Sorry, another 'which car should I buy' thread

maidhc

prospect wrote:

Were Renault not one of the biggest Tractor manufacturers until they were bought out by Claas?

There were well up there, and were very decent machines too by all accounts.

I have a NewHolland, which are built by CNH, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat. Extremly reliable and well built machines with excellent resale value! It should be noted CNH, the second largest tractor manufacturing concern in the world, is also the most valuable asset the Agnelli family own, and probably what is keeping Fiat cars from going the way of Rover. (So still on topic...)

unkel

maidhc wrote:

Clutch was replaced at 4 yrs/80k miles FOC. Cracked lamp was replaced FOC after my dad reveresed into a wall. Gearbox problem resolved FOC after 3 hours of adjusting at 85k. Anything else was fixed under warranty

Absolutely amazing, sounds like a customer service walhalla :eek:

Has your dad a particularly good relationship with the dealer? Don't tell me that anyone that bought a new Toyota from any dealer in Ireland can come back to the dealer 4 years later and has a good chance of getting a cracked lamp replaced FOC?

@BrianD3 - sound post there ^^ especially:

BrianD3 wrote:

The marketing, brand image and even psychology associated with car buying is quite interesting
eg Skoda doing well in satisfaction surevys, VW doing badly

maidhc

unkel wrote:

Has your dad a particularly good relationship with the dealer? Don't tell me that anyone that bought a new Toyota from any dealer in Ireland can come back to the dealer 4 years later and has a good chance of getting a cracked lamp replaced FOC?

Car was only 12 mths old when he broke the lamp.

My dad has no particular relationship with the garage other than having bought 5 or 6 cars from them and getting to know the service manager over the years. I suspect the cracked lamp was just a gesture of thanks, he asked them if they would repair it, they hummed and hawed, and when the car came back there was a new one on and a note on the invoice saying "condensation in rear lamp, replaced"

I'll compare with a brand new Passat my grandfather bought in a VW garage. After paying and all he asked would they fill it with diesel. They said no trouble, and while filling it the salesman said to sit into the car and see if he had any questions. After driving down the road my g/father realised the car was only half full. He has sworn he will never deal with them again.

The small things make a huge difference.

bazz26

unkel wrote:

Absolutely amazing, sounds like a customer service walhalla :eek:

Has your dad a particularly good relationship with the dealer? Don't tell me that anyone that bought a new Toyota from any dealer in Ireland can come back to the dealer 4 years later and has a good chance of getting a cracked lamp replaced FOC?

Don't sound surprised. It is not uncommon, I was trying to replace the bulb in my front headlight and accidently broke the plastic clip that keeps the socket in place along with almost removing the skin off my hand as access to this clip was very restrictive. Brought it back to the dealer expecting to pay for a replacement part, explained what happened but the whole front light was replaced under warranty as Toyota acknowledged that it was a bad design and that some customers complained. I was given a car for a couple of hours while the job was being done.

zilog_jones

BrianD3 wrote:

The marketing, brand image and even psychology associated with car buying is quite interesting
eg Skoda doing well in satisfaction surevys, VW doing badly

I think customer service makes a big impact on brand image from what I've seen here and elsewhere. I've seen a lot of complaints about VW dealers being useless w4nkers, but rarely hear anything bad about Skoda or say Toyota dealers.

And FYI, to all the people who generalise French cars as being unreliable: Where is the Toyota Yaris made? Valenciennes, FRANCE.

elven

Hmmmm, the Ibiza has just had a facelift and improved interior on the 1.4....looks tempting

http://billsheehan.webzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=433642

colm_mcm

zilog_jones wrote:

I think customer service makes a big impact on brand image from what I've seen here and elsewhere. I've seen a lot of complaints about VW dealers being useless w4nkers, but rarely hear anything bad about Skoda or say Toyota dealers.

And FYI, to all the people who generalise French cars as being unreliable: Where is the Toyota Yaris made? Valenciennes, FRANCE.

"French cars" are generaly accepted to be Peugeot, Citroen, Renault. The fact is that the Yaris is one of the most reliable cars you can buy.
It doesn't matter where the car is nailed together, what actually matters is the quality of components, the importance placed on good workmanship, and the production system used. Toyota's production system has been proved to work in countries such as Turkey, Portugal, Czeck Replubic and France, countries which aren't exactly synonmous with producing high quality cars.

charlesanto

Toyota Yaris !!!
or if must go for something else - go with honda

Conar

I'm not big up on cars, but my family has had a few Renaults so I figured I'd share the story.

My mother bought a 4-5 year old Clio a few years back and had a number of electric faults, a clutch problem, and a few other...can't remember.
She got sick of it and decided to replace it with a new Clio. She got rid of that after a year cos it had been back to the garage a number of times for electrical issue (again). Now driving a Micra which she loves.
My sister is currently driving a Laguna which is only 4 1/2 years old. It failed the NCT and Renault wanted 1200 to fix the problems, don't have the details. She ended up getting a local mechanic to do the work for about 400 so maybe it wasn't too bad. Just a few days ago she was driving home and stopped at a garage and the car would not start again. Some kind of electric fault. It had to be towed to a garage. Don't have more details.

I know all my info is second hand and not exactly very descriptive of the issues, but surely with the amount of smoke out there there's gotta be a fire.

junkyard

What about putting up a poll for French cars? I'd do it myself but I don't how to. By the way I think all French cars are crap as some of ye already know, some nice designs but terrible build quality.