My C3 will be five years old in anovember and has done 40k miles. When I bought it I tested everything shown in the handbook and most of it was not there. This appeared to include the airconditioning so I assumed it was not part of the spec. Just before the first (20k miles) service I was told by a friend itt should be, and included it in a list of warranty items when the car went in. The result was a £65 bill for recharging it with gas. Since it had never worked this seemed unreasonable. Moreover after this I couldn't detect any sign it was working; however I was old, tired, and aircon isn't worth much in this country, so I let it go. (We cannotforesee the future). Being now faced with the prospect of driving in 30-40 degree heat abroad I sent it to the dealer for one more try at getting itgoing. He charged nearly £80 to tell me that the compressor wqas dead (clutch control failure) and I needed to pay a furhter £600 odd to have it replaced. Since the compressor had barely been required to run for an hour before the first 20k mile service and virtually not at all since, and had never produced a result when it did, it seems clear to me that it never worked and was defective from the day I bought the car. Anyone else with similar experience?
