Not familiar with the Renault, but I'd still say it's terrible engineering. A few years ago my company car was a Ford escape. Battery died. I'm looking at the thing tucked way back under the cowl trying to figure out how to get it out. Quick YouTube search. Step 1...remove windshield wipers? Step 2 remove upper cowl. Step 3 remove lower cowl. Step 4...remember it's a company car and not my $900 the dealer is going to charge to change the battery because you have to disassemble half the vehicle to do so. Step 5, drink a beer and remind myself of every Ford I've ever owned and why I'll never own another one. It sounds excessive when you think I'm terms of the 1st hundred years of vehicle production where you could change a battery in 5 minutes in the auto parts store parking lot with a Leatherman. Unfortunately they have decided that inaccessible maintenance items are a good idea.
This is the same dealer that killed my batteries, then told me I had water in my fuel, which killing my batteries caused, they also said I had an extremely dirty air filter which was just replaced. In a nut shell I caught the service advisor and service manager lying to me several times. They had my truck for a month. I told the service manager is so many colorful metaphors. II I don't give an f if you have to push my Fing truck out the front gate, I'm picking the Fing thing up. They replaced my batteries on their dime. Took it to Tuttle click Jeep in Irvine to fix the problem I originally had.
This would have been my usual course of action (including the post-fix watering hole, LOL) but symptoms of when it died had me stumped because not familiar with ESS systems. Assumed it might be more than the battery because it died without warning, I couldn't jump start it, just lit up every warning like a Christmas tree and gave me ominous-looking code errors. Transmission refused to shift to neutral even with the override. Couldn't push it out of the way because I had a 6,500lb travel trailer behind it. Finally just put the transfer case in neutral, put a tow strap over my shoulder, and started waving down trucks to at least get me out of the intersection. Of course only another Jeep would stop and help. Yeah, I was in no mood to get under the hood at that point.
This was my thought as well. You got the MOPAR-markup on parts but that's normal.
Plus no lawmakers thinking about what this does to the used car market. Many perfectly serviceable vehicles will be scrapped when all of this fancy expensive tech stops working and you can't register the thing anymore. Look at how many cars get totaled or get slapped with a salvage title just because the airbags were deployed.
More of a warning for those in a panic when they get stuck with a dead Jeep: Check the batteries first.
Paid $83 for $10 worth of rivets and $99 for a $25 fuse. Yes, indeed - Screw them. Lesson learned.
Sounds about right. I think in my old posts you can still see where a tech at this same place forgot to put the cap back on the coolant reservoir after an oil change causing it to overheat when boiled out and painted the entire engine and underside pink. Told they'll refill it free and good to go! I'm like, no... You're going to flush and refill, inspect everything for damage, do a compression check, and extend my warranty. No problems since, but man, what a hassle.
Sometimes you are not in a position to take care of things yourself. I have broke down 1000 miles from home and -17f outside. That's when the everyone at the dealership takes a turn on you while the service manager holds you down. I haven't bought a Chevy since then. I had another similar experience with a Ford dealership in 2014. Haven't bought another Ford since then either. It doesn't make a difference to the manufacturers, but it sure does make me feel better.
