February 2010
I'm looking for anyone else who may have experienced substantial delays with ordering a new SEAT in the past 6 months & were not informed about it when they purchased.
Having spoken to others it would appear a pattern of new buyers build dates being pushed back in order to allow scrapage scheme purchases through is beginning to immerge. I'd like to bring this to the attention of the motor press & consumer rights groups so any similar stories you may have would be of great help
Below is an out line of the current debacle my wife & I are experiencing at the hands of both SEAT & the dealer.
On September 13th of 2009 my wife put down a deposit with a dealer for a brand new Seat Altea 1.9 DSG with a number of extras. We were informed at this time that in all likely hood the delivery date would be approximately 12 weeks however it was not possible to confirm it at this as Seat were installing a new tracking system & so exact dates for the car?s manufacture could not be given as it was not yet possible to view them on the their systems. We were told that as soon as this system became live we would be informed of a date.
Several times through out September & early October my wife called the dealers to be informed that the systems were still not live & so the car could not be tracked. During this time we were led to believe by the dealer that in all likelihood the car was in fact being manufactured & that the fact it was not visible on the systems did not mean it would not be delivered on or around the anticipated date at the end of November.
The middle of November arrived & despite several phone calls from us about the status of our car we were still no closer to having a delivery date. I must point out that during this time any contact with the dealer was made by our selves & not once did they call to update us, or inform us out of courtesy that there was still no news.
By this time we had also spoken to friends of our who were also looking in to purchasing a Seat, but had been put off when their local dealer informed them of issues with the delivery times due to scapage scheme purchases being pushed through first in order to meet the deadline for the scheme. On one call to delaers my wife enquired as to this being the problem & was told unequivocally that dealer had no such knowledge of these issues & to their mind this was not the case.
With mid November arriving & still no news, I decided to take a more direct approach, contacted Seat UK directly & spoke to a customer service agent there. I pointed out that whilst I understood our contract was principally with the dealers who are a Seat franchised dealership, I felt this was now reflecting on Seat?s brand & image as we still had no build or delivery date.
Again I was informed of the situation with the live tracking system by Seats customer service agent & informed that the car still could be on its way or in the process of being built. As the system was due to go live in the next few days the agent promised to contact the dealers to find out the situation & up date me regularly over the next few days.
Over the next few days true to their word I was contacted by Seat & informed that the car was not visible on the system however could have been built & might be part of a two deliveries expected at the dealers over the coming days. Unfortunately the car was not part of either of these & so we were left back at the start with still no build date or delivery date & that in all likelihood it would now be mid December that the car would be with us.
On hearing this I expressed my dismay & asked that it be found out what was happening with the car & when it would be with us.
Seat again came back to me to inform me this time that the car had yet to be built & that it?s anticipated build date & delivery would likely be February.
I am sure you can now imagine my dismay at this. For all of this time my wife & I have been with out a car as it was ordered to replay another car that was written off in an accident. I expressed my dismay again to Seat over this & ask that it be escalated. When pushed for a reason as to why this was happening the agent admitted that this was due to demand with the scrapage scheme & that this was an issue that both the dealer & Seat were aware of when our car was ordered.
When asked what compensation my Wife & I would be provided with for our problems I have been met with platitudes & repeatedly told that Seat will not talk about this until such time as we have received the car. I get the impression that they want our money first & then will give us a set of free interior mats or service for our troubles.
My last contact with Seat before the Christmas period was that we would speak closer to the delivery date & that Seat would at least pay the increased VAT now due owing to the car being late, although I have yet to receive any such confirmation in writing.
Following the Christmas break in early to mid January my wife received a phone call from the dealer saying that our build date had been pushed back again & that the expected delivery date was now early March. Again I called Seat to express my dismay yet again at this & again asked what compensation would be given & what could be done to ensure that the car was delivered on this date. Seat again returned my after call after investigating, feeding me the same platitudes regarding compensation & confirming the new estimated delivery date but with no explanation as to why.
Finally yesterday my wife received another phone call from the dealer (one of only to made by them in this whole debacle I hasten to add) to inform us that there is in fact still no build date for the car on the system, the car has yet to be built & no one can inform them when this will be. As the car takes an estimated twelve weeks to build & deliver it seem highly unlikely that we will now receive our car for the start of March & in fact our looking most likely at the end of April or beginning of May, a total of nearly eight months & nearly three times that of their estimated delivery date.
Through out all of this my wife & I have been left with out a car since the initial estimated delivery date. This is now starting to cause us financial implications.
We in fact chose to stay with Seat as the performance of the safety equipment in the car during our accident was 1st rate & having a young child this is of paramount importance to us.
However we now feel almost as if Seat is pushing us to cancel the order so they will not have to fulfil their obligations as the customer service we have received to date is as I am sure you can agree appalling.
Sorry for the length of the post guys but thanks in advance for reading & any of you own experiences you can add.
Numerous references to the dealers removed in accordance with our small print Read more
Ive got one as a loan car today and I couldnt get over its shortcomings.
Two things stood out - firstly, if I adjust the drivers seat for myself ( im 5'5 ), then in the backseat it leaves barely enough legroom for anyone over 5'6 - yet the boot is huge, so the space was clearly there to give the car decent legroom and they chose not to.
Even worse though, it seems they either forgot to fit sound proofing or they have geared 5th gear stupidly low - at 70 mph the din from the engine was irritating to say the least - my wife asked if I was in top gear such was the drone. I was shocked at just how loud it was - at an indicated 80 it was louder than my Charade which is ridiculous.
I dont know if its soundproofing or gearing ( it was turning over about 3300 rpm ) but it seems to me to be a serious shortcoming in an otherwise decent car.
The one I have is a 1.25 base model so whether the noise issue is exclusive to this combination I dont know. Read more
Try asking the Mums' on the school
run to buy lighter and more vulnerable!
Ah but that's the challenge - make them lighter without affecting the NCAP rating. Carbon fibre?
For a few days, the front passenger door lock would not operate when the rest of the locks did and had to be locked manually. Now, only the drivers door locks from the key, all the others 'bounce', that is they all immediately unlock whenever they are asked to lock.
I shall check all the connections on the central locking control box at the weekend as I understand these can work loose and lead to poor connections, but if I just wanted to disable central locking could I just pull the appropriate fuse and resort to manually locking each door? Read more
Take the fuse out. You wont have central locking, but it'll stop the car unlocking itself! Had a similar problem on a MKII Punto and this solved it.
A month or so ago a fuse blew that powers the nearside rear sidelight, dashboard lights (i.e. speedo) and a few other internal smaller things like the heater control lights.
I changed the fuse but it now blows immediately as I turn on the lights!
I've tried taking out each individual bulb in the circuit but every time I turn on the lights it still blows. I fear that it might be something to do with behind the dashboard.
Anyone got any ideas what might be causing it and how I can go about fixing it.
Thanks very much! Read more
Hi mate, just reading your thread. Did get the problem sorted, as I have the same drama.
cheers
Having finally got tired of welding (or paying someone else to) my 200TDi Discovery for almost every MOT, I dedided that I needed to take drastic action.
So today, I purchased an ex Police Discovery TD5 Auto!
It is a 2003 model year.
It has only 5 seats as opposed to the 7 that most of them have. It also has all the telltale signs of Police use inside, like screw holes in the dash etc.
Apart from that, it is spotless underneath, bar a rear seal leak in the engine, which I was told about. I've been quoted about £300 to fix this as the box will have to come out. Apart from that the car looks very well looked after. There are no coolent issues whatsoever. Infact I've just driven it from Wales to Cornwall.
In addition all the gear they fitted to it is still on it except for the blue lights! Yes, it still has the siren - and yes it still works!
Plan is to strip all this gear off and get some odd jobs done on it. There are the usual issues with doors that are stiff to open and close, plus the ignition barrel is slack and the nearside electric mirror doesn't work.
At 109000 miles you couldn't call it low mileage, but it's not excessively high either. That averages about 15000 miles per annum. My take on this is that we don't do a huge mileage and hence in 10 years it may only see another 50000 miles
But at £4600 I am more than happy.
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Assuming all the 'normal' electrical stuff on the vehicle works OK I'd be a bit cautious about removing the optional extras, on the basis that any mods. to the wiring loom will have been done on the spot and for sure won't be covered by the Haynes manual. Ok if the lights are clearly driven from a relay and that's it fair enough,but I'd be a bit wary of taking stuff out.
Hi,
A few weeks ago my drivers electric window stopped working. When I press the button, there is no noise whatsoever. The other 3 windows still work (using the switches on the drivers door).
I've unplugged the switch from the unit in the door to see if its a loose connection but obviously not.
If my memory serves, the window stopped working when it was about -10C, it may have been cuased by me trying to out it down when it was frozen solid and the motor died?
Any ideas?
Cheers Read more
Hi Starcott. I have the same model with same problem i.e. only a faint click. Did replacement motor do the trick and how easy / difficult was it to replace, were cables ok.?Your answer appreciated before I start.
Regards Artdecor
I drive a works van and every now and then I go to www.askmid.com to check that my own cars and also the van is on it.
Checked on Friday and the van wasn't on it, they said it must be uninsured!!
Saw my boss who phoned head office - I actually spoke to the person who deals with road tax, insurance etc and she assured me that the van was insured. The van is leased and the insurance was apparently renewed on the 12th January this year. However, they have been 'transfering companies' (don't know what this is about) and that it 'might take 14 days to appear on the MID'.
I would have thought once a vehicle was insured correctly it would appear immediately on this database? It is still missing from the MID.
Trouble is what do I do now. I have been told by my employer that it is insured, would I personally be liable if I was stopped and the van was found to be uninsured?
Thanks for any help on this, can't see what else I can do now. Read more
then untill this happens we are going to have the problems listed above ,
I've just contacted my Renault dealer to get a price for servicing my Grand Scenic. They have quoted approx. £130 for using non-Renault parts and approx. £190 for using Renault parts. They then said this price was only applicable if it was due it's 3rd service (which it is). If it was the 4th service then the price would be over £400 using Renault parts.
I've looked at the service schedule and the 'big' service (i.e. requiring timing belt replacement) is at 5 years. I don't understand why the 4th service is so expensive.
Has anyone else been told this, or can offer any advice?
Thanks
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Just paid a smidge over £210 for 4th (main) service on my 06 Zafira at a VX main dealer. I'm amazed that a franchised Renault garage would even consider fitting non-Renault parts.
Ghia is to be dropprd in the model line up of Ford Cars
The last car will be a Mondeo Ghia - none thereafter.
Ghia models dated back 30+ years and at one time the top of the range. Read more
Sitting at red traffic lights with several other cars. The odd car passing across us.
Suddenly the Clio (sized car) in front of me sets off, despite the red lights. Much hooting of horns by watching cars.
Bang! Clio hits - travelling by now at quite some speed - car passing from right to left. Victim does 180 degree turn. Clio comes to halt, bits of plastic everywhere.
Being the decent sort that I am, I note the Clio's numberplate (wet finger writing on window) stop and leave my name and number with victim as a witness. Clio driver is nutty woman in her 50s. Victim is gentleman who is slightly older. Read more
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Jason, I would echo the comments above, take your business elsewhere.
Yes you feel security with SEAT due to your accident, but many other cars will perform just as well, this is what the NCAP rating is all about.
A couple of summers ago, friends of mine rolled their Scenic down a French autoroute at 70mph, ended up upside down on an embankment, and all survived with not a single broken bone. Contrary to your outlook, they choose not to get another Scenic as it would remind them of the accident.
I can understand why you want to dig your heels in, but it really looks like you will only be inconveniencing yourself, Seat don't care about you, you are not even "just a number" to them at this stage!
How much have you put down in deposit? Is this part of an insurance payout that you must replace with identical car? If you are adamant this is the one you want, is there none in the dealer network that ticks most of your boxes?
Last time I looked, there were hundreds of Alteas, mostly pre-regs available.