A thousand owners of vehicles equipped with a Renault engine of a particular type, victims of overconsumption of oil and breakdowns, accuse the manufacturer of having been aware of these problems “from the start”.
Justice has ordered Renault to communicate internal documents in a case which opposes the car manufacturer to more than a thousand customers, victims of faulty engines, according to orders transmitted this Wednesday March 15 to AFP by their lawyers.
A communication requested in the Renault network
A thousand owners of vehicles equipped with a Renault engine of a particular type, victims of overconsumption of oil and breakdowns, accuse the manufacturer of having been aware of these problems “from the start”. They summoned him for interim measures in June 2022 in order to obtain documents on these engines.
The Versailles court partially granted their request on Tuesday, according to an order consulted by AFP.
The court considers that there was no desire for “concealment” on the part of Renault, which has already communicated numerous documents. But he orders the communication of a study on the valves, documents on the monitoring of production in the factories of manufacture of the engines, as well as technical notes and alerts intended for the mechanics of the Renault network.
Questioned by AFP, the manufacturer simply indicated that he was going to “examine” the ordinances.
Cars fitted with 1.2 TCe (petrol) engines, manufactured by Renault between October 2012 and June 2016, generate excessive oil consumption which increases maintenance costs, pollution, and can lead to engine failure between 65,000 and 125,000 kilometers , said one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Me Christophe Lèguevaques, a specialist in class actions.
An alert launched in 2019
“The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir had already launched the alert in 2019 on these engines, citing 400,000 vehicles concerned in France and other cases in Europe”, writes AFP. Renault mentioned this figure, but at the global level at the beginning of 2022. This engine was also installed on models from other brands than Renault, at Dacia in particular and Nissan, but also on the Citan utility vehicle from Mercedes, but AFP does not mention not this point in his dispatch of this Wednesday.
Following the UFC-Que Choisirn alert, thousands of owners then got in touch via a Facebook group, baptizing their action “Motorgate”, in reference to the “Dieselgate” scandal of rigged Volkswagen engines. The action now includes 1,700 motorists, according to their lawyers.
Renault confirmed this overconsumption of oil on “a small part of the models”.
“We did it on a case-by-case basis”, underlined a spokesperson for the brand in January 2022, specifying that “if the customers were scrupulous about the maintenance”, the support was “total”.
According to the manufacturer, 90% of users who sent it a request were able to benefit from support.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers, masters Lèguevaques and Delivret, said Wednesday that, on the strength of the decision rendered on Tuesday, they were going to file a complaint against Renault for “deception” and “endangering the lives of others”.
