Fix It Again Toni

OK so I went back to the garage on Tuesday with our van, they had arranged, as promised, a courtesy car, I had expected a FIAT 500, which reminds me of a VW Beetle that’s shrunk in the wash so was really surprised when they supplied me with a Nissan Quashkai, which is a very nice car, was a pretty decent spec as well, the only problem I had to give it back, mind you its not big enough to accommodate the 4 of us and Steven’s wheelchair!

Anyhow, the vehicle ended up taking a lot longer to sort than had been expected so couldn’t pick it up until, Thursday morning, this time it was complete and in good working order, they had also cleaned it into the bargain.

So, as far as the dealer goes, all is well that ends well, they came up with the kind of service expected.

However it does still leave a serious issue in my mind over FIAT Ducato Vans, should a vehicle less than 3 years old with only 40,000 miles on the clock (not to mention the fact that it is designed as a commercial vehicle and is receiving a fraction of the wear usage and abuse that a commercial vehicle is normally subjected to) have 2 wheel bearings AND a centre bearing go? I think not! This is a serious failure on the part of FIAT, made worse by the fact that, for some bizarre reason wheel bearings are not covered under the extended warranty, what dot eh extended warranty company know that they are not telling us? In a sense its not a big deal to me as the cost is being picked up by Motability but it does point to a serious fault with the vehicle and to my mind if its not covered under warranty it’s a fault they anticipate so, as for our next vehicle, I don’t know yet what it will be but I know what it wont be, and it wont be a FIAT!

FIAT & M/Keynes

I had to take our vehicle (Fiat Ducato wheelchair accessible vehicle the same size as the transit van) to Milton Keynes to have a problem sorted, Milton Keynes is where the nearest FIAT dealer is such a pain in the neck but hey there we go..

The problem has been showing up as a rather loud rumbling noise when driving, they had diagnosed a couple of weeks earlier that it needed a new bearing (drive shaft bearing I think!) so was going back in yesterday for that to be sorted out.

As there was quite a wait they dropped me off in CMK to have a wander round the shops, hence yesterdays photo of the concrete cows that seem to have moved there from the field they always used to be in, although Joy is convinced that they were still in their field on Friday when we went past there so maybe this is a second lot?

Anyhow, had a good look round the shops and had a couple of coffee’s and some lunch there, was seriously tempted to buy myself a new Lamborghini but decided to give it a miss, not sure we could afford it, even though it was only a remote control one, at the moment, still got to pay the electricians somehow.

It was the first time I had been to CMK for many years and I was impressed at how smart the newer sections are, its a lot bigger now and they have loads of decent retailers there, mind you there were crazy numbers of mobile phone shops and I think the main network providers all had 2 shops each in there, not sure what that’s all about they looked pretty empty to me so I guess some of them will end up closing down sooner or later.

Anyhow, had a lovely bowl of chilli with potato wedges for lunch as well so that was good.

I was eventually re-united with the car only to discover that the bearing they had replaced has not sorted the noise out, they say that in doing this they have discovered another problem, I think they said a wheel bearing now! The good thing from my point of view is that I am not having to pay for this work, it’s a Motability vehicle and it has extended warranty anyhow, but its frustrating that it will have to go back in again some time next week, when they will have to strip out exactly the same parts they have already done to get at this new fault, the problem is no one ever keeps parts in these days so they have to order everything in as they need it otherwise they could have just got on and done it whilst the vehicle was in bits without spending too much extra time.

If I were having to pay I think I would be asking some serious questions about whether the work they did today was really necessary or not, but as I am not paying I just cant be bothered to get into that discussion but it certainly doesn’t bode well for FIAT Ducato’s in my book, a 2Yr 7Mnth old vehicle and its had 2 bearings go (if the garage are to be trusted) and an electrical fault, yes that was checked out yesterday as well, I mentioned in an earlier blog, I think, about the car not starting for unexplained reasons, well we had a further incident last week where after filling up with fuel the clock and trip meter re-set themselves for some reason, indicating that the bad earth connection the RAC guy diagnosed and thought he has fixed was still probably there.

So when our vehicle comes up for replacement I think we will try going for something else, probably looking at the VW Transporter based vehicle, also means it could be serviced in Bedford.