Without any warning at all, my ‘57 plate, 1.8 SRi, petrol, 29,000-mile Vauxhall Zafira’s clutch failed quite dramatically. The car went from working fine to a revving monster, barely able to move, all in one day. It had to be towed to the nearest Vauxhall garage by the RAC. It is still within the manufacturer’s warranty but, unsurprisingly, the garage say it won’t be covered as it is beyond 17,500 miles and damaged due to wear and driver error (‘riding the clutch’). They say it may not have been me but the previous owner as I bought it at about a year old. My last car was an F-reg Mazda with over 100,000 on the clock, still on the same clutch I bought it with 10 years earlier – so surely it couldn’t be my driving?

I bought the Zafira from a Vauxhall main dealer and it has been serviced with them since – do I have a leg to stand on to complain about this? They have said the “flywheel has burnt out and caused damage to the pressure plate on the clutch and the clutch disc”. They also said the slave cylinder will need replacing, all for the sum of £1337! How can they prove that the clutch damaged the flywheel?