Renault Sedan Range

A lot of owners of cars such as Peugeot, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Renault and even Porsche tend to steer away from the higher costs of dealership servicing once the vehicle is out of warranty. That has led to the establishment of a raft of specialists in particular brands who are not factory dealerships. So, the trick is to find such a specialist independent workshop and take the car there.

Such a workshop should have all the test gear and service equipment, not to mention model-specific know-how, to tackle any job (including this one) without the hourly rate of a factory dealership with its higher overheads.

I understand your frustration; I also agree that diesel buyers should be made aware of the possible consequences resulting from the way they will use the car. Blocking of the DPF because of being used on short, low speed trips is quite common across most brands, so it could be argued that you should have done you homework and known that. As to whether you have good grounds for a refund I can’t say, but I suspect you could request a refund, or part refund, as a gesture of good will from Renault.

Renault has a clear responsibility to fix the problem, and has been trying to fix it, but so far hasn’t been able to. Request a meeting with your dealer’s service manager and go through the history of the problem and have them tell you what they will do to fix it. It’s sounds like they need the assistance of a technical expert from Renault head office. You need to get an agreement that the problem will be fixed, or Renault will come to the party with a satisfactory settlement. You could also go to the ACCC, or the state consumer department for assistance and advice.