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Renault Kangoo.


Viking
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Not much of a subject really for a motoring enthusiasts forum really, but it'll have to do. As noted before, the old Peugeot Partner van has gone the journey and a new works mobile had to be found. They were all fetching silly prices round about where I live (like a 61 plate with more miles I saw today on a local dealers lot at £5995 plus vat) so I headed off to London to buy one on Monday. Actually went down on Sunday evening and stayed in the local Holiday Inn, then went over to the dealers on Monday morning and missed all the traffic.
 

This is what I got, pics from the dealers website.

 

kangoo1.jpg

 

kangoo2.jpg

 

kangoo3.jpg

 

kangoo4.jpg

 

kangoo5.jpg

 

kangoo6.jpg

 

It's a 62 plate with full service history and it set me back £3995 plus the vat. Adding in the fuel it cost, the meals for me and my mate, the hotel cost (all tax deductable) it stands me about £5000, so a saving of about £2000 on local prices.

 

Nothing special at all. Just a works van, but less likely to leave me stranded at the side of the road like the last one used to.

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Nice clean van, I'm surprised it's cheaper down this way than it is by you, I always thought motors were cheaper up north.

 

Are you fitting any racks to the inside or leaving it like that?

 

When the passenger seat is down does the guard swing round to protect the driver? That's a good idea, not seen it before.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Well, that didn't take long to break, did it....

 

Heading up into the wilds of Swaledale on Thursday and some dim witted woman was parked on a hill. Nothing wrong with that, except she had the car door open and was buggering about in the back seat for about 2 minutes while the traffic just had to wait. Then she appeared and looked shocked that anyone might possibly want to use the road at all and disrupt her activities, so she shut the car door and stood waiting. Of course, there still wasn't enough room to get past (although I was seriously tempted to try) , and after another 15 seconds she realised that she was still causing a hod up and plodded round the rear of the car to give traffic safe passage.

At this point I pulled off up the hill with a bit of wheelspin (not particularly on purpose but it was wet and slippy) and headed off. I'd not gone far when I realised there was a nasty vibration through the whole of the van. So pulled over and checked the wheel nuts, all okay. Checked the tyres for obvious blebs or damage, all okay. Nothing else for it but carry on to my job, and then head home again.. When I got the days work done I ran it into the local garage for them to have a look.

 

Basically, the drivers side has a long drive shaft due to the gearbox being off centre, and usually they just make it a long drive shaft. But Renault in the wisdom made it two short drive shafts with a (fixed to the chassis) bearing and CV joint in the middle, and this joint is fecked. Every time the wheel rotates it pushes the engine sideways about half an inch. At speeds of over 30mph the whole van is jumping side to side.

 

Good news is, I spoke to the local Renault dealers (35 miles away) and it's covered under warranty. Also, it's covered by recovery as well. But they can't do anything with it til next Wednesday, and they can't give me a vehicle while they look at it, and it'll take a couple of days to get the part and get it done. So that's going to be back end of next week before I get it back and I have to find a lift down there to collect it etc.

So, I gave the local garage the go ahead to do it, and it's booked in Monday, cost £200, and I'll be back at work on Tuesday. Not ideal, but the work I have booked in for Wednesday alone will pay for the van repair.

 

Hey ho.

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Oh bummer...... The bit i don't get is if it under warranty why are you paying £200?

 Because to get the vehicle to Renault and get it repaired under warranty will cost me effectively nothing. But I'll have to sit about for a week with no van (or move my gear back into the car and make a mess of that again), then drive 35 miles to the garage to collect it, and then get back to work in a weeks time. If I run it into my local garage I'm back on the road on Monday afternoon. If I could afford the luxury of not working for a week and save myself the £200 then it would be nice.

 

Look at it like this. If WIMs only tyre fitting machine broke down and the manufacturers would come and repair it free of charge next week, or the local repair independent (who you trust and does all the other stuff for you all year) can get you going next day for half a days earnings, which would you choose?

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No, they don't allow warranty work outside of the dealer network. Understandable really when they haven't even seen the vehicle in question. I didn't buy it from them and it's never been to their workshop at all. Had I bought it there and they couldn't help, I'd be kicking off and telling them the bill was coming at them, but as it is they don't really have any responsibility to me.

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And it gets worse. So the £115 for the driveshaft has gone out of the window. It's now apparent that it's a dealer only part as all the aftermarket driveshafts are not for this year of vehicle as it's too new. So it's now a Renault part which is £365 plus VAT, making the job cost neck end of £500.

 

Again, the Renault dealers are quite prepared to have it done under warranty, but now they can't fit it in until middle of next week. I phoned another Renault dealer who cheerily told me to "Bring it in and we'll have a look at it. First 15 minutes are free, but it probably won't be covered with warranty anyway so It's going to be close to £600."

 

:D

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Renting a van isn't worth it really. I can't insure the vehicle on my own insurance (commercial insurance won't allow it) so I'd have to rent and insure one. I'll be back on the road tomorrow with minimal hassle through my local garage and get on with work and the jobs I have booked in for the rest of the week will cover the van costs anyway really, so it's easier just to suffer the losses and crack on. If I had another vehicle I could use, and enough time to put into fighting the system to get it done, and didn't have work to get on with, then I could put up a good case for getting it done for free through one means or another. But being realistic, it's a tool and it's broken, and arguing about who's going to fix it won't make it a working tool without losing the work it has to do.

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