I think they should have kicked in a lot more. I don't know the circumstances surrounding your purchase, but if I was buying used from an AM dealer I would EXPECT them to tell me what % wear is left on certain parts...selling a car w/ a sh*t clutch w/o telling customers is bad business imo. If I were buying used from a non-AM dealer I would EXPECT I get a PPI which tells me those things.

 

This is what my clutch looked like. Since it was "mechanical failure" they covered it completly under the 3-year warantee.

 

50/50 split would have been nice Duane, at least they helped you a little...just sucks to have to spend that much right outta the box on a csar with 5K miles.

 

I bought the car exactly 90 days ago from Aston Martin of Washington in Tysons Corner VA, and put 1,050 miles on it. It was sold to me with no warranty (they offered a 1 year warranty to me for something like $ 4,600 as I recall). It had 4,780 miles on it, so I figured what could be wrong with it? Well, now we know! The car was delivered new to the original owner by them as a special order car and was serviced by them as well. I was assured it was tip-top. I had no reason to suspect otherwise.

It's not like buying off EBAY, one does expect a certain standard from a authorized dealership that obviously was a mistake on my part to assume.

Their rebuttal could be that I could have toasted it in those 1,050 miles. I get that. So at the end of the day it becomes a gentlemanly thing to compromise. A 15% discount on the job is not much compromise. I have a few more phone calls to make to them to discuss this prior to picking up the car, and the outcome will effect if I do business with them in the future.

I own a high-end retail furniture store that specializes in top-of-the-line residential upholstery. When I have a situation like the above occur, I either replace or fully restore the entire piece at no charge to the customer and have done so on items that cost up to $ 15K. It's how I do business, my customers are never left holding the bag. I have a stellar reputation in 26 years of doing business like that and that's important to me and my clients as it should be to any business catering to high-end consumers.

 

This is a tough call...if the car was shifting fine 1000 miles ago and Duane didn't notice anything like a clutch slipping or having trouble with grabbing gears or nothing at all wrong with the car, or the dealer didn't find the clutch slipping then a PPI would not be able to predict a slipping clutch as part of the PPI is a test drive. It's hard to find things like a slipping clutch on a PPI because you need to feel the clutch slip on the drive, and if it's not you don't have any idea when the clutch will not do it's job any longer.

All that said perhaps the dealer could have contributed more, under the circumstances of such low mile car, purchased 90 days ago, and prior known owner etc...etc...

I would consider use a privateer specialty shop who specializes if I had to foot the bill due to no more warranty, it may save a few bucks and they can put in some upgraded alternatives if so desired.

 

Today I decided to write an email to the Pieter, the General Manager of Aston Martin of Washington detailing my disappointment with the cost of this repair, and ya'll already know the details (above).

Pieter called me promptly, then asked for a couple of hours time which of course was reasonable. There are two managing owners of the Aston store (and three silent partners) and when Jonathan, one of the owners, was there they called me back.

It was very amicable and friendly, and when we were done my total bill was for parts only (I can't tell you if that was at dealer net or retail) and it came to $ 1,819.24. I agreed that was fair and went to pick up the car today with the new clutch installed. That was quite a reduction from $ 4,400 and an original bill over $ 5K.

So, once again I will give major kudos for Aston Martin of Washington DC for doing the right thing. This is a good, honest dealership and they want to build their business by doing right by their customers. Highly recommended.

 

^^^ that's a nice ending, def a class act then. how does the car feel?

 

Glad to hear -- nice outcome.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems with the clutch, but great news that the dealer dealt with things very fairly, it reinforces the benefits of buying from a good main dealer. Although the clutch could be deemed a weak spot, most last just fine ( despite the smells) so don't get paranoid guys.

 

The dealer did you a "solid". Your perseverance paid off. They "lost" money on the repair as they still had to pay the mechanic. This should instill owner loyalty to the dealership in you.

 

Glad it worked out and they handled it correctly.

 

those clutch discs look brand new. scorred, a bit, but the flywheel I can't see.
what did the clutch feel like when you where suspect you had a problem? really interested in the feeling of the clutch as it failed vs when you first bought the car.
if there was slipping, then that's a HUGE issue, but if its grabby due to glazing, sometimes time and lots of friction starts without over heating the clutch can remove it. those discs should last 150,000miles if you don't punish the clutch discs.

1800 in parts sounds about right for an AM clutch. but it doesn't look like that hard of a job. shouldn't be 50 hours labor!

 

The car would not go into gear. It went from being 'fine' to unable to select a gear - any gear.

 

hmm, that's not a clutch issue, that's a throwout bearing out of alignment or sometimes a clutch alignment issue. if its shredded, then parts of the disc still tough the flywheel when you push the pedal in, and the synchros cant slow and stop the drive shaft. this is when you cant get it in ANY gear. but scored flywheels and glazed clutch discs have nothing to do with getting the transmission in gear...................now, im very curous as to the real problem.

did you replace the throw-out bearing/slave combo set too?