craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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Morning all Need some advice on how to proceed with this. On Tuesday the Wife stuck her 05 plate KA into the local ford dealer for service and MOT. They did the service 1st and then phoned me up with a list of jobs that needed doing that it would fail the MOT on. The key items where a broken front spring and both rear strut top mounts (a known Ka weak spot). They wanted stupid money to sort it so I told them i'd take it else where and to can the MOT. So it went into the local garage I use yesterday, and sure enough 1 of the front springs where broken, (so 2 new ones fitted, ford only quoted for 1 so that would have sat nicely  ) but when he tested the rear strut mounts they where (in his words) "the tightest rear mounts on a Ka I've ever seen!" As you can imagine, I'm none too impressed with the ford dealer, especially as her Ka was in 2 months back with a charging fault (battery light on). Their inital testing ruled out the battery and the alternator and it turned out to be a broken wire in the ECU plug (stupid smart charging system). But once they had fixed that they then stated that the alternator needed changing as is was also faulty after all (so that's £350 please!). Which at the time seemed logical, wiring fault shorting the alternator, but now I am wondering if they just wanted the extra work. Will be going round to see them later to day and will be mentioning "trading standards", but where do I actually stand and what should I be pressing them for?? Needles to say, it is the last time I will be using them (will travel out my way to another ford main dealer if it is a dealer only issue in the future) Cheers Craig |
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GavinJ
Club Retro Rides Member
MGB 3.9 v8 Sebring
Posts: 927 
Club RR Member Number: 209
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My personal experience is that there is not alot of help out there. I had a friend who stupidly took her to Kwik fit for an mot, needless to say it failed on 6 items, ranging from tyres below legal limit and headlight aim being out etc.
My friend was shocked as it had only had tyres 12 months ago and it was a low mileage 4 year old car so didn't expect it to fail on so much, needless to say when I went with her to collect it all 3 tyres they said were a fail were not (all above the wear markers) so I argued with the MOT tester but got no where, so I told her to cut her losses and we took it my to my regular independant mot station and pay out for another test and guess what it passed with no advisories without any work being carried within two hours of the previous test....
A call was made to VOSA and basically because we had removed the car from Kwik Fit premises it would be very hard to make a case against them as they would argue that the parts could have been changed since the MOT thus why its passed....
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Last Edit: Apr 8, 2011 10:11:16 GMT by GavinJ
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Personally i would put it down to experience, and just not use them. Also if your local garage (the one who did the spring) is any good, why not just use them?. I only ask as the Ka is starting to reach an age that Ford history doesnt really matter for the resale value, as long as the car has full history you should be okay  |
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1993 Fiat Panda Selecta
2003 Vauxhall Combo 1.7DI van
2006 Mercedes Kompressor Evolution-S AMG SportCoupé
"You think you hate it now, wait til you drive it"
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:)When I get cars in for MOT and service I always do the MOT test FIRST...if the car fails on loads at least we haven't spent the cost of a service finding out!  |
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My personal experience is that there is not alot of help out there. I had a friend who stupidly took her to Kwik fit for an mot, needless to say it failed on 6 items, ranging from tyres below legal limit and headlight aim being out etc. My friend was shocked as it had only had tyres 12 months ago and it was a low mileage 4 year old car so didn't expect it to fail on so much, needless to say when I went with her to collect it all 3 tyres they said were a fail were not (all above the wear markers) so I argued with the MOT tester but got no where, so I told her to cut her losses and we took it my to my regular independant mot station and pay out for another test and guess what it passed with no advisories without any work being carried within two hours of the previous test.... A call was made to VOSA and basically because we had removed the car from Kwik Fit premisses it would be very hard to make a case against them as they would argue that the parts could have been changed since the MOT thus why its passed.... Sister in law had same probs with quick fit, said her car needed about £400 spending on it. Went through somewhere else with £50's of work. |
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muz
Part of things
Posts: 35
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I'd write a nice letter of complaint to head office mate expressing you're disappointment. Shouting the odds at the garage will get you nowhere but more wound up, and they WILL have a not bothered attitude for sure.. Then vote with your feet |
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froggy
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,099
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There is a notice on the vt 4O regarding rear top mounts on the ka , they used to be a regular fail until the notice came out .
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RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
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I'd just ask to speak to the manager and politely inform him/her that they now have one less regular customer, thanks to their dishonesty.
What are a set of top mounts on a ka anyway? £30 plus an hours labour? they'll already be out of pocket by the next time you would have got it serviced there, but now don't.
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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Cheers all for the advice.
Froggy, what is the notice on there about them?
Been to see the service maanger their, he inspected it and showed me that there is a small amount of latteral movement in the top mounts. He claims 7mm is the MOT limit, but agreed that these where under it and I should have been an advise that they where worn, but not an MOT fail (also like the brake fluid they told me was a fail because it needs changing).
But they have offered to supply and fit the top mount FOC for us, so happy enough with that. But will be taking it else where afterwards.
Cost wise, they want £150 to do the job, Eurocarparts wanted £40 for the parts and 1 hrs labour was what the local garage quoted to do them.
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we don't call them main stealers for nothing
another sad fact could be.... because your missus took it in, they weren't expecting someone with some nouse to come back and query it ??
I've always made a point to turn up for mot at my local place with oily clothes and hint that i do all my own work, then if it needs stuff out of my confort / skill zone, it goes elsewhere, so they shouldn't have any dreams about 'generating' any work
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Some good replies. Thanks people...I do think it's all a bit more Watchdog or Which? than Retro-Rides!
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) but when he tested the rear strut mounts they where (in his words) "the tightest rear mounts on a Ka I've ever seen!"
