January 2003
I feel slightly foolish asking this, but I honestly havent got a clue and I wont get to my nearest dealer until the weekend.
If I was to walk into a main dealers and write them a cheque for a new car (Seat Ibiza TD Sport for example) how long am I likely to look at before said shiney automobile is ready, assuming they dont have one parked out the back?
I've been looking at some of the importers sites, who are quoting 12-14 weeks for an import, but on the plus side are upto £2000 cheaper. You pays yer money, but if on the other hand I'd be looking at a substantial wait for a new car from a UK dealer I might as well save the money and wait a bit more.
Also reagarding SEATs, does anyone know if the Free Insurance offer is a pan-European offer? I somehow doubt that if I imported a car I'd get it, but I dont know until I ask.
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Now that the season of ice and snow is upon us, I have discovered that the traction control on my 1996 Seat Toledo GT is not working. It is not switchable, but I have no idea how it is supposed to work. Any ideas as to what I could check myself? I do not want to spend too much cash at a garage as it is not an "essential" gadget. Read more
Anybody had anything to do with resin based coatings or other such remedys for flat roofs instead of that dreadfull material called roofing felt which in my opinion should be banned from use exept for dog kennels and pigoen lofts.
Mal. Read more
Actually, companies such as Sarnafil offer a maximum of twenty years warranty, but the buildings themselves are expected to last forty years and longer.
Don't forget that flat roof material companies have a lot to make up for (as all listed above) from previous history so their products have to be A1 watertight, pardon the pun. I'll let you know in forty years time if everything is still OK.
Could one of the Tune-Up boys give me a recommendation for either a Tune-Up guy or similar in the Watford area please.
My female, and somewhat naive, cousin needs stuff sorted on her Fiesta. Read more
Try this if one of them doesn't show soon.
www.ukwebpages.co.uk/tuneup/map/map.htm
Hth Phil I
Some of you may have seen my rant about a Citroen dealer in the thread about a new Picasso. I have just come back from another Citroen dealership which was at least clean, but still woefully poor (in my opinion) at customer service.
This is what I expect when I go to a dealer for a new car.
1. That within a few minutes someone will ask if I need any help or that they will be with me in a minute.
2. That they will ask questions to establish whether I know which model I am interested in.
3. Once they know this that they will take me to a display model and ask if I would like them to 'talk me through' the features/options of the car.
4. That they offer to arrange/book a test drive if I seem interested.
5. That they try to make the price of the car attractive, possibly by suggesting there may be a deal in the offing (not just by pointing to the figure on a scrappy price list without saying the number out loud which is what happened just now)
So that's my list for an initial visit. Is it so unreasonable? Or so difficult? I reluctantly accept that being female is not to my advantage in the land of the dealer principal, but I'm smartly dressed (today anyway) and having a young family I would have thought I was prime target Picasso material.
What do you expect when you visit a dealership?
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The service ethic as I know it is incompatible with the British character. It is somehow demeaning to accept the customer is doing you a favor rather than the other way around. I quote, hotels, gas stations, banks, pubs, you name it. All of their staff have been force fed the Company Manual How To Be Nice To People 101 but that's as far as it goes. That's why I live in Asia. Even the often bored US have-a-nice-day-culture is usually backed by a get-the-job-done-ethic. Give me Asia.
Ford here, you get a cup of coffee or a coke while you browse around, a young lady will bring you a news paper if you decide to sit down on nice leather seating while you peruse the catalog. She will not hover but tell you where she is if you need her. If you want to watch HBO while your car is being oil-changed you can sit in our surround-sound cinema. How about your children sir? Would they like to play in our supervised play area? Is there anything else I canget you , sir?
Yes, I'd like to know what my car is worth against this one and what is the price of the new Lynx over there. Certainly sir (brings out PAlm PDA and goes on line to the local intranet. No pens papers or scribble notes. Ok sir, this is how it looks like...
I will think about it. Of course sir. May I please have your cell phone number and here's my card. 3 days later, good evening sir I hope I'm not disturbing you. This is Heidi from Ford and I was wondering if we had given you enough information during our meeting the other day? Is there anything else you would like to know? May I ask if you wish to proceed with the sale? You don't? I'm sorry to hear that sir, may I ask why? Your partner likes the Honda better. Well sir, I'm sorry to hear that but I understand. Please do keep Ford in mind for the future. Thank you sir, sorry for disturbing you and good evening.
Actual Growler experience and this is what I expect. If any company doesn't me that badly I have the ultimate sanction: to walk.
A colleague is thinking of buying a new 206 diesel van with either the 1.9D or 1.4HDI engine. He likes Peugeots, having had good experiences with a 205 van, but is on a VW Caddy at the moment and fancies a change. Have the Peugeots become cheap and nasty now? Have their engine problems been sorted out? Are the dealers any good? We have read HJ's CBC breakdown and now seek opinions from the learned contributors. Many thanks in advance. Read more
It's a good little van, but has a list price,so not a lot of metal for the money.
Does he REALLY need a van,though, depending on his VAT status, he could well be better of ££££ wise with a car!
Get him to check out a Punto,more cab space & load space too.MUCH cheaper upfront & as this segment of the market is not overflowing with choice, not as bad as you might think to sell on, later.
Lots of vans come via import dealers in Ireland,to save a bit more on the initial purchase price.
Mark
As some of you with Vauxhall products will know, holding in the RDS button on a CCR600 head unit for a few seconds, whilst tuned to FM, will cause the radio to scan and memorize available stations for fast access.
Out of interest(!) I tried the same thing whilst tuned to MW. When I released the RDS button a few seconds after depressing it, I saw a previously hidden code (a jumble of letters between A and D, plus numbers), with an adjacent one-digit-per-second countdown starting from 52! I hurriedly switched the unit off when the countdown had reached 40, and then after plucking up courage, but with other hand hovering over the power switch, tried it again. The countdown duly resumed where it had left off before (ie 40), and when it reached 38, I bottled out.
The security code is normally accessed via a quite different process, and in any case, bears no resemblance to what I report above, so I'm baffled. I know that the head unit also controls the CD autochanger (because I have once had to reprogramme the autochanger security code, which is done via the head unit), but given that the CD still works perfectly after my shennanigans above, I'm at a loss.
Any ideas, please?
TIA.
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SJB,
Your theory about these number codes being a signal strength indicator could very well be true. The random numbers on my display were observed whilst I was driving home, thus the signal strength would vary as the car was in motion.
This may sound boring but I'm finding acronyms harder to tolerate. I know they make messages easier to construct and maybe more fun but unless you're aware of the abbreviation and implied meaning they can difficult to follow. In these threads LOL is used often but sometimes it's hard to know if the author of the message means Lots Of Love or Laughs Out Loud. I guess that also requires insight into the authors personality. As for the argument for good English, I won't even go there!
What do you think?
Steve. Read more
Enough, please.
Motoring or the Silly Thread.
Thank you.
I'm just off to have a look at a car. Its at the Great Trade Centre in White City, not that that is particularly relevant.
I will pay cash for anything I buy, but they are insisting I take the following documents;
Documents needed for collection of your new vehicle:
Driving Licence.....(Showing your current address)
Utility Bill........(Dated within the last 3 months)
Council Tax Bill....(Showing your current address)
Log Book............(If you are part exchanging)
MOT.................(If you are part exchanging)
Now I understand the last two, but I'm not part exchanging.
So what I don't understand is why I have to identify myself that thoroughly.
Surely its not just to make the the V5 is accurate ? Read more
DTD was quoting me, and I was quoting from experience. Having got the finance quote and not liked the APR, I decided that I was better off with budget banger motoring anyway... and felt pressured into it when they said that they'd arrange a finance agreement without the ID that I said I didn't have, as long as I brought it with me on collection.
Probably the credit card deposit thing is due to the fact that there are merchant charges on credit cards, which can amount to 2.5% of the total sale. A £5k deposit could therefore attract £125 of charges or possibly even more in certain industries. If the GTC are only working on a margin of a few hundred pounds per car (and I think most of their profit probably comes from finance, warranties and the like) then that is a significant problem if, like Mark, you're a cash buyer without an extra warranty.
Ah, MB has beaten me to it. The only other thing is that, if GTC's deposits are not refundable, the credit card companies would get loads of people trying to get refunds through them and therefore won't let them accept deposits. That's also a possibility, certainly combined with the margin point.
My daughter passed her driving test this morning. My wife is keen for her to use 'P' plates for some time.
Any comments backroomers on the pros and cons? Read more
He's taken and passed pass plus, next is advanced driving.
Each to their own but I'd rather be in a car with a confident competent driver who wants to excel than a ditherer who lacks the confidence or technical skill to manage a complex and potentially hazardous task.
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Traction control can't defy the laws of physics, if both wheels are on ice or snow the traction control will just keep alternately braking one wheel then the other to find grip. If neither wheel has any grip then you will just find each wheel spinning in turn. If just one wheel is constantly spinning then it is not working, if one then the other then the traction control is doing its best in the circumstances.