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Vauxhall Astra suddenly stopped required software update – safety issue

Home page 2023 Forums Technical Discussions Vauxhall Astra suddenly stopped required software update – safety issue

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    • #98362
      Sean McLaughlin
      Guest

      Hi everyone…

      I was in Manchester over the weekend and my mother was driving the car. She phoned to tell me she had the car taken into arnold clark. She was driving on the motorway and coming off the slip road when the car suddenly lost power and the speedometer indicated she was going 30mph but the car rapidly stoops to barely 5mph. The car is only a year old and is a Vauxhall Astra limited edition 2015 plate 1.6t.

      When receiving the invoice from the mechanic it said there was a diag. check ran and it indicated there was software outdated and needed an update and in his words caused the car to send the wrong signals to the engine and put it straight into limp mode.

      However, my point now is that neither my mother or I feel safe in car and because she does long journeys she would rather take the train now and we feel like we have restricted use out of our product. More seriously if it was a busier time of the day it could have been a very bad accident and we would be opening a lawsuit.

      I was just wondering what my options would be to send the car back/ refund/ or get a new car but most preferably send the car back. The car is bought under PCP.

      I should note the mechanic did guarantee it wouldn’t happen again but then again it shouldn’t have happened in the first place since I do not feel comfortable in the same way that if a mechanical problem went wrong and it would be fixed as it is obviously a computational error.

      Cheers,
      Sean

    • #98445
      stuart 2022Stuart Masson
      Participant

      Hi Sean. If you have had the car then you may be covered by the Consumer Rights Act, which may help you to reject the vehicle. However, if you have had it for more than six months, then you can only really rely on your new car warranty (since the car is a 2015 model, it should still have warranty for another couple of years, even if you did not buy it new).

      Software updates are normally picked up during a car’s regular servicing if it is done by a franchised dealer. If the car has been serviced somewhere other than a Vauxhall dealer, such updates or other known mechanical fixes will not be done.

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