OK, you are buying a new or nearly new car, the sales person is smiling or rather licking their lips like some predator about to devour, you are about to spend a lot of money...the painted smile faded a bit when you didn't want paint protection or GAP insurance or any of the other overpriced extra extras, did you notice?
They have sung the praises of their make and its the best thing since sliced bread or Y fronts, its the height of todays fashion and got the right badge, all singing all dancing with more electrical goodies than you could shake a stick at.
Not one of these companies, and this goes for everything in life, has any trouble taking your money, thats universal, so good service cannot be judged by how pleasant they are whilst draining your wallet.
So, looking good in shiny suits and fashionable haircuts whilst taking lots of my hard earned money and supplying me with machine coffee and a glass palace to drink it in doesn't impress me one bit, what does impress me is how well i am looked after should things go wrong.
Up to a point i don't mind if something does go wrong within reason, carp happens, its how the maker and their representative main dealers fix the problem that shows the company in its true light.
We rightly expect the vehicle to be their responsibility for faults whilst still under warranty, but are we wrong to expect the maker to take fair and reasonable responsibilty to provide us with a decent level of customer service, eg goodwill repairs on items a reasonable person would expect to last a long time, after warranty has expired?
I qualify this question by assuming that the buyer has acted responsibly and honourably in their ownership too, have maintained the vehicle well, preferably by keeping in the dealership for servicing (thereby establishing a good relationship), hasn't neglected or abused or negligently misfuelled or otherwise helped to wreck a perfectly good car.
I've had personal excellent service after warranty has expired, from Toyota as you might expect.
Toyota are well known to be one of the good ones, a company who stands by their product and seems to want to keep its customers and its good name.
Are there any others, apart from Honda, who bend over backwards and dip deep into their pockets to put things right after warranty has expired...some we know can't even manage that whilst still under warranty, big names too.
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I have had Renault pay for coil packs & a window regulator out of warranty, both items were notorious for regularily breaking though.
IMHO it is vital to haver the car serviced at a main dealer while under warranty and (probably for a year or two after) if you expect to get any goodwill from them after the warranty expires.
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Ford gave me a new CD player after the car was out of warranty.
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Renault coughed up for a window regulator for the Scenic a few months out of warranty. That said, I had to endure all manner of bullplop about it being an isolated case, and a fault they hadn't seen before.....
Still, the result was the main thing.
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Vauxhall coughed up 70% of the repair bill when my camchain tensioner failed out of warranty (car 4 years old, IIRC). Had to have a new chain and tensioner fitted. Would have been well over £500, but cost me £150'ish.
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>> Toyota are well known to be one of the good ones, a company who stands
>> by their product and seems to want to keep its customers and its good name.
Didn't I read recently that Toyota wouldn't even fix things while the car was still under warranty, even if they knew it was a fault, unless the customer explicity complained about it? Not my idea of good customer service!
BMW seem quite good in my (limited) experience of out of warranty cars. When I say out of warranty, I mean by some time. In 2006 I took a 1992 BMW 316i Touring to my local dealer when picking up some oil for our 120d. The chap behind the counter asked if it had had the radiator cap recall (1998) for cars registered between 1988 and 1992! A quick check on the BMW system showed that it hadn't, so I got a new radiator cap :-)
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...Didn't I read recently that Toyota wouldn't even fix things while the car was still under warranty...
I believe there's more pressure on dealers to reduce claims than there used to be.
I was quite pleased to get a new boot switch - it's a solenoid on the CC3 - when the car was just under three years.
Couldn't have argued if the dealer had said it was fair wear and tear.
Having said that, it's easier for the dealer to be generous over a fifty quid claim than for a £500 one.
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Friend I used to work with got tie bar bushes or some such thing replaced on her Yaris as 'goodwill' long after it ws out of warranty. Mind you it's probably the only Toyota of its age still serviced at a dealer - they knew how much her business was worth!!
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Sims' Northampton Bromp?....they'll still be going when every other dealer has gone bust in the county, family owned and it shows.
So far no one come up with any refusals, i wonder if there's a common thread of getting the dealer to service whilst under and for some time after warranty.
I don't mind making a contribution like VxFan, so long as its fair, as his seems to have been.
Particularly interested if anyone has any experience from Mitsubishi, we know most other Japanese makers are good at customer care, one is poor and i can vouch for that from family experience that they are currently looking to replace with another Japanese make.
Mitsi seldm get mentioned anyway due to their rarity, most things i read are good if genuine parts might be a tad expensive.
Talking of expense, i changed the serpentine aux drive belt on daughters 2.0 Civic last week which is proving an excellent car, all but impossible to get an aftermarket (tried but my factor seemed incapable, couldn't compute comparing old with the new-:), reading on Civic forum shows others have failed to find aftermarket too....genuine belt £62! eek....luckily its a 5 minute job to fit but best to remove OSF wheel for space to fiddle.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Mon 14 May 12 at 12:02
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Getting the car dealer serviced doesn't help you if your problem is due to the dealer cowboying a job and then denying it as my recent experience has shown!
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>> Sims' Northampton Bromp?....they'll still be going when every other dealer has gone bust in the
>> county, family owned and it shows.
No it was London firm. Don't know which one but she lives Tooting way.
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>> Sims' Northampton Bromp?....they'll still be going when every other dealer has gone bust in the county, family owned and it shows.
Not on my experience when I was buying a landcruiser!
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>
>> Particularly interested if anyone has any experience from Mitsubishi, we know most other Japanese makers
>> are good at customer care, one is poor and i can vouch for that from
>> family experience that they are currently looking to replace with another Japanese make.
>>
>> Mitsi seldm get mentioned anyway due to their rarity, most things i read are good
>> if genuine parts might be a tad expensive.
I'll let you know on Wednesday. The lancer goes in for its cam belt (186 quid) and they said they would phone if the miriad other belts needed replacing (they need to come off to get to the cam belt)
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>> Didn't I read recently that Toyota wouldn't even fix things while the car was still
>> under warranty, even if they knew it was a fault, unless the customer explicity complained
>> about it? Not my idea of good customer service!
>>
I think that's pretty standard. Manufacturers have lists of service advisory work but won't authorise payment to the dealers unless the csutomer hits on the exact problem.
>> BMW seem quite good in my (limited) experience of out of warranty cars. When I
>> say out of warranty, I mean by some time. In 2006 I took a 1992
>> BMW 316i Touring to my local dealer when picking up some oil for our 120d.
>> The chap behind the counter asked if it had had the radiator cap recall (1998)
>> for cars registered between 1988 and 1992! A quick check on the BMW system showed
>> that it hadn't, so I got a new radiator cap :-)
>>
There's a school of thought that that recall was just a way of BMW getting back in touch with past customers and forcing them to visit their local dealership.
I'm going back a few years but Renault replaced both rear springs FOC on wifey's Clio when it was 4 yrs old, and the car only had a 1 year warranty when new in 1998. Dealer had laughed at the suggestion but a quick call to Renault customer services and it was all sorted.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Mon 14 May 12 at 14:56
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FIL had one of the first x-trails. Some ECU that controlled the on-demand 4x4 system packed up so because a permanent 2 wheel drive.
IIRC Nissan provided the part and he paid the labour a fair few months out of warranty. Nissan dealer told him he did well as the part was over 1K
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toyota stuck new front discs and pads on a car when the discs were worn down too much while about 2 years old, anybody else would have charged and called it wear and tear
vauxhall paid for an engine rebuild after cam belt snap just out of warranty, saved me a couple of grand
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customer care after warranty - Skip
