well main stealers can do the right thing from time to time.... well mine has ...now...after some discussion !
my wife's car decided to die on our driveway on march first.....its a foreign job with a keyless entry system... you just need a credit card style key about your person .... you climb in and press a button to start the engine....quite simple really ...there is no ignition key to lose....( good for the wife or so i thought )
but when this foreign heap decides it wont recognize the credit card style key and wont start you are well and truly snookered.....non recognition of the keycard renders the car immobilized, and it has electrically driven power steering, electrically operated steering lock and an electric handbrake....
so after trying new batteries in both credit card style keys still nothing...i call the recovery chaps who say its a common fault, but it needs to go to the main dealer....
they collect the car and take it to a main dealership in a big town 10 miles from my home....
3 days later the main dealer calls up to say the fault is not what they thought it was...but its been tracked down to a faulty electrical part on the steering lock, they don't have the part but they can get it in 3 days time.....oh and the bill will be £470 to supply and fit......
wife needs the car back asap so - ok i said and that was that.... or so i thought...
3 days later the garage phone and say its still not fixed even with the new parts fitted.... its another EHU unit which is several hundreds of pounds to buy and £120 per hour labour to fit.... they fit this part and it still is not fixed.... its now the ECU, then its an ABS control computer, then its a voltage module then its this and that....
every time they were clutching at straws as to what to replace to make this car go ......in the end the UK headquarters of the car manufacturer got involved after i contacted them and they ended up sorting out a useless service dept at a lousy main dealer garage...
anyway to cut a very very long story short, tomorrow ( june 16th ) i get the car back from the main dealers.... they have finally fixed it after bringing a troubleshooter over from france.....THEY HAVE HAD THE CAR SINCE MARCH 1st....
stavros will know the brand, we have had crossed words on this already- he says never buy french.. !!!
so there you go , a mainstream manufacturer cannot fix a a four door saloon which was delivered to them on march 1st in less than 3 months....
but my complete log of calls, emails and excuses were presented to the UK headquarters of this car manufacturer- who have now agreed to pick up the repair and labour bill of over 2k
so David, stick to your guns , get your money back or if all else fails, do as i did with the service dept manager at the dealers.... i threatened to create a second orifice for him so he could spout twice as much brown stuff ... it seemed to do the trick.....
i am with stavros now....I will never buy french again !!!