- President of AFESTEL: “The authorities should demand that they stop selling cars with Puretech engines“.
16/04/2025
Those affected by the defective engines manufactured by Stellantis -the Puretech ones- are managing to give the multinational a break. AFESTEL, the organization that brings together almost nine thousand affected users, has obtained -only since March- more than 170,000 euros in reimbursements through out-of-court negotiations. And the forecast is to reach 2.5 million euros in the next few weeks. Both amounts represent only the beginning of what could become a very high amount in compensation, taking into account the hundreds of thousands of victims.
These refunds mean for many people to get out of the hell they have lived for years with their vehicles. They have had to assume important repair costs due to the abandonment of responsibilities by the engine manufacturer who, to this day, stubbornly refuses to recognize that the Puretech problem is a manufacturing defect.
Marimar, from Bilbao, is one of the beneficiaries of these refunds. After going to the garage and unsuccessful calls to customer service, her trusted service mechanics told her to be careful with the oil. Months later, the timing belt was replaced and two months later his vehicle started to give problems again: “On January 4, in the middle of the highway and in the pouring rain, the car started to do strange things, I was able to stumble into a service area, I could have had a very big accident”. At the Citroën dealership he was told that the engine was broken and needed to be replaced. The estimate was 10,000 euros: “I called customer service explaining the problem, and they replied that they would look into it and talk to the garage”. After a long wait, he received a letter informing him that they would pay 60% of the repair. “I told them no, that the car had not reached 70,000 km and I did not accept that they would only pay that percentage. On a 16,000 euro car, you can’t spend 10,000.”
With the vehicle immobilized in the workshop, Marimar found out through social networks that her case was identical to thousands of others and that AFESTEL was representing the associated users to claim compensation. She started the conciliation process and a few weeks ago she received the letter informing her that the company had agreed to pay 100% of the cost of the breakdown: “I have been testing it for 500 km (with the new engine), I am happy, it is as if I had won the lottery, I’m sorry, you have solved my problem”.
However, the president of AFESTEL, Yerba Luca de Tena, considers that although progress has been made in cases like this one, it is not enough: “the truth is that I would like Stellantis to be forced to stop selling cars with these engines”.
In the meantime, AFESTEL continues its judicial pressure. Nearly 250 lawsuits have been filed in the courts of the city of Vigo, where Stellantis has one of its offices.
The representatives of the affected parties and their lawyers are optimistic and hope to reach a satisfactory agreement, despite the fact that the company ignores judicial communications and does not show up for conciliations.
The failure of these engines affects more than 750,000 vehicles in Spain, more than 4 million in Europe.
The Association of Stellantis Affected People (AFESTEL) currently represents more than 8,500 affected people, who are ready to go to court to defend their right to compensation, aware that the only way to force the company to find a solution to compensate for the economic loss is to act collectively.