If you have a car you will call in periodically to the garage of your choice to attend to the many things that go wrong. Just as surely, you will develop an opinion about your service provider. I haven’t the foggiest idea of what the statistics say about how many of us are completely satisfied with the care given our rides, but I am willing to bet that it’s likely a single digit figure.
The stories one hears are the stuff that legends are made out of. Firstly, if you are British living in Spain you are one half of the problem. Trying to explain your car's problem to a British mechanic is difficult enough, especially when the sodden car will not replicate the fault at the garage. Here you are, standing in front of Jose Manuel who says, “Dime!”, so you try your best. If Jose Manuel understands anything at all you are making progress. There is hope. Perhaps he will take the car, drive it and discover for himself the problem.
Between my wife and myself, we have had, or have, an Italian Fiat, a Swedish Volvo, a Canadian Chrysler, and a German Audi. In the normal course of things it is usually possible to have something simple dealt with efficiently although, not necessarily quickly. Our first car was the second-hand Fiat. We bought all our cars second-hand because of the awfully high rate of car thefts. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on something we stand an unacceptably high risk of losing we opted to go this route. The downside is that when we buy second-hand, whether we know it or not we are partly buying the car for the same reason the seller is selling it. That may not be good news at all.
After owning the Fiat for about two years, during which it gave good service, it developed a hiccough. We took the car to every Fiat garage we saw, including the authorised representative in Valencia. No one could work out what was wrong with it. Finally, we gave up and bought the Audi. Meanwhile, we simply parked the Fiat, starting the engine occasionally. After about two months, just before its ITV ran out I decided to drive it to the breakers yard. The car ran perfectly. All it needed was a rest. We still have it.
There apparently was no consultation with the manufacturers. We were just given a shrug of the shoulders and told there was nothing more that the mechanics could do.
The Chrysler Voyager was a lovely car, although with seven mini computers on board it developed a fault with the motherboard that controlled all the others that gave us a headache for a while as the engine would mysteriously just cease running. It didn’t care where you were at the time. Through consultation between the local garage and ultimately, the manufacturers in Canada the problem was identified and fixed. Then the car was stolen and set on fire.
Chrysler service reps get full marks for at least kicking the problem up the line to find a solution.
After the Chrysler we bought the Volvo. Personally, I consider the Volvo the ultimate motoring machine. It has a certain mystique and cache about it. Of course, it has had to battle an image problem of being built like a tank, and being the car of choice of bankers, accountants and insurance professionals. In my former working life I was an insurance accountant/manager, so I was pre-destined to come to Volvo in the end.
I had owned the Volvo for only one month when the engine suddenly and mysteriously shut down. My wife said it had to be me. Since that time it has repeated the same thing, but never for the benefit of the Volvo mechanics. The garage finally gave me a shrug of the shoulders and sent me away, but they don’t know me very well. I am made of sterner stuff than that. I contacted Volvo, Sweden who were suitably appalled, and they put the Volvo top concessionaire in Madrid on the case.
Take the car back and our top technicians will confer with the garage in Valencia, they promised. It seems that most car brand names have an established protocol for dealing with hard-to-diagnose problems. The authorised representative should simply tap into that line of communication and help will be given. I think perhaps it doesn’t happen when it should due to the machismo thing. The local garage does not want to admit that they are incapable of repairing absolutely every problem presented to them. So, the customer is sent away supposedly to throw away his car and buy a new one.
Volvo Sweden say that Volvo is for Life, and that they are determined to be and to stay globally, number one for customer care. Well sure, does anyone deliberately want to be number two? Perhaps they have to work a little harder to get all of their authorised service centres on board.
If you are dealing with your car’s authorised dealer and the standard of service falls short, it need not end there. So far the Audi is performing like a trooper!
Please do not overtake on two-way road systems. Save your life for those who love you!
The stories one hears are the stuff that legends are made out of. Firstly, if you are British living in Spain you are one half of the problem. Trying to explain your car's problem to a British mechanic is difficult enough, especially when the sodden car will not replicate the fault at the garage. Here you are, standing in front of Jose Manuel who says, “Dime!”, so you try your best. If Jose Manuel understands anything at all you are making progress. There is hope. Perhaps he will take the car, drive it and discover for himself the problem.
Between my wife and myself, we have had, or have, an Italian Fiat, a Swedish Volvo, a Canadian Chrysler, and a German Audi. In the normal course of things it is usually possible to have something simple dealt with efficiently although, not necessarily quickly. Our first car was the second-hand Fiat. We bought all our cars second-hand because of the awfully high rate of car thefts. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on something we stand an unacceptably high risk of losing we opted to go this route. The downside is that when we buy second-hand, whether we know it or not we are partly buying the car for the same reason the seller is selling it. That may not be good news at all.
After owning the Fiat for about two years, during which it gave good service, it developed a hiccough. We took the car to every Fiat garage we saw, including the authorised representative in Valencia. No one could work out what was wrong with it. Finally, we gave up and bought the Audi. Meanwhile, we simply parked the Fiat, starting the engine occasionally. After about two months, just before its ITV ran out I decided to drive it to the breakers yard. The car ran perfectly. All it needed was a rest. We still have it.
There apparently was no consultation with the manufacturers. We were just given a shrug of the shoulders and told there was nothing more that the mechanics could do.
The Chrysler Voyager was a lovely car, although with seven mini computers on board it developed a fault with the motherboard that controlled all the others that gave us a headache for a while as the engine would mysteriously just cease running. It didn’t care where you were at the time. Through consultation between the local garage and ultimately, the manufacturers in Canada the problem was identified and fixed. Then the car was stolen and set on fire.
Chrysler service reps get full marks for at least kicking the problem up the line to find a solution.
After the Chrysler we bought the Volvo. Personally, I consider the Volvo the ultimate motoring machine. It has a certain mystique and cache about it. Of course, it has had to battle an image problem of being built like a tank, and being the car of choice of bankers, accountants and insurance professionals. In my former working life I was an insurance accountant/manager, so I was pre-destined to come to Volvo in the end.
I had owned the Volvo for only one month when the engine suddenly and mysteriously shut down. My wife said it had to be me. Since that time it has repeated the same thing, but never for the benefit of the Volvo mechanics. The garage finally gave me a shrug of the shoulders and sent me away, but they don’t know me very well. I am made of sterner stuff than that. I contacted Volvo, Sweden who were suitably appalled, and they put the Volvo top concessionaire in Madrid on the case.
Take the car back and our top technicians will confer with the garage in Valencia, they promised. It seems that most car brand names have an established protocol for dealing with hard-to-diagnose problems. The authorised representative should simply tap into that line of communication and help will be given. I think perhaps it doesn’t happen when it should due to the machismo thing. The local garage does not want to admit that they are incapable of repairing absolutely every problem presented to them. So, the customer is sent away supposedly to throw away his car and buy a new one.
Volvo Sweden say that Volvo is for Life, and that they are determined to be and to stay globally, number one for customer care. Well sure, does anyone deliberately want to be number two? Perhaps they have to work a little harder to get all of their authorised service centres on board.
If you are dealing with your car’s authorised dealer and the standard of service falls short, it need not end there. So far the Audi is performing like a trooper!
Please do not overtake on two-way road systems. Save your life for those who love you!
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
