If the dealer opened up the drivetrain and told you they were doing it because if a part covered under warranty they cannot then determine that another part failed and you now have to pay for them opening it up under the guise it was covered by warranty. They can probably justify charging you to put it back together but you don't need that, just have the car towed with the parts out to your garage and install the new clutch, they did half the work for you.
That is a broken clutch surface for sure, with plenty of life left in the material, catastrophic and sudden failure. But, there is allot of indication on the flywheel of some abuse or sudden engagement over the 17k miles. I've seen plenty of catastrophic clutch failures over the years on new cars but they always happen soon after purchase, like within 5k miles or less, one guy with an M3 had less than 500 miles on his before the material came loose from the backing.
Its a crap situation but I would encourage you to find an independent shop to install the clutch for $500-600 and buy a quality aftermarket. If its already been escalated to a regional and denied you aren't oing to get another answer without a lawyer. Once a lawyer calls and introduces himself to the situation then the dealer and regional will not talk to you and hand it over to their legal people, all the while you don't have a car.
I think your best bet is to argue that you were lead into an expensive disassembly by a tech advising you it was covered under warranty and should NOT be subject to any diagnosis fees, regardless of the paper you signed when you checked it into service. If you didn't sign anything then you don't have to pay them shit anyway. Simply ask the regional to give you the car back and you can replace the clutch yourself. I would propose mentioning that you think they did a "bait and switch" to generate swap fees by misleading you into a warranty covered repair knowing that they would be able to charge you book rates for the work on the back end, that may e a more effective argument.
That is a broken clutch surface for sure, with plenty of life left in the material, catastrophic and sudden failure. But, there is allot of indication on the flywheel of some abuse or sudden engagement over the 17k miles. I've seen plenty of catastrophic clutch failures over the years on new cars but they always happen soon after purchase, like within 5k miles or less, one guy with an M3 had less than 500 miles on his before the material came loose from the backing.
Its a crap situation but I would encourage you to find an independent shop to install the clutch for $500-600 and buy a quality aftermarket. If its already been escalated to a regional and denied you aren't oing to get another answer without a lawyer. Once a lawyer calls and introduces himself to the situation then the dealer and regional will not talk to you and hand it over to their legal people, all the while you don't have a car.
I think your best bet is to argue that you were lead into an expensive disassembly by a tech advising you it was covered under warranty and should NOT be subject to any diagnosis fees, regardless of the paper you signed when you checked it into service. If you didn't sign anything then you don't have to pay them shit anyway. Simply ask the regional to give you the car back and you can replace the clutch yourself. I would propose mentioning that you think they did a "bait and switch" to generate swap fees by misleading you into a warranty covered repair knowing that they would be able to charge you book rates for the work on the back end, that may e a more effective argument.
