A FORMER EastEnders crew member was stunned after she was blamed for the countless issues with her brand new £25,000 car.
Julie Grant, from Newcastle upon Tyne, only had her Honda Jazz for a few hours before the car broke down.
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The 61-year-old had purchased the car through the Motability scheme – which enables people with disabilities to lease a new car.
However, when she contacted the dealership to complain about the fault, she was told that her driving was the cause of the problem.
After she collected the car from Vertu Honda Newcastle, warning lights started flashing on her dashboard.
She took the car back to the dealership, who discovered there had been a problem with the brakes and replaced the part.
Appreciative of the speedy service, Julie thought that was the end of her motor-related problems.
But to her horror, between March 14 and April 9, she had to take the vehicle back to Vertu Honda eight times.
She said how she had to call the RAC out twice and they had to follow her to the dealership because “the brakes weren’t right”.
“I had the RAC out twice and the second time they had to follow me into the dealership because the brakes weren’t right,” Julie told Chronicle Live.
She told Chronicle Live: “I got in touch with the manager to ask if he was aware of the problems with the car but he was just making excuses.
“Then his last email said ‘actually it’s the way you’ve been driving’, which is absolute nonsense. I’ve been driving since I was 17 and I’m nearly 62, and I’ve never had a problem. I’ve never even had an accident.”
Julie, who previously worked in post-production for BBC’s EastEnders added: “I find it extremely insulting and a fob off.”
She said that she had a year’s experience driving an automatic car and was well aware that it’s easy to accidentally press the brake and accelerator pedals at the same time.
Julie explained how the car steering jammed about three of four times and the brakes “weren’t working properly”.
“It was unsafe to drive,” she fumed.
She claimed the recovery team said there was still an issue with the brakes – despite the dealership replacing the brake sensor twice.
Julie said she was told by a receptionist that the master mechanic had looked at the car, but when she spoke to that mechanic, he said he’d never seen the car before April 9.
Eventually, the car was returned to he dealership and Motablity terminated Julies contact due to “mechanical reasons”.
She was offered £277.25 compensation from the scheme and a £100 refund.
Julie has bought a new car.
A spokesperson for the dealership said the car was assessed by Master Technicians, and the diagnostics revealed the issue was caused by the method of driving.
“We are happy that we’ve acted correctly when dealing with this matter and that there was not a fault with the vehicle.
“One of our Master Technicians assessed the car and the diagnostics for the vehicle demonstrated that the method of driving caused the issue, which also occurred when the customer drove one of our courtesy cars.
We are pleased that the customer has reached a satisfactory agreement with Motability.”
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