It's a common thing to happen, I suppose. Mother dearest did it once, but (thankfully!) noticed within 6 miles when large quantities of smoke started to be pumped into the car through the air-vents.
Evidently the old Vauxhall garage down the road had a lady drive in as the car was "acting funny" for nearly three months. Three months since she last checked up the oil... Evidently there was *no* oil left and it needed a new engine. Not sure how much of that is true, though.
--Nick.
Same here.
"I wasn't impressed. In the end his mechanics took a rubber mullet to the inside of the boot to try to knock out the dent."
You mean they actually tried to knock out the dent with a rubber fish! :o)
You should _always_ check the car over after it's been left in someone else's hands - preferably with an employee around.
It's hard to get anything done under these circumstances as there's probably 10 people who 'try it on' for every one honest punter.
You mean 'Fiat booted them 'cos they were s**te and Citroen were the only franchise they could get', surely?
[...]
My previous car was a Fiat Croma that I bought from new in 1988. Oh yes, the Fiat press blurb at the time said something like this. "With this car we're entering into the executive segment and we're preparing our dealership for more a discerning class customers blablabla..."
I picked up my car after a dealer service and drove straight home, then discovered a 4" dent on the boot that wasn't there when the car went in. I drove straight back to the garage and arrived no more than half an hour after I had left. The manager sat me down at the end of his table for some patronising bullshit. How could I know it wasn't there before? Because I just washed the car before it went into service. That didn't impress him. He then told me, again in a patronising voice, that all cars will have dents sooner or later, just look around here. I wasn't impressed. In the end his mechanics took a rubber mullet to the inside of the boot to try to knock out the dent. There were still traces of the dent left, but that that was all they were prepared to do. I suppose I was perhaps one of those discerning customers who didn't expect the car to be dented at a dealer service...
On another occasion after service they couldn't find the service book, said they had moved offices around. That would certainly affect the value of my car. However, a couple of days later they found the book. Just out of 12 month warranty the car blew the head gasket. Fiat couldn't help, so I got an independent engineers report that said that it was premature. However, I never got anything towards the repair bill. Fiat ducked and dived and said that it had a non-Fiat oil filter. The reason it had a non-Fiat oil filter was because I had an oil/filter change before a holiday as a precaution instead of waiting for the normal service. This dealer garage no longer exist, a Citroen dealer took over the premises.
Yes, I wasn't trying to be pedantic by the way, it's just that it conjured up a funny image in my mind.
I've learnt the hard way, one should never hastily click 'yes' to a spell-checker correction suggestion, without really looking at the new word!
message
I thought it was a bad 70/80s hairdo !
;-)
Graham
Imagine using Limahls' head to bang out a dent.
:-) is it a mallet then?
I did Dublin - Belfast ( Via Lost-ville) then drove around Belfast for a day, then Belfast - Coalisland - Belfast - Lisburn before I stopped at a petrol stn and noticed the brakes where smoking...
The oil all over the rear of the car and windscreen should have been a dead giveaway.
It still had 3ltrs or so left in it :).
That said I had a customer in my shop on Saturday reporting his son had assembled his new lawnmower and used it for an hour before it seized up as he hadn't put any oil in it :)
Tom
In message , Johannes H Andersen writes
Ouch. Depreciation, bag of cement, high building. I take it you kept it a while?
My folks had a nearly new 2 litre normally aspirated one which they got for a big chunk off the new price and kept until it died. Wasn't such a bad car bought that way, pretty quick and very capacious. I don't suppose they ever noticed the effect of the body flex on the handling, they don't drive that way.
Not obviously a grasp of good English.
That I cannot believe. The small garage maybe but not the franchised dealers. The money they charge must go somewhere and I know it is not to the lads on the floor doing the actual work.
I totally hate putting a car into a garage and avoid it if at all possible. Unfortunately I now have a car still under warranty and so am rather hog-tied for a couple of years. My local Vauxhall service manager is a good chap (often lent me specialist tools in the past) but I still don't trust his troops even under his watchful eye.
Once got an Opel Kaddet back from a big Vauxhall dealership. Came back with a rattle it didn't have before. Opened the bonnet and found several spanners, screwdriver and an oil can down behind the battery. Didn't go back to complain - just added them to my toolkit.
Vin.
"Vin" wrote in news:et%Fc.272$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net:
the words "Pot","Kettle" and "Black" come to mind :-)
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Nick wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
When i picked up my new car the salesman opened the bonnet, pointed to the washer bottle and said that was the only thing that needed checking.
6000 miles later, when the clicking noise from the top of the engine got a bit loud i thought i ought to check the oil.Luckily a 1/2 litre was sufficient (although it did take a while to pour down that little hole where the dipstick is)
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Please tell me you're not really that stupid?
Hope you read this Mr Fatsod before taking your car back
Agreed, but the engine in the photo is a GM unit. Reasoning:-
1). Cylinder head bolts are on the outside of the engine. On the Isuzu unit, the bolts are under the rocker cover (apart from two which are on the bulkhead side of the engine). Head bolts on the Isuzu are generally socket head (Allen), not Torx type. 2). Braided rubber fuel leak-off pipes visible in the bottom of the photo. On the Isuzu engine these are metal, besides which the injectors are mounted on the bulkhead side of the engine. Taking a picture similar to what the OP posted would require removal of the intake manifold.Anthony Remove eight from email to reply.
snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) wrote in news:1ggfbni.19bpqtrfowypfN% snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk:
which bit ? Believing the salesman or pouring oil down the dipstick hole ?
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Unless he has an Austin 7 or equivalent, it will not need retorquing. Most modern vehicles are angle torqued, rather than by a measured pressure, therefore there is no reading to torque to. Sorry to burst your bubble, but if a customer asked me to retorque a newer Vauxhall, I would have to assume that they were older than fire,
"Vin" wrote in news:JCaGc.26$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net:
no because i don't have a fetish about "English like wot she is writ" :-)
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A strange collection of words to 'come to mind'. What on Earth were you thinking of? Sounds like some fetish I have not heard of (and tried) before.
BTW: Shouldn't your statement start with a capital 'T' and end with a full stop to make a proper sentence?
Vin.
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