[AnneLeamington]

Alfa Giulietta issue with door handles

I have a 4 year old Guilietta first registered May 2014 I bought her May 2015. The drivers side handle snapped about 6 weeks ago and I waited until the annual service thinking I’d get it fixed then, only to be told a new door card was needed and it would cost £300 plus labour. I couldn’t believe it. I put a post on here to look for help to fix it if I bought a door card on eBay £80 ish. It was then I discovered this is a much bigger problem. Whilst I was looking into it further blow me down two weeks ago my friend tried to open the passenger door to get out and the passenger door one broke! So right now if anything happened and I needed to get out my car quickly I couldn’t it’s a critical safety risk. But now I’m facing a £700-£800 bill for a problem that is Not of my making. 95% of the time only I am in my car. This is a design quality issue. I took it to Alfa and they have offered 50% towards it but I intend to take it further to the ombudsman and to the media. I can’t believe someone hasn’t done this already! I may be forced to pay for the drivers door now because it’s not safe. I am very interested to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[AnneLeamington]

I need your help please to find examples of precedent where Alfa have agreed to replace at their cost the replacement giulietta internal door handles on cars outside of warranty with full service history. My car is 4 years old, 95% of the time only I am in my car and in the last 6 weeks both my drivers side and passenger side internal door handles have snapped. No way is this wear and tear or pressure. It’s a design quality issue long known about. The have only offered 50% towards the cost so I’m still facing a £400 bill. I can’t believe they haven’t been sued for this before now.

 

[cue2]

I found it's good of get the dealer to help in this kind of situation as when the tailgate wiring went on my previous Giulietta weeks out of warranty. I never got to the point of threatening them with the social media. You may find where I posted the Facebook statement.

 

[AnneLeamington]

Thank you Cue2 ?

 

[Indierock80]

I need your help please to find examples of precedent where Alfa have agreed to replace at their cost the replacement giulietta internal door handles on cars outside of warranty with full service history. My car is 4 years old, 95% of the time only I am in my car and in the last 6 weeks both my drivers side and passenger side internal door handles have snapped. No way is this wear and tear or pressure. It’s a design quality issue long known about. The have only offered 50% towards the cost so I’m still facing a £400 bill. I can’t believe they haven’t been sued for this before now.

I'd contact Alfa Romeo customer service UK on Twitter. Worst case scenario,
You can find the door handles only on eBay for 70/80£. Fairly easy to mount as well.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/263465932880

 

[bsd]

I am going through this right now. Drivers side snapped last year and managed to get Alfa to pay half the cost but was still almost £200. Few weeks ago the passenger one also snapped. Now trying to get them to pay for this one as well. Suppose best I can hope for is 50% again but will moan at them and try to get more. It really is a joke. These things should not break. As soon as its done the Guilietta is getting traded in (not for another Alfa) Its put me right off. Had a GT V6 before the Guilietta but no more for me.

 

[AnneLeamington]

Thank you for sharing BSD. I really don’t understand why someone hasn’t taken this down the legal route??? at least to challenge it. Its wrong on every level and I am so peed off because I have loved Alfa’s since I worked for Fiat for 12 years and drove Alfa’s as company cars. There are so many cases on here and we could double or treble that or more with Alfa owners who aren’t on here to post! I don’t get it.

 

[cue2]

There are over 27000 Giuliettas registered in the UK apparently. If a large percentage of them are experiencing failures it's not highly visible or people are getting them fixed to their satisfaction without a visible fight with Fiat UK?
There are already a couple of threads on the subject as you can see. Perhaps they could be combined?

 

[AnneLeamington]

Yes Cue2 I agree. The giulietta is not sold in US. I’m currently capturing Alfa senior management contacts on LinkedIn for manouvres ?

 

[Isotope]

My car is nearly 8 years old and I have had no issues with the door handles, I think I've seen previous threads where people pulled the doors shut using them that resulted in breakages but I can't see how this happens with my own experience of the car after 5 years of ownership?

 

[Mr Sunseeker]

Just had my 2018 Giulietta (5300 miles) booked in for a new drivers side door card, handle hasn't snapped but has dropped and is rubbing on the bottom edge of the door card when operated.

 

[AnneLeamington]

Resolved - Giulietta car door handles snapping issue

Hi, thank you to everyone who stepped forward to help me with this, a special thanks to Simon. I am delighted to report it was resolved completely having taken it to senior management. Additionally I was informed by the Service Manager at my AR dealer, Johnsons in Solihull that at the same time mine was approved they had also received approval to cover the full cost of replacing snapping door handles for any future cases. Obviously there may be some form of criteria associated with this that wasn’t shared with me, but as a precedent this may help others in a similar situation.

What i learned from this whole situation is how accepting people are of genuine injustices. And AR should have stepped up to take full responsibility for this years ago. Let’s face it we are the minority here as most car owners don’t join an owners forum, so there are many more cases out there.

Thank you
Anne

 

[cue2]

"What i learned from this whole situation is how accepting people are of genuine injustices. And AR should have stepped up to take full responsibility for this years ago."

They did, in Italy on their own Facebook page, as I pointed out on a thread a while back.

I'm glad Fiat UK have got the message and your car is sorted out. Perhaps this should be on the stickies along with their conditions for paying the whole bill?

 

[Adidas]

In Israel, Alfa Romeo acknowledged there is a problem with the opening handle of the door. every Alfa Giulietta manufactured after 2014 will get it replaced with no charge for the part, the owner will only pay an hour's worth in the garage fee (around 60 gbp).

 

[zotac]

Is there a thing like a statement or something from Alfa Romeo? I have a 2016 Giulietta with a loose handle (seems like its snapped on the inside). Went to the Alfa dealer last week only to get the message today, that this is not covered by the guarantee..

 

[cue2]

Are you in the UK?

 

[zotac]

I'm living in Switzerland.

 

[Adidas]

Is there a thing like a statement or something from Alfa Romeo? I have a 2016 Giulietta with a loose handle (seems like its snapped on the inside). Went to the Alfa dealer last week only to get the message today, that this is not covered by the guarantee..

i'm not aware to any statement. i only know that Alfa Romeo took responsibility for this issue in Israel.
Maybe you can tell them that you know that in other countries, Alfa is aware that there is a technical issue with the door handle and it happens to many Giulietta owners (because so many of us complained they took responsibility), and you insist to get this issue fixed.

 

[zotac]

Just came from the dealer again. He wrote them that i cannot understand why this isn't being in warranty since the car is only two years old. Now they'll pay it (about 430 SFR) because of good will. Strange thing.

 

[Carmelo]

Driver interior door handle snapped!

Hi Anne, I've had the exact same thing happen to me this afternoon - my interior driver door handle snapped in my hand :-( My local Alfa dealer (Simonstone in Bristol) have quoted me £680 to fix with new door card!!!!! Outrageous. I have yet to challenge it but read your post with intrigue. I happen to have a Johnsons dealer fairly local in Swindon so I will contact the Solihull branch firstly tomorrow and explain the situation to them and mention your post and see what happens. Problem is it's not the sort of problem you can leave lingering for long! Do you perhaps have contact names I could quote when I speak to them at all? From your post it appears that they'll sort 'all future cases' - is this only for cars they have sold?? Either way I'll give them a call but any help/advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Carmelo

Hi, thank you to everyone who stepped forward to help me with this, a special thanks to Simon. I am delighted to report it was resolved completely having taken it to senior management. Additionally I was informed by the Service Manager at my AR dealer, Johnsons in Solihull that at the same time mine was approved they had also received approval to cover the full cost of replacing snapping door handles for any future cases. Obviously there may be some form of criteria associated with this that wasn’t shared with me, but as a precedent this may help others in a similar situation.

What i learned from this whole situation is how accepting people are of genuine injustices. And AR should have stepped up to take full responsibility for this years ago. Let’s face it we are the minority here as most car owners don’t join an owners forum, so there are many more cases out there.

Thank you
Anne