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Published on 09/27/2024 at 11:10 a.m. Written by Emmanuel Pall
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Engine breakdown, overconsumption of oil and, failing that, worry for the kilometers to come… This Thursday, September 26, 2024, a public meeting brought together at least a hundred dissatisfied customers in Roubaix. Several of them testified about their struggles and gave a progress update with the lawyer in charge of their group legal action.
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For him and his family, Cédric* has three cars. Three Peugeots, one 208 and two 2008s, all three equipped with a Puretech engine. According to him, according to the testimonies he read on Sébastien Czerniak’s Facebook page, this Northerner who leads a revolt against Stellantis, none of them will exceed 120,000 km without having major problems. “The first car (208 with 125,000 km) has its broken catalyst… It’s a consequence of my overconsumption of oil. It is no longer guaranteed. The third has nothing: it only has 45,000 km but the second one also starts to consume too much oil.
The Peugeot customer, around fifty years old, questions Mr. Lèguevaques, who came to meet dissatisfied customers to help them face the automobile giant, about the name of the legal attack. “Why not attack them for planned obsolescence, false advertising or fraud?”
Me Lèguevaques replies that the procedure will be adapted with, to begin with, a request for documents from Stellantis via the courts and via an evidentiary summary before the Versailles court. The criminal is being considered with a complaint for “endangering the lives of others”.
Me Lèguevaques on the microphone: with your number, “you are starting to represent a threat to Stellantis”. 5,000 dissatisfied customers have already joined the movement for group legal action. • © France Télévisions
Another testimony, that of Christtrophe Eloy, who today has a credit of 300 euros per month to have his car immobilized in a garage. Purchased in May 2022 for 17,000 euros in Villeneuve d’Ascq. The car has excessive oil consumption: a can every 300 km, 400 km and a tank problem. Christophe explains today that he has a young child and has to borrow his mother’s car for work and appointments with the pediatrician. He believes that beyond the material damage, there is also moral damage. Especially since the garage now requires significant security costs.
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Sylvain Coquet (left) and Christophe Eloy (right) • © France Télévisions
9:00 p.m. The meeting ends, outside, Alicia Dos Santos and Jean-Charles Brunet discuss their respective mechanical problems. Alicia has a 2008 that she refills with oil every three weeks and fears engine failure. Having not carried out the services at its Belgian dealership, the latter “completely dropped it” and did not “want to take the vehicle back”.
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Jean-Charles Brunet and Alicia dos Santos discuss after the public meeting in Roubaix about the defective Puretech Stellantis engines. • © France Télévisions
Jean-Charles has a meeting with a lawyer next week. He wonders whether the legal battle is more effective in civil, alone, or in group action, in criminal. The two types of prosecution cannot be initiated jointly. You actually have to choose, assures Me Lèguevaques.
For Sylvain Coquet, it’s obvious: “alone, I don’t weigh enough. The protocol for changing the engine would have changed, Citroën tells me.” The brand therefore does not want to change its engine. However, there is nothing to prove this change in protocol to me and, to have the documents, “I can only turn to group action”. Having purchased a second-hand C3 Puretech 1.2 with 46,000 km for 15,000 euros from a Honda dealership, today he is being asked for an additional 3,500 euros in security fees since his vehicle, which consumes 70 cl of oil per 1000 km, is immobilized. The motorist is one of 4,800 “first wave” plaintiffs engaged in a group legal action.
*Istaken first name