This year 2022 is not stingy with hard knocks for the Renault group. shortage of semiconductors, exhibition in Russiajudicial aftershocks of the earthquake of the Ghosn case… Today management is convinced: these troubles are in the rearview mirror. The ace ! There remains one last nail in the manufacturer’s wheel.
For several weeks, owners of Renault and Dacia cars, but also Nissan (the other alliance group) have been threatening of a joint class action against the automotive group after premature wear and even engine failure. A Facebook group identifies and aggregates the victims of the 1.2 TCe engine, this petrol unit mounted on approximately 400,000 vehicles, from October 2012 to June 2016. The unfortunate owners speak of “motorgate”, in allusion au dieselgatean emission control fraud scandal uncovered at Volkswagen in 2015.
Some of the angry motorists are represented by Me Christophe Lèguevaques. “I have grouped together several complaints”, explains the lawyer at the Paris bar. At the beginning of January, they were still only around twenty, but they are now 1,109 plaintiffs, who threaten to make the file “a mass litigation”.
A proposal “under examination”
According to our information, Me Lèguevaques has just written to the Renault group, a letter that we have been able to consult. The letter poses an ultimatum to next June 5 and offers a simple choice: “The amicable resolution of the dispute”, with “a negotiation in order to quickly compensate the owners and former owners of the vehicles concerned”; or else, “a procedural guerrilla warfare that will highlight the contradictions between (the) words (of the group) and (its) acts and will contribute to obtaining civil and criminal convictions”.
For its part, Renault confirmed to the Parisian to have received the letter in question, “under examination”. An answer will be given in the next few days. In addition, “93% of the customer cases identified in this file have already been partially or totally taken care of”, assures the manufacturer.