[Studwhippy]

Car Broke down and had to be taken to a Vauxhall Dealer as RAC couldn’t repair it, Dealer had it for a few days and fixed it, there was nothing physically wrong with the car and no parts were changed only a software update done at a charge of £360. The car had been into a Vauxhall dealer about 7 months prior and had been fixed under warranty which included some software updates. Given that there was nothing physically wrong with the car and as a consumer there was no other options other than taking it to a Vauxhall dealer for repairs that are down to “Bad code” that the manufacturer obviously knows about or they wouldn’t have made an update to the software which then fixed the car. And as they had previously done updates to the software under warranty then surly they are responsible for providing the updates. It’s not like the update was just for making a few things better and i had a choice - I could not possibly use the car again until it was updated. I contacted Vauxhall Customer care who said if there had been a broken part then they could have done something but not for software issues! This is the complete opposite of logic as physical parts do ware out, and as annoying as it would be i would understand that external forces could damage parts and they could not be held responsible. But Software issues that they know about and have no external corruptions that leave the car unable to be used are surly the manufacturers responsibility? Otherwise they could just insert sorfware that makes a vehicle breakdown so as to then charge for the repairs. And what happens if the same thing happens again next year and the year after.

[NMNeil]

I'd check your warranty to see if software updates are excluded from the warranty, and I read that Vauxhall issued a recall for software issues, so give that a look as well.
https://www.vauxhall.co.uk/owners/ma...all-check.html

[olduser]

Hi Studwhippy,
I agree with your sentiment, more so as your post implies the car is still in warranty.
But as NMNeil says you need to read the warranty Terms & Conditions.

If the software is excluded then I think it is a Trading Standards problem, on the grounds it is an unfair exclusion.

Until a piece of software has had many thousands of usages, it is almost impossible to say it is bug free.
Updates can be changes to the basic software or alterations to the data tables to refine the running of the engine.
I would guess the £360 was mostly the cost of checking/testing to find out it was a software problem, which in my book, should be covered under warranty.

They proved the car wouldn't go, and you didn't break it, warranty job.

Good Luck.