My Australian RCZ

[SmoothRedline99]

I own a Peugeot RCZ.

 

[Verminator]

Well it's like that old saying... There's always one bad apple in the basket and it's a shame I think you're picked it.... All the things you have said about the THP engine is all too common in the Prince engines....

 

[Flanners]

You seem to have experienced almost everything that could and does frequently go wrong....just need the high pressure fuel pump as the cherry on the cake.

Have had mine 18months and it has been the most 'unreliable' car I have ever owned, all covered by warranty, and it seems just like most other 'modern' cars BMW, Audi, Mercedes.....expensive to maintain and built to fail.

 

[Ian J.]

Wouldn't disagree with any of that but lets be honest people don't buy French cars for their impeccable reliability record.
We buy RCZs because they look great and drive better so lets not kid ourselves, we know what we are buying and should expect to pay a bit out to keep them on the road.
They are remarkable value now and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[Ian J.]

Yes totally accept 4000AUD is real bad luck

 

[Pedro]

If that's a 200GT its a all leather dash & on the earlier models problems arose when the leather was left untreated for too long (completely dried out) & the skins begin to expand & contract due to heat some were known for the stitching to burst open as for the other issues we see these all too often & its sometimes down to bad service & general maintenance by previous owners

 

[thornebt]

I got rid of my RCZ as it was constantly coming up with EMLs. The jacking points are awful, not fit for purpose. They were intact when I got the car and I used the jacking aids to keep them that way. However, Peugeot replaced two tyres on the MOT and trashed them. They then tried to deny it but eventually 'fixed' them. The fix didn't last long as once they have been squashed the metal has been weakened and they easily go the same way again even with the jacking aids. The high pressure fuel pumps do not last long. I replaced two thermostat housings, one the thermostat had stuck open and the other developed a leak in the plastic casing. I replaced ignition coils because they packed up. The car spent 10% of its life in limp mode! If you buy an RCZ then you definitely need an OBD fault code reader. Some of the faults can be erased and don't come back.

The RCZ is an extremely nicely styled car but it is not in my experience very reliable. I replaced it with a 100HP Fiat Panda which is a great little fun car. Neither this car or my wife's car have ever had an EML appear!

 

[Ian J.]

Wouldn't be the first time a manufacturer has designed a great looking car and put a rubbish engine in it.
Anyone remember the RX8.

 

[apple3337]

Do you know what year and model it is? Sorry to hear this story from a fellow Aussie.

 

[SmoothRedline99]

Do you know what year and model it is? Sorry to hear this story from a fellow Aussie.

Hi Apple.

it is a 2013 petrol manual transmission RCZ.

just the normal facelift one.

hopefully I can take legal action and get Peugeot to fix the dash under safety manufacturing fault laws.

it is seeming promising but I’m not too sure yet.

 

[SmoothRedline99]

To be honest it shouldn’t expand or contract even if the owner doesn’t treat it as it should have been treated well enough during the dying process of the leather from the factory.

Pretty annoying to have my dashboard so ugly right now

If that's a 200GT its a all leather dash & on the earlier models problems arose when the leather was left untreated for too long (completely dried out) & the skins begin to expand & contract due to heat some were known for the stitching to burst open as for the other issues we see these all too often & its sometimes down to bad service & general maintenance by previous owners

 

[Ian J.]

Good luck with that, taking a multinational car manufacturer to court over an issue with a 7 year old car in a country that has some pretty extreme temperatures takes some guts, and probably a big bank balance.

 

[Nemi]

I wonder if your roof arches are damaged by sun as well

 

[apple3337]

You've had some awful luck. 1/ Did you leave the car in the hot sun every day? 2/ Who is your mechanic? I reckon a lot of problems with these cars are misdiagnosis leading to work getting done unnecessarily. 3/ Is yours a 156 or 200 HP version? 4/ The roof arches can be restored. My car came from SA (Port Lincoln) and the plastic looked pretty bad when I got it. Now looks brand new

 

[SmoothRedline99]

No,

You've had some awful luck. 1/ Did you leave the car in the hot sun every day? 2/ Who is your mechanic? I reckon a lot of problems with these cars are misdiagnosis leading to work getting done unnecessarily. 3/ Is yours a 156 or 200 HP version? 4/ The roof arches can be restored. My car came from SA (Port Lincoln) and the plastic looked pretty bad when I got it. Now looks brand new

garaged everyday lol.
Car is just shit.

 

[SmoothRedline99]

Good luck with that, taking a multinational car manufacturer to court over an issue with a 7 year old car in a country that has some pretty extreme temperatures takes some guts, and probably a big bank balance.

I’m not suing them, the ACCC are.

 

[Nemi]

It is sad that you got all these problems at 40k km. My repairs started at around 80k km and I have spent around 2-3k EUR on engine repairs over 3 years. Before buying my RCZ I knew that this engine is poopy when it comes to reliability. Diesel version is more reliable.

Your dashboard looks really bad, I hope you get it fixed.

 

[Ian J.]

I’m not suing them, the ACCC are.

Good luck with that, the RCZ isn't a bad car but French cars in Europe have a reputation for less than great reliability although in fairness many people have pretty much trouble free motoring. Sounds like other than fuel pump which is also prone to problems you've had pretty much everything go wrong that can .
The 1.6 petrol engine doesn't have a great reputation but the diesel is bulletproof so they didn't get it entirely wrong.

 

[Pedro]

To be honest it shouldn’t expand or contract even if the owner doesn’t treat it as it should have been treated well enough during the dying process of the leather from the factory.

Pretty annoying to have my dashboard so ugly right now

If that's a 200GT its a all leather dash & on the earlier models problems arose when the leather was left untreated for too long (completely dried out) & the skins begin to expand & contract due to heat some were known for the stitching to burst open as for the other issues we see these all too often & its sometimes down to bad service & general maintenance by previous owners

Maybe the skins have got wet at some stage thus shrinkage is occurring together with the heatwaves you get over there will cause sever problems I did see one for sale with the stitching burst open right across the dash & it turned out the previous owners had washed it before applying leather cleaner
As for a safety issue I can't say I agree with you as Peugeot would probably say its a cosmetic problem with the interior which has not affected the bulk of the manufactured cars but I hope you can get some closure if it is a defect with the hides

 

[neilgsxr69]

There have been numerous reports of genuine leather option dashboards doing this, the synthetic ones aren’t affected in the same way. Most problems come from cars in hotter climates though.
Regarding general reliability all cars have generic problems associated with a particular model look on any car forum and you’ll see that.
I have a launch edition model do one of the fist RCZ’s made so over 10 years old now and other than the so common timing chain replacement it’s never missed a beat and it’s a 156 too so supposedly the one with all the issues as previously stated I’ve seen it so many times that money’s been thrown at a Z and you can see that the mechanics are just following protocol but haven’t the experience on these engines to know what the likely problem is and bypass all the coil pack swaps etc.
Sorry you’ve had such a bad experience many owners have the polar opposite.