The Justice ordered Renault to communicate internal documents in a case that confronts the automaker with more than a thousand clients, victims of defective engines, according to orders transmitted this Wednesday, March 15, to AFP by their lawyers.
A communication requested on the Renault network
A thousand owners of vehicles equipped with a Renault engine of a particular type, victims of excessive oil consumption and breakdowns, accuse the manufacturer of having been aware of these problems “from the beginning”. He was summoned for injunctive relief in June 2022 in order to obtain documents on these engines.
The Versailles court partially granted his request on Tuesday, according to an order consulted by AFP.
The court considers that there was no willingness to “conceal” on the part of Renault, which has already communicated numerous documents. But it orders the communication of a study on the valves, documents on the monitoring of production in the engine manufacturing factories, as well as technical notes and alerts addressed to the mechanics of the Renault network.
Questioned by AFP, the manufacturer limited itself to indicating that it was going to “examine” the ordinances.
Cars equipped with 1.2 TCe (gasoline) engines, manufactured by Renault between October 2012 and June 2016, generate excessive oil consumption that increases maintenance costs, pollution and can cause engine failures between 65,000 and 125,000 kilometers, said one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. , Me Christophe Lèguevaques, specialist in collective actions.
An alert launched in 2019
“The consumer association UFC-Que Choisir had already launched the alert in 2019 about these engines, citing 400,000 affected vehicles in France and other cases in Europe,” writes AFP. Renault mentioned this figure, but globally at the beginning of 2022. This engine was also installed in models of other brands besides Renault, in particular in Dacia and Nissan, but also in the Mercedes Citan utility, but not AFP. He does not mention this point in his office this Wednesday.
Following the UFC-Que Choisirn alert, thousands of owners got in touch via a Facebook group, naming their action “Motorgate”, in reference to the “Dieselgate” scandal of tampered Volkswagen engines. The action now includes 1,700 motorists, according to their lawyers.
Renault has confirmed this excessive oil consumption in “a small part of the models”.
“We did it on a case-by-case basis”, stressed a brand spokesperson in January 2022, specifying that “if customers were scrupulous with maintenance”, the support was “total”.
According to the manufacturer, 90% of users who sent a request to it were able to benefit from support.
The lawyers for the plaintiffs, the teachers Lèguevaques and Delivret, said on Wednesday that, under the sentence handed down on Tuesday, they were going to file a complaint against Renault for “deception” and “endangering the lives of third parties.”
Source: BFM TV
