Fiat Chrysler Australia agree to improve warranty claims process

Submitted: Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 13:42
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G'day all! Here's a news article for those Fiat or Chrysler owners who have been aggrieved by FCA's "head in the sand" attitude towards warranty claims for Fiat and Chrysler vehicles - and the lack of parts needed for repair of those vehicles.

FCA have given an enforceable undertaking to the ACCC to commit to establish a consumer redress program, and to review its handling of previous complaints, as well as an Australian Consumer Law (ACL) compliance program, which includes a complaints handling system.

In addition, FCA have agreed to have their unhappy customers previous complaints independently reviewed, with Chrysler committing to implement the remedy recommended by the independent reviewer.

All in all, it appears that FCA are attempting to address their poor standing as regards their failure to address customer complaints about problems with Fiat and Chrysler products - but it has only come about due to the ACCC initiating an investigation into those (obviously a sizeable number) of customer complaints, about FCA's indifference to those customer complaints.

Hopefully, this will be of some comfort to those people who have been regularly brushed off by FCA when they have had verifiable problems with their Fiat or Chrysler vehicles, and they have been unable to reach a satisfactory outcome to their complaints.

ACCC - Media release - FCA agrees to enforceable undertaking, as regards consumer complaints

Cheers, Ron.
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Reply By: Zippo - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 13:50

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 13:50
That should make a lot of Jeep owners less unhappy.
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Reply By: garrycol - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 13:51

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 13:51
The only reason they are doing this is under duress from the ACCC. The same thing happened with Hewlett Packard and their computers in Aust a couple of years back. After intervention by the ACCC, HP would fix virtually anything irrespective of whether it was a warranty claim or not.
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Reply By: Shaker - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 15:17

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 15:17
All we need now is for Nissan Australia to do the same!

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Follow Up By: Member - Barry H (WA) - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 16:04

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 16:04
I Agree with that Shaker


BH
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Follow Up By: Capt. Wrongway - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 17:18

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 17:18
I second that! You can void Nissan warranty if you wash it!

Capt.
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Follow Up By: cookie1 - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 08:13

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 08:13
Toyota were certainly happy with the way Nissan treated me - I now drive a 200, because after owning 5 Patrols I was told "I didn't know how to drive them" and the clutch shagged out at 29,000km

Happy with the Nissan 4x4 but their after sales was shocking - very happy with the 200 so wont be going back in a hurry

Sad thing is with all of these companies is that they spend Tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to get our business but then treat us with contempt when we buy their gear

cheers
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Follow Up By: wholehog - Monday, Sep 14, 2015 at 20:31

Monday, Sep 14, 2015 at 20:31
Yep...why hasn't the ACCC crucified Nissan over the years..?
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Reply By: lancie49 - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 16:24

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 16:24
My guess is that several other manufacturers will be considering their response to these findings before action is also taken against them.

FCA are certainly not the only ones in need of more constructive work to address customer dissatisfaction.
AnswerID: 590287

Reply By: Ron N - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 18:07

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 18:07
This deal comes a bit late for the bloke (Ashton Wood) who purposely destroyed his trouble-prone Jeep, doesn't it??
I wonder if he's kicking himself now, or if he's just accepted his losses, and moved on?

I recall he was pushing for a "Lemon Law" here, the same as America has - but he never appeared to garner any support from pollies for it.
Someone in each political party probably figured there weren't enough votes in it for them.

What I found interesting, was that the QLD Office of Fair Trading claimed they found no evidence to act on Ashton Woods complaint, about FCA's attitude to his complaints - yet the ACCC most certainly found there WAS reason for Wood (and others) to be aggrieved.

Seems like the QLD OFT might either be populated by too many people with a "don't rock the boat" attitude - or their view of the problems was extremely narrow, and it didn't fit in with their narrow area of control. Either way, the QLD OFT doesn't come out of it looking too rosy.

Ashton Wood destroys his trouble-prone Jeep
AnswerID: 590288

Follow Up By: D-MaxerWA - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 21:32

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 21:32
I bought a Jeep

So did I

What went wrong with it
D-MaxerWA

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Follow Up By: Candace S. - Monday, Sep 14, 2015 at 10:53

Monday, Sep 14, 2015 at 10:53
I quite like the California Lemon Law. :)

Nissan bought back my last vehicle under that law. So they ended up paying me almost exactly as much as I paid to buy the vehicle. They even had to reimburse the finance costs!
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Reply By: Ross M - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 22:08

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 22:08
It all just goes to show the utter contempt the vehicle companies have for their "valued " customers. They like your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, but nothing else about you is worthy of their consideration.
Any company who have a known number of unhappy customers isn't a good company to ever buy from.
AnswerID: 590293

Follow Up By: Ron N - Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 22:42

Saturday, Sep 12, 2015 at 22:42
Ross - Yes, there's plenty of these companies who are happy to suck up to you, if they see money in it for them - but once they've got your money, they don't want to know you - particularly if you return with a complaint about product quality.

I really am surprised that Jeep sales have increased in the manner that they have in recent years, with the amount of publicity around the problems with their vehicles.

I find Jeep owners fall into two distinct categories with no middle ground - they either worship their vehicles and claim nothing ever goes wrong with them - or the owners say this Jeep is their last, and they will never buy another one. Talk about polarisation.

I've struggled to understand why anyone would buy one, when you see that some of the Jeeps (i.e.- the Compass) have an unbraked towing capacity of 450kg!
Even the "tough" Wrangler only has an unbraked towing capacity of 450kg - but that can go to a huge 900kg, with brakes! [;-)

If that's all the manufacturer considers their vehicle is good for, then that shows they have a very poor level of inbuilt strength.
There are GVM upgrades available for a wide range of common brands of 4WD's - but no GVM upgrades are available for any Jeeps!
I think that says it all!

Complete Towing Guide

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Saturday, Sep 19, 2015 at 23:36

Saturday, Sep 19, 2015 at 23:36
If you look at the advertising .... you will see why Jeeps are selling.

First they pitched them to women ..... "Mum baught a jeep"

Now they have moved onto adventurous upmarket urbainites.

They do not pitch to the hard core 4wders, commercial users and only recently pitching to the towing market .....

In general pitching to a market that is not well informed about automotive or 4wd issues.

cheers
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Follow Up By: Michael H9 - Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 08:07

Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 08:07
There are two decent Jeeps. The Grand Cherokee looks great and tows 3.5 tonne, the Wrangler is fairly iconic and is a contender for the best car off road straight out of the showroom, the LR Defender being its main competition. People buy them because while they are working they are very nice indeed and most do keep working, mines on 214k at the moment. It's a minority that give problems and all we are talking a out with each brand is the size of that minority. Jeep bashers tend to think all of them give problems, not true. They've been selling them for 70 odd years into the huge US market. Percentage wise, more give problems than Jap brands, statistics bear this out.
Everyone hates cars that don't work or give you trouble. There's a guy parking his new Colorado outside a Holden dealership in Penrith with a big sign detailing his woes. I think Toyota has had several of the biggest mass recalls in history so none are immune. And let's not mention Nissan warranty, I've owned three.
People want to own cars for more reasons than reliability. Drive quality, off road ability, comfort, fuel economy and style all figure highly in the choice of car for many people. You can safely buy a Jeep if you plan to flip it every 3 years and keep inside the warranty period. That's what is happening.
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 08:46

Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 08:46
A mate bought a used Wrangler and after 12 mths, he was so disappointed in it, he got rid of it.
Couldn't keep the thing tracking straight on the highway, it was all over the road.

The notorious Jeep "death wobble" is brought about by a combination of exceptionally poor front end geometry design, coupled with cheap construction.
There is inadequate leverage on the front wheels via the steering control arms in their design, and fitting even slightly oversize tyres exacerbates this problem, and it promptly shows up as the death wobble.
Poor quality steering dampers make this problem even worse.

The Jeeps have well-known overheating problems and FC has had to modify water pumps, water pump speeds, and radiators to try and cure the overheating problems.

The lack of spares for Jeeps has been a standing joke for years, and FCA does little about it. That doesn't even begin to mention the unbelievable cost of Jeep parts.

The additional Jeep problems of poor assembly and poor QC - along with FC bragging about how they are "the lowest cost-base builder of autos in America", does absolutely nothing to inspire confidence in their product.
Add in the now-admitted lack of customer care and exceptionally poor product support, and it makes one wonder how Jeep can still sell anything at all. They must have a customer support base of pure masochists who enjoy daily pain.
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Follow Up By: The Bantam - Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 09:27

Sunday, Sep 20, 2015 at 09:27
No matter how rough, butcherous, not fit for purpose and not of merchantable quality the product is ..... the majority of that product will continue to operate and there will be those who consider their example to be trouble free.

BUT ..... no matter which way you look at it some manufacturers will have a far higher incidence of in service failures and obviously avoidable faults than others.

Many customers will quite happily continue to support a less than perfect product as long as their claims and concerns are dealt with quickly and without argument.

Fiat Chrysler and in particular the modern jeep product have a well earned reputation for having problems and not addressing those prblems in a reasonable manner ....... to such a great extent the ACCC have acted on the matter ........ this makes this issue a proven fact ..... not just a few people whining without a reasonable cause.

cheers
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Reply By: Bob Y. - Qld - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 09:31

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 09:31
They can't even program them to drive on the correct side of the highway!

Black Jeep

Bob

Seen it all, Done it all.
Can't remember most of it.

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Follow Up By: Bigfish - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 10:50

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 10:50
JEEP


Just Empty Every Pocket
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Follow Up By: Ron N - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 10:53

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 10:53
Bob, is that a case of the "Jeep death wobbles" - or just a case of "how do I drive this thing??".
That is just plain scary, watching that performance. There's a lot to be said for dividing fences on dual carriageways.

We've had two episodes here in Perth - both on Roe Hwy - where cars crossed the median and collided with a vehicle going the other way, resulting in fatalities.
In one case, both drivers were killed, and there were no passengers or witnesses.

One old bloke just lost control of his Camry and burst through a pile of thick scrub in the central strip, to ram head-on into a bloke coming the other way in a BMW.
The bloke in the Beemer was killed instantly, and during the resulting court case, the old bloke who ran off the road could not give any explanation whatsoever, as to why he left the road.
I'm personally convinced it couldn't have been anything other than pure driving incompetence, of which there's a lot about!

A campaign was started after the death of the BMW driver to get the Govt to install wire rope barriers on Roe Hwy, where there was only a scrub barrier, and it was successful.

Campaign after drivers death produces better freeway barriers

Roe Hwy fatal crash kills both drivers

This lucky bloke in Thailand, got a little bit of warning, at least!

Flying ute bursts out of scrub in median strip

Cheers, Ron.
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Follow Up By: Slow one - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 11:22

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 11:22
Bob,
maybe you have to program the driver by looking at the video. I think the jeep was just a way of getting to the other side.
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Follow Up By: Bigfish - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 11:32

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 11:32
Ron N...unfortunately the wire rope is also a death trap for motorcyclists involved in an accident and who hit it. The old ARMCO railing is a lot safer for motorcyclists and probably for cars. Motorcyclists are an increasing presence on the road and every year sales are going up.
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Follow Up By: Member - Warren H - Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 15:38

Sunday, Sep 13, 2015 at 15:38
The intent of the wire rope is to capture the vehicle and slow it down versus ARMCO where the vehicle can bounce back into traffic. Saw it in action a few years ago on the Sydney-Newcastle freeway.
This 2011 research paper Characteristics of fatal motorcycle crashes into roadside safety barriers in Australia and New Zealand noted:
? Less than 1% of Australian and New Zealand road fatalities involve a motorcyclist striking a barrier. ? Fatal motorcycle into barrier crashes typically occur on a bend into a W-beam barrier. ? Majority of motorcycle into barrier fatalities involve speeding, alcohol, and/or drugs. ? Barrier involved motorcycle fatalities occurred mainly during weekend recreational riding. ? Making crash barriers motorcycle friendly will not reduce motorcycle fatalities significantly.
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