RENAULT HAS moved to reassure Irish owners of its Scenic II model that the company will fix a fault affecting the car’s instrument panel for a nominal fee.
The fault, which causes the instrument display on the dashboard to flicker and eventually fail, was reported on last week's Watchdogprogramme on BBC One. The problem, which also affects the car's speedometer, is a problem on Scenic II models produced in 2004 and 2005 and usually occurs outside the warranty period.
A spokesman for Renault Ireland said that they were “very concerned” at the reports and have said that customers who experience the problem should contact them.
“Currently, complaints are dealt through our dealer network which applies our customer care policy. We invite customers who experience the incident to contact their Renault dealer to make an appointment to have a new instrument panel fitted at a nominal price, which is the same policy as applied by Renault UK,” he said.
The spokesman added that the instrument panel failure was not considered a safety defect. “Renault would like to reassure customers who may be concerned that the failure of the instrument panel will not affect the performance of any other system, such as lighting (including headlights, indicators and brake lights), braking, steering and engine management. Hence, Renault does not consider that this incident is a safety defect because the performance of the vehicle is not affected.”
The spokesman said that 4,900 of this generation of the Scenic II had been sold in Ireland. He said that Renault is receiving between five and 10 reports of the fault per month, but that the number of complaints only involves a small percentage of the total number of cars sold.
“Renault aims to provide worldwide the best quality of service to its customers and is very concerned that some owners have experienced problems with instrument panel losing the display, potentially on Scenic II models produced in 2004 and 2005,” he said.
Any customers who are affected should contact their local Renault dealer or Renault’s Customer Services team directly on 1890 771 771 or by e-mail at info@renault.ie.