[cnewton2]

My wife an I our 2008 captiva with about 20k on the clock. What a looker! Lovely car to drive and we were so pleased with our purchase, but after just a matter of a handful of weeks it came to a grinding halt with a complete failure of the clutch. It went to the local main dealer who was in contact with Chevrolet about a warranty claim, advising that it was an inherent problem and not a driver related issue. Chevrolet wouldn't have any of it and despite appealing to their better nature, they refused to pay. Luckily, the supplying Chevrolet dealer from whom we bought the car stumped up the £1500 for the repair.


With confidence severely dented in Chevrolet's warranty and customer services, the car went in for adjustment to the handbrake. This was paid for, but the handbrake simply cant be trusted even on a slight incline. It seems that even when applying normal pressure to the lever, the car either rolls or jerks a few inches when the foot pedal is released. It's something that appears to be normal we're told. Heaven help us if we ever used the car to tow a caravan.



Now there's a problem with the alarm system. In brief - it goes off when it wants to and can't be stopped. The car was 2 days away from the end of its warranty, so back to the dealer we go and they are now in touch with Chevrolet again. Until they reply, we have a car whose alarm goes off at all times of day and night or it gets left unlocked!



A big thankyou to all at Chevrolet for 18 months ofmiserable motoring.



Strangely enough, my local dealer also operates a Vauxhall franchise and he tells me that warranty claims with these guys are a breeze, but if he dreads they days he has a warranty claim with Chevy.



Will post again when further news on the alarm (which I gather cannot be repaired).

 

[intimidator]

is the dealer arnold clark in salford??

 

[cnewton2]

The dealers concerned are north of the border, but not dissimilar in their set up to Arnold Clark I guess.
Having said that, the Dealers were more helpful in trying to resolve matters thanChevrolet themselves were.



The manufacturers warranty doesnt appear to be worth the paper it's written on.

 

[BorisBlank]

Hmm, I've been looking at a thread about the clutch problem on our sister German forum.

If the translation is right, Chevrolet were aware of the clutch problem and recommended an upgrade to particular VIN numbered vehicles. See - http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.captiva-forum.de/index.php?sid=7d97002d71389c05d9b1ddeaa2602a51

or if that messes up try this "untranslated" link - www.captiva-forum.de/index.php?sid=7d97002d71389c05d9b1ddeaa2602a51

I have not been able to track down the Service Bulletin referred to in the German thread, No. OSB07-5C-019 but although they still appear to blame the driver, they did a software update to address the problem. Its difficult to tell, again translation issues, but a new, better clutch may have been produced. Whatever they say, Chevrolet know about the problem and took steps to correct it, if they didn't think it was a design fault, I'd doubt they would have bothered to do anything at all. getting them to admit a fault of course is another matter.

EDIT - Another reference to the same and other Service Bulletins here - http://www.captiva-forum.de/viewtopic.php?style=1&f=3&t=249

I wonder if later Captiva's have different/mofified clutch parts from earlier versions?

Edited by: BorisBlank

 

[cnewton2]

Thanks for going to so much effort Boris. It
's a pity that Chevrolet in Luton didnt make the same amount of effort.



As regards the alarm, the car is back a t the Dealer again today, for a couple of other tests that Chevrolet think might solve the problem. Let's wait and see. I'm not holding my breath!



Keep you posted folks.

 

[cnewton2]

Well that's it. We've had enough.


We had about 24 hours of P&Q from the alarm, followed by abother 48 hours of it going off on its own again.



After going back to the dealer to be told that the car was now out of warranty, we were ready to draw a line in the sand and prepare for battle, and told the dealer that he'd had the car three times but hadn't resolved the problem, which was originally reported before the warranty expired.



Anyway, we've gone out, found another car and done the deal. The cars will be exchanged in the coming week and we got a fair price for the Captiva.



Enough was enough. You know what it's like when your pride and joy gets a problem, or you feel like you're locking horns every time you speak to a dealer or the manufacturer. Our faith in the car and confidence in the supposed back up from the manufacturer(which was never fantastic) has just been blown out of the window.



The car will now sit on the driveway untilit goes, for fear that something else will develop on it.



R.I.P. Chevrolet - You've had our first and last purchase. We're now buying something that's reliable with a better manufacturer's backup.

 

[adama67]

R.I.P. Chevrolet - You've had our first and last purchase. We're now buying something that's reliable with a better manufacturer's backup.





It's never as easy as that.

Could write a book about how poor Toyota were with our Rav + service (and its reliability).

Just your luck I would imagine.

 

[evo 370]

It is interesting know how bad Chevrolet were with regards the warranty, according to the service manager at Arnold Clark in Linwood. The Chevrolet warranty is one of the best, I will wait and see!

 

[magic dragon]

Ive had a wheel bearing and front shocker done under warranty without a problem at 58500 miles

 

[BorisBlank]

Well, well. Its only a month old and the problems have started already!

60 plate LT, 800 miles on the clock from new. Alarm has being going off every so often for no reason and we've started smelling the burning smell and the radiator fan keeps coming on and off every journey we make (big or small).

Everything was fine and dandy last week, now I'm beginning to regret ever having bought one - looks like all the problems everyone else is having are about to hit me as well. I was stupid enough to believe that the later models would have been fixed, clearly not.

Bummer to say the least. I'll be taking it back to be looked at next week, the nightmare begins!

Edited by: BorisBlank

 

[bigiainw]

Hey Evo,
I do think it's hillarious that Arnold Clark have the audacity to critisise anyone else- If their service was any worse it couldn't actually be called service!

Iain

 

[SarahAnn]

This post isn't giving me much confidence in getting a Captiva

 

[cnewton2]

WellI certainly wish I'd known about this forum first. If I'd seen it, then I don't think I would have ever bought a Captiva, or anything with a Chevrolet badge on it for that matter.

 

[BorisBlank]

This post isn't giving me much confidence in getting a Captiva

Don't buy one!

I thought these problems happened only to a few people and that chances are they wouldn't happen to me - I was wrong on both counts!

Don't risk it, every day I drive it I'm worried it will break down, the alarm will go off, something will fail etc, etc and the warranty/aftersales people from Chevrolet will quite simply wash their hands of you and leave you to fork out good money for their design faults.

I had more confidence in my 5 year old Focus than I ever had/will have in the Captiva - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Edited by: BorisBlank

 

[intimidator]

my alarm goes of every now and then, it seems to be when big artics go past!..


my fan comes on, and this seems to be just before the dpf warning light comes on, if you do short journeys, then this causes the dpf to come on to clear all the cr*p out the system.

 

[SarahAnn]

I'm afraid i was put off the captiva after reading the troubles. I'm sure that there are happy captiva owners out there but after speaking to my local chevrolet dealer, who was quite rude and never even rang back with prices for me, i started looking at kia and found a 2010 with 6k miles on for less than £16k. I wouldnt have wanted to deal with my local chevvy dealer for any warranty issues so i decided against them.

 

[cnewton2]

A wise move Sarah Ann. Did you end up buying the Kia after all?
Our old Captiva is now sitting in pride of place on a dealers forecourt on one of those ramp things that's meant to attract you to it over the rest of the cars they're selling. I have to admit that the Captiva is a really good looking machine, which I guess was part ofour downfall when we chose to buy it. What's that old phrase about looks being deceiving??



I just pity the unsuspecting sole that now buys our old Captivathe dealer.

 

[SarahAnn]

Sorry to hear the troubles with your Captiva.
They look really nice but after reading the post and as i said, talking to our local chevvy dealer who was rude and unhelpful, we decided to look for something else.



We are collecting it on Saturday. A kia sportage 2010 only 9 months old, Crdi XS 4 wheel drive model, full leather 6k miles for £15.495. It was £15,995 and i asked for some money off.

I have seen them since on autotrader for nearly £18k so i think i have a good deal.



I still like the look of the captiva but in the end, the kia was more appealing on the reliability issues and the fact that i didnt like our local chevvy dealer who i would have had to deal with had i had any problems.

 

[Oldroverboy]

In fairness to Chevrolet uk, my car (an epica vcdiwith the same engine as the captiva) has had its various warranty problems sorted out by FRF in swansea, absolutely no hassle at all, the only inconvenience was the 60 mile round trip, My gripes were with the poor dealer service at Evans halshaw and Pentagon. I have had my car serviced by a vauxhall network Q dealer here in carmarthen using original chevrolet parts and the recommended oil, brake fluid changed as well(my service book stamped)and am delighted, was also competitive on price. this is also acceptable for chevrolet warranty. The mechanic sam knew what he was doing, and Chris Jones service manager could not have been more helpful. I was also able to watch some of the work being done from the viewing area at reception.
If after a couple of tries at the dealerships and still problems recommend writing to mark terry, managing director, chevrolet uk, osborne rd luton lu1 3yt.

 

[K.L.Richards]

SarahAnn - Good luck with the Sportage. Personally I don't think it is in the same class as the Captiva. The Captiva is a big SUV and a practical 7 seater (for 7 seat models of course). The Sportage is far smaller, a nice car, but a crossover in the real sense. It is a small family car, which has been made to look beefy.


All cars have issues. The trouble is that these sites will have more people complaining than praising, its human nature.


I fully appreciate your comments on the dealer, I haven't been impressed with FRF Bridgend, as I was messed around during some warranty work, but I should say since they had a new service manager they were 200% improved. Saying that, I have had cars from many manufactures over the years and dealt with numerous dealerships. BMW, Jaguar, Vauxhall, Volvo to name a few, and NONE of the dealerships where outstanding. To me they are no more than "fitting stations", as they can replace parts no problem, but ask them to diagnose a fault and unless the computer can do it they ha vent a clue. The trouble with computer diagnosis, is that it never knows the cause of the fault, just reports an error code that it has. So they replace the part, as the computer says, and guess what... It fails again later or something else goes wrong.


I go to the dealerships when my cars are in warranty, as soon as that runs out, I go to a mechanic who has his own garage. A true mechanic who not only diagnosis the fault, but the cause of the fault and fixes it. And guess what, he sometimes REPAIRS a part rather than REPLACING it. He also services my cars and does what he says he does, unlike a Jaguar franchise who serviced my S Type, charging me for Spark plugs but only changed 3 of the 6 (V6) as it was too tricky to get to the other 3, which I found out after my car went into "limp mode" on the motorway.


Its a pity you made the decision based on the "seller" not the car... But I'm sure you will be happy with it.