transit-based motorhomes manufactured in the UK get a 3-year Ford warranty, but the warranty duration drops to 2 years when the motorhome converter is non-UK. I also believed that this was true when the motorhome's 'chassis' came from Fiat, Iveco, Mercedes, VW, etc. - 3 years base-vehicle warranty for a UK-built motorhome, 2 years otherwise. Looking back through MMM test reports seemed to support this view. However, in October 2007's MMM there are articles on a Ford-based Burstner and a Renault-based Knaus, both of which are said to have a 3-year duration base-vehicle warranty. I'm very wary about the accuracy of this information, but it would be useful to confirm whether or not it is actually possible now to purchase a new motorhome built in Continental Europe that has a 3-year chassis warranty. Can anybody say for sure, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 i thought it was just a 'habit' in the uk to have a 3 year warranty? Its 2 years all over europe, and uk dealers pay ford for a third year extension. All this doesnt matter if your dealer and ford havent started your warranty from when you first registered the van :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 handyman: I would have thought the duration of the base-vehicle warranty matters a great deal if a buyer has bought a motorhome believing (because that is what he/she has been told by the converter or dealer) that he/she is getting a 3-year warranty and it transpires that it only lasts for 2 years. In fact, I thought that was the main thrust behind your advice about using the small claims court. I've got official Ford booklets for 2004 Transits marketed in Germany and the UK. The UK booklet lists all Ford vehicles available in this country in 2004 and details their warranty durations. A UK Transit has 3-year/100,000 mile 'base' and 'paint' warranties, plus a 6-year/unlimited distance 'perforation' warranty. There is no question of a UK dealer (Ford or motorhome) paying Ford to extend the UK warranty from 2 to 3 years, though the booklet does mention that optional extended warranty plans can be purchased (within the first year of the Base Warranty period) by UK Transit buyers to extend the warranty beyond 3 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chapman Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Derek Uzzell - 2008-04-19 4:59 PM Looking back through MMM test reports seemed to support this view. However, in October 2007's MMM there are articles on a Ford-based Burstner and a Renault-based Knaus, both of which are said to have a 3-year duration base-vehicle warranty. I'm very wary about the accuracy of this information, but it would be useful to confirm whether or not it is actually possible now to purchase a new motorhome built in Continental Europe that has a 3-year chassis warranty. Can anybody say for sure, please? Hello Derek, I can confirm that my Renault Master based Burstner came with a 2 year warranty starting on the date the vehicle was supplied to Burstner. Renault were unwilling to modify this start date and I lost 3 months warranty (First service has to be within one year from start date!!) as a result BUT because the Master was a RHD UK specification model they changed the warranty to a 3 Year UK Warranty free of charge. This also happened with the previous Ducato which had a 2 year warranty but was changed FOC to a 3 Year warranty starting at the date of first registration in the UK. Both vehicles were supplied with the country of supply documentation pack (ie. German and Italian) but UK packs were supplied FOC on request. Going back to Brian's point about the vehicle specification. To the best of my knowledge the manufacturers use a VIN Code which identifies the vehicle type, place and date of manufacture and a serial number and linked to this code is a Specification Code which gives such data as engine type, transmission, body information, accessories fitted, colour of body and trim etc., etc. The combination of these two codes are used for the Manufacturers Warranty/Service/Faults Database so that individual vehicles can be identified and also faults etc., grouped together for DB search arguments. In some cases high performance engines are also Blue Printed and coded accordingly. With this in mind I find it hard to believe that any manufacturer that has had any warranty claims can deny that they have had a problem with specific components or systems (EG. Fiat and the reversing judder saga). Hope that this is of assistance. Regards, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Derek Uzzell - 2008-04-20 12:21 PM handyman: I would have thought the duration of the base-vehicle warranty matters a great deal if a buyer has bought a motorhome believing (because that is what he/she has been told by the converter or dealer) that he/she is getting a 3-year warranty and it transpires that it only lasts for 2 years. In fact, I thought that was the main thrust behind your advice about using the small claims court. . I dotn get why you think i dont agree 8-) Nowhere have i said it doesnt matter...........the opposite actually, as i had the exact same problem, and it mattered a lot to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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