1998 Seat Alhambra review from UK and Ireland

Three weeks after delivery we noticed that the vehicle was pulling away slowly from standing, and the gears did not change quickly enough. This got increasingly worse but was ignored by the main dealer in Colchester who said 'it was the way I drove it' and in November 1998 it was taken in for the first time for inspection. Since then it has been back to the dealer 23 times for 'resetting a switch', installing a new 'throttle switch' and a new gearbox (August 1999) because they admitted it was not moving through the gears properly. In November 1999 it started again.

I can't drive it on a motorway as there is no power to get out of situations and roundabouts are a nightmare as there has to be a large enough 'gap' to pull out safely. I get hooted and have had the window punched. Seat 'customer services' are in fact 'dealer services' as they have also ignored my case, many letters and phone calls, and Chartered Trust, the finance company have refused three times to accept my rejection of the vehicle. Each time I have been asked to give the company the chance to repair... which only works for a few weeks. Now nearly two years down the line I have a solicitor working for me and now want the vehicle taken back, but even in law I have to give them the chance to repair!!

The vehicle was with the dealer for nearly 2 weeks recently (we deliberately had it taken to another dealer for an unconnected repair, but the dealer in Colchester took it away without our knowledge or permission) and when the Seat technical officer came to look at the problem - it wasn't there, surprise! Se have not used it since, as we know the problem will start all over again. The vehicle is still with the dealer in Colchester.

Anyone reading this please note. In law you have about 7 days to reject a vehicle (not the length of the finance agreement as we were told) if you allow them to repair it you have in effect accepted the vehicle. The law is not on the buyers side. Sadly if you get an unscrupulous dealer and a finance company who care more about the manufacturer's business than the customer then the troubles are threefold.

I would not buy a Seat again as so far they have offered no 'customer service'. We had a Toyota before and will save up to get the deposit to buy a Toyota again.