Courtesy car

vector

My clutch is on the way out... must drop car into garage...

I've never had a courtesy car, but due to moving jobs I'll need one... I work in the middle of nowhere now....

Do Garages charge? or how does it work, do you only get one if you have a luxo-barge! I'm not going to a dealership, I have a 05 fiesta

keithclancy

vector wrote: »

My clutch is on the way out... must drop car into garage...

I've never had a courtesy car, but due to moving jobs I'll need one... I work in the middle of nowhere now....

Do Garages charge? or how does it work, do you only get one if you have a luxo-barge! I'm not going to a dealership, I have a 05 fiesta

Yup, they charge.
Unless your going to a main stealer and its in warranty.

Just rent a car, its cheap anyway.
www.autoeurope.ie is good.

bazz26

Totally depends on the garage and how much goodwill you have with them I'd guess. Some will charge you, others may give you something from the forecourt with tax on it foc if you are really stuck for a few hours as a goodwill gesture.

I had my car in at my local BMW dealer for a possible warranty issue about 2 weeks ago, the workshop was busy and I had to get back to work so they gave me an E46 318Ci for a few hours without me having to ask. Fair play to them, there was no charge to me and I didn't buy the car from them or ever have it serviced by them. Hard to know though if they would have done the same if my car was outside of warranty.

bucketybuck

The biggest pain in the arse for any dealer service department is the whole issue of courtesy cars. Everybody wants one, they want it now, they want it to be better than their own car, and they want it for free. And they will never ever understand why a garage may not have a car available when the forecourt is full of cars.

It was the single biggest hassle I had working in dealers, and one of the reasons I was happy to move to commercial dealers for whom the issue is not as common.

Some random points to consider when wanting a hire car.

- Many dealers will not offer a courtesy car for one simple reason. They will only have 3/4 cars available, and will want to keep those available for when the **** really hits the fan and they need to give one out.

- All those cars out on the forecourt are not legal for the road, probably have no fuel in them, and most importantly, are no longer new cars once Johnny Sales Rep drives out the main gate. You will not be getting one of them.

- If you are lucky enough to get one, remember to bring your insurance details with you. You wouldn't believe how many dumb farmers thought they could just jump in the car and go. You have to complete certain documents, just as you would for a hire car.

Courtesy cars are a very real cost for garages. They basically have to buy three or four new cars just to have sitting around to give to people for free, cars that they cannot sell as new after a few years. Yet, so many people seemed to think that every customer should have one offered as standard. I used to have twenty/thirty vans a day going through a Mercedes dealership, you think I could keep a fleet of bloody vans to give to every single customer?

Ask for a courtesy car sure, but don't be too offended if you can't get one that day.

(Rant over)

pm.

I know my local garage charge 30 a day if you use them to service a car.. should give you some idea on what to expect to pay