Citroën is trying to dodge their 10-year PureTech engine warranty on my C3 Aircross. Am I being corporate-stonewalled here?
Hey everyone, Needing some advice/sanity checks because I am currently locked in an absolute battle with Citroën UK and my brain is melting. I’ve got a 67-plate C3 Aircross with 66k miles on the clock. It’s got the infamous 1.2 PureTech engine. It’s currently off the road with severe oil consumption and it just failed its MOT on emissions because of it. I found the official Stellantis corporate policy online which states they’ve extended the warranty on these exact engines for up to 10 years or 112,000 miles to cover 100% of parts and labour for—you guessed it—excessive oil consumption and timing belt degradation. My car fits this perfectly. But when I called customer service, the front-line staff tried to completely stonewall me, claiming my car "isn't covered" and trying to pull the classic "you don't have every single historic invoice" trick. Here’s the kicker: Citroën’s own recall department confirmed that 3 years ago, Citroën approved and paid for the official timing belt and vacuum pump safety recall on my car. My argument is that by doing that recall, they already officially validated the car’s early history. You can't split the car's life in half! To make it worse, the dealer advisor let slip today that when they did that recall 3 years ago, they didn't drop the oil sump to clear out the shredded belt debris. When I challenged him on it, he panicked and backtracked, claiming they "must have done it because they changed the vacuum pump" (which is mechanically impossible since the pump is at the top of the engine and the sump is at the bottom). So they basically botched the safety recall, left rubber chunks in my engine to starve it of oil, and now my piston rings are shot. I've fired off a massive, heavy-hitting escalation email to their executive care team demanding a case number, a diagnostic waiver, and full workshop logs under GDPR/Subject Access Request. I'm currently waiting for a manager callback but getting the classic "no managers available" runaround. Has anyone actually successfully fought Citroën on this 10-year PureTech support campaign? How do I get past these front-line gatekeepers who refuse to look at their own corporate policy? My MOT expires in 4 days (luckily I've booked a safety-net MOT a few weeks out so I don't get ticketed in my parking bay), but I'm losing my mind with the waiting. Any tips on how to handle the manager when they finally ring back? Cheers!