petrol head

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Posts posted by petrol head

  1. Posted

    On 11/11/2020 at 10:32 AM, Willoughby said:

    Thanks for all your advice and info guys...car is W205, C220. As you can see its a dogs breakfast.....Merc still say not possible to find any dates or mileage changes in other module, have now spoken to 4 or 5 good Merc Indies and couple of companies who fix and decode ECU's and my key guy all think its unlikely they can do much. When I get the thing back and take the tape off it might just open up some other possibilities - I've told them to get the car fixed and back on the road to keep customer happy. Then gather the best evidence to see what Merc and BCA say. 

    C220_img.jpg

    How are you getting on with this Buddy, I'm keen to know the outcome as its a very interesting thread.

  3. Posted · Edited by petrol head

    3 hours ago, friar said:

    Hello,

    I had a similar case, and bought a bomb from Halfords,it was about £10,and you fill car with aerosol,with widows up, engine and fan running.

    Meguiars Air Re-fresher 208584

    It worked!

    I was going to suggest the same Gard X and Jewelultra sell them to the trade, although I think with gard x its like a fogging system? 

     

    Edit to say we used the Jewelultra product, its called Total Release, you put the a/c on full and deploy the canister it takes about 2 mins and leave the car for 5 mins. Significantly cheaper than the Maguiar (3M) product.

  4. Posted

    52 minutes ago, BHM said:

    Clocking is a strong claim to make without any substantiation. However almost the only cars the ‘mileage adjustment trade’ nowadays work on are newish cars by punters well over their pisspoor annual mileage allowance that they signed up to.

    Also those cars being exported to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the like, Premium and petrol largely 18-36 months old. 

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    32 minutes ago, Willoughby said:

    I'll dig the invoice out which will have it on. Do you think I should speak with the dealer and tell them about the sat-nav update etc ........or is it likely they might then tray and cover their tracks.........at the moment car is with the dealer and I'm awaiting them producing a summary of the problem and hopefully a date when the discrepancy occurred......

    I would call Tongwell (MB) Customer and explain the situation and its been one of their Lease Vehicles, I would think they would take this seriously. 

  6. Posted

    2 hours ago, It's me said:

    hi,I would be taking proper legal advice both to protect you against possible litigation from your customer but also from the authorities,I would also be looking at where my business stood in relation to buying a car sold as genuine mileage when indeed it would appear it had a mileage changer possibly added to the loom,was this still fitted when car went to dealer?can you access lawgistics legal team? you are piggy in middle here not a nice place to be

    As long as you have taken all reasonable steps to prove the mileage, you won't have an issue with trading standards in my view. As you took it to a Merc Dealer before, then the discrepancy should have been picked up then, you should also have got that under goodwill if it was a month outside of warranty. I had an S Class as my own car and it was about 6 months outside warranty and they picked up a gearbox and air suspension unit. Some years back admittedly....

  8. Posted

    45 minutes ago, Frank Cannon said:

    Really, please expand on that gem

    -CDJ

    - American built Ford, we have had a few Explorers (outside of the UK) which is on the face of it a great car, but the build quality is awful

    - I'm sure the GLE is pretty good now, but the 1st & 2nd generation M Class was a horror show 

    @Frank Cannon does this answer your question?

  10. Posted

    7 minutes ago, trade vet said:

    Out of interest,when we had a 25 car open pitch all the stock was washed and leathered off before 10 each day by one guy.We then had a part timer come in mid day for three hours and he would Auto Glym the stock.There was so much polish on them that the rain would just run off and it made it so much quicker to wash them off.Auto Glym was expensive and from the US ( so was Wynn’s oil additive ) but the stock looked great and it saved us from employing another full timer. 

    Your smarter than the average bear, most people look at the cost of the product before the quality and the time spent to apply the product. A good friend of mine and one of the best Motor Traders I know, he's made millions, got hoodwinked into selling a ceramic product, the application process was a complete nightmare. He canned it very quickly and one of the few things he touches that doesn't turn to gold. 

    • Thanks 1

  12. Posted · Edited by petrol head

    20 hours ago, davidlkl said:

    Yes, to Singapore. How did you know?

    Been around the block Mate, done lots of biz in that part of the world. I know most of the Guy's in Sing as I have done a stint there so if I can help PM me.

    Edit to say anything from Sing your safe with, easy if you know someone to get the history and they are subject to 100% duty and a COE which is around £50K. So they and the Japanese look after their cars very well and they are low mileage, most units in Sing are exported when they are 3 years old plus as the COE is tradeable, sorry its hard to explain, but you can't buy a car without one and its a commodity, which is limited and trades on demand  . Sing and Jap units are CBU (completely built units), ie a Merc is from the main factories, Malaysia, Indo, Thailand, Philippines etc are CKD (complete knock down), this can be anything from complete assembly tp trim and glass. The quality is variable and you are unlikely to get them registered in the UK, forget about any warranty too.

    So in summary only touch units from Sing or Japan, unless you want a world of trouble.

  18. Posted

    JD Power Survey Results don't read well, eyes down Sir Ralph:

     

    J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Initial Quality Study Brand Ranking (PP 100):

    1. Dodge (136)
    2. Kia (136)
    3. Chevrolet (141)
    4. RAM (141)
    5. Genesis (142)
    6. Mitsubishi (148)
    7. Buick (150)
    8. GMC (151)
    9. Volkswagen (152)
    10. Hyundai (153)
    11. Jeep (155)
    12. Lexus (159)
    13. Nissan (161)
    14. Cadillac (162)
    15. INDUSTRY AVERAGE (166)
    16. Infiniti (173)
    17. Ford (174)
    18. MINI (174)
    19. BMW (176)
    20. Honda (177)
    21. Toyota (177)
    22. Lincoln (182)
    23. Mazda (184)
    24. Acura (185)
    25. Porsche (186)
    26. Subaru (187)
    27. Chrysler (189)
    28. Jaguar (190)
    29. Mercedes-Benz (202)
    30. Volvo (210)
    31. Audi (225)
    32. Land Rover (228)
    33. Tesla (250)

  19. Posted

    https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/jaguar-land-rover-bailout-talks-with-government-crumble-as-outgoing-boss-sir-ralf-speths-pay-packet-tops-4-4m/200286

    First off the bat let me say, I'm a big JLR fan and always like to have a RR as user, however given the recent record loss, pre COVID-19 job losses, how on earth can he be paid £4.4M?

    I know JLR Dealers in the UK as well as distributors in other markets, they all have various degrees of frustration with the current management. The Dual arch, Boris like U-Turn, has been well publicized, but there have been numerous changes of distributors across the world, all of new distributors I know have are performing to lower standard then the Guy's they sacked. The priceless example, I won't say where, is where they had one distributor for Jaguar and one for LR. The Jag distributor had been in place for years and was a well known family company, with their only Automotive interest being Jag, the LR distributor was a large conglomerate with multiple Brands, including at least 2 competing in the same sector. JLR's solution to this was to get them both to set up a JV, so you have a massive PLC and a family business trying to work together, double the size of the Dealerships, and its been a disaster with an 80% drop in the last 5 years or so. 

    Another market they had a really good operator, again family owner, lived and breathed the Brand, had a great location etc. Very small market, anything close to 200 units would be good going, despite having a good facility, they wanted them to spend millions on a new facility. When they said no, JLR terminated them and were without representation in Country for a long time, when they new boys came along they opened a facility that was substandard to say the least. I don't know the new Guy's, but the choice of models they bring in are baffling and sales I'm told on the floor.

    Would love to hear from some happy JLR Dealers/Distributors.

  21. Posted

    3 hours ago, Casper said:

    Another thing is a customer in a 5k car always seem to be more understanding if a fault develops that we are doing or upmost to repair and get to the bottom off of the fault as opposed to the customer on a £995 part exchange who will come in all guns blazing demanded that there whole car is stripped and rebuild for something like a squeaky glovebox or creaky door ..

    I once offered a full refund inc tax before the changes to a customer on  a £1495 car id been using myself for a few weeks as a park anywhere take home at night use to get to work in the morning car 

    had 150k miles but was basically a sound one owner car all matching Pirelli tyres etc full history all old mots tax disc in a receipts in nice wallet  

    but the customer would return daily on the first two occasions we put it through the work shop found no fault but fitted new parts to keep the customer happy then when he thought we were a push over the car was back every day for two weeks 

    the final straw was when the customer came in said his son didn't like the aftermarket jvc cd player as he couldn't charge his phone from it  that same one that was in there at purchase  

    I remember reading a survey that Mercedes had conducted in the late 90’s or early naughties, the results showed that an A Class customer had higher expectations than an S Class customer. 
     

    Have had some corkers over the years a few spring to mind:
     

    - customer would simply drive into the workshop and grab the 1st mechanic and demand he attended to her car. We banned her eventually under the pretense she was breaking H&S guidelines. 
     

    - Guy who had his airbag deploy in the motorway, we had it towed in and he wouldn’t let us work on it and wanted someone from the manufacturer present when the vehicle was inspected, along with the BBC watchdog etc. Despite my best efforts to tell him for us to inspect the car would not change his legal perspective etc, he was having none of it. So the day finally arrived and we had a throng of people, cameras, manufactures representatives etc, so we put the car on the ramp and once high enough in the air there was a large tear in the chassis where he had hit something. With the noise from the impact and airbag being almost simultaneous, he didn’t realize he had hit something. His face was a picture, never has “told you so” felt so good. 
     

    - Then we had some woman who had nothing wrong with her car, but clearly decided if she kicked up enough fuss, she would get a new car. So eventually she wants a meeting with me, around 6pm one night, no problem with that, she pitches up with her lawyer in toe. Then says we are not having the loan car back until she gets a new car, I told her under these circumstances I was not having a meeting. Eventually with money changing hands she did get a new car. 
     

    - Another corker was a Guy who had his car in for service and as usual we plug the car concerned into the diagnostics and the factory will download the new software with products enhancements. A few days later he’s back and kicking up an almighty fuss as he likes his radio on a very low volume and with the new software when you turn the car back on, it has a default volume higher than when he turned it off. His meeting with the service manager doesn’t go well and the customer hits him. So he ends up in my office, he apologies for hitting the service manager, he didn’t realize he has saved me a job, lol and explains his issue. Cut a long story short I sympathize  with him and promise I will speak to the manufacturer who I know will do nothing and in a round about way tell him. This guy has the cleanest car I have ever seen and has read the instruction manual back to front. He leaves very unsatisfied, but shook my hand and I thought we had a bit of empathy between us. Anyway an hour or so later he’s back outside my office and waves to be let in, which I do and he asks me if he could buy me lunch at a very nice restaurant. The radio was never mentioned and as he ran a pretty large company we ended up supplying all his cars and trucks.  
     

    There have been 100’s so I will bore you with just a few. 

    • Haha 2

  22. Posted

    Interesting topic, in more than 30 years in the business I have seen 100's of cars exchanged and all bar a couple (which we didn't retail) have found new homes without further complaint. I have often tried to find, without success,  a logical answer for this.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    What do people use and what would you Guy's recommend please?

    I'm thinking its a must and intend to PPF the Mrs new car, as the current one has some nasty stone chips. Also looking to sell PPF from one of our businesses in Europe.