Would you expect a sweetener

thebullsback

Hi all .Bought a car from local main dealer for £5400 inc 3 month warranty.Within a week I had problems with steering wheel vibration between 65 to 75 mph (private road ) .
Informed dealer and long and short of it is they have had car in 5 times before finally after giving me a courtesy for a week solved the issue .by fitting new tyres .Who would have thought that one eh!!!
Am I right in thinking I deserve a goodwill gesture for my time and hassle and if so what do you people think is reasonable ???

Joe_Horner

Assuming you didn't have to pay for the tyres I would have thought they were the sweetener.

Not least because, if the vibration wasn't there when you bought it, the most likely thing to cause tyre vibration suddenly is kerbing it or hitting a pot-hole hard. That or a balance weight coming adrift, but they should have picked that up straight away on the first return.

You may or may not have damaged it like that (and may not have noticed if you did) but it's a fair assumption for them to make

motorguy

thebullsback wrote: »

Hi all .Bought a car from local main dealer for £5400 inc 3 month warranty.Within a week I had problems with steering wheel vibration between 65 to 75 mph (private road ) .
Informed dealer and long and short of it is they have had car in 5 times before finally after giving me a courtesy for a week solved the issue .by fitting new tyres .Who would have thought that one eh!!!
Am I right in thinking I deserve a goodwill gesture for my time and hassle and if so what do you people think is reasonable ???

Ah good old claim culture britain eh?

They took the fault seriously, lent you a courtesy car for a week and put two brand new tyres on.

As previously said, it could have been clipping a kerb or hitting a pothole by you that caused it.

But you think they should be giving you a goodwill gesture too?

Its customers like you that make me glad i no longer rely on selling cars for a living.

CKhalvashi

No, you don't.

I've had far more dangerous issues with my car (airbags deploying), and then didn't feel the need to moan when left with the most impractical demo they had in (as test drives were booked for everything else) for a week.

They've fixed the problem, and given you a courtesy car.

CK

motorguy

CKhalvashi wrote: »

No, you don't.

I've had far more dangerous issues with my car (airbags deploying), and then didn't feel the need to moan when left with the most impractical demo they had in (as test drives were booked for everything else) for a week.

They've fixed the problem, and given you a courtesy car.

CK

Reminds me of when i'd bought an alfa 156 v6 from a main dealer (yes, i was the one!). It was in for some warranty work and the service manager said if i could hold off a week he would get me a courtesy car 'more in keeping with my expectations in life'. New Alfa 159? Alfa Brera? No - they gave me a Bright Green Fiat Punto 1.2!!!

thebullsback

Ah the saintly motor trader and the ever so grateful hard done by customer and even another saint who detests anyone who is inconvenienced and dares to pop there head up above the ramparts and dares to ask for recompense.
Rest assured the well groomed silken tongued salesperson and there spin doctors who described the car in question as "Immaculate and Fantastic "were reminded of this fact when I took it back and when it was suggested that maybe I had kerbed the vehicle I told the truth that I had not which is in fact true .
Exotic car for £5400 ...it is to me .
Private road yes my company owns a large industrial complex .

waynedance

You are not right in thinking you deserve a sweetener.

The car got fixed (eventually) and all is good now, what sweetener do you think you should get? free service, free MOT a holiday?

S**t happens deal with it and move on.

Another case of compensation Britain which costs us all more in the long run like in insurance.

Oh well that's my opinion.

artbaron

I don't agree. Goodwill and good service is not equivalent to compensation culture. If I'd had to take my car in five times and wait a week in order to balance the wheels I wouldn't be happy at all, a monkey could detect a wheel balance problem inside of 5 minutes. That said, if the OP got two new tyres out of it then in this case it would make up for the inconvenience IMO.

Joe_Horner

Joe_Horner wrote: »

You may or may not have damaged it like that (and may not have noticed if you did) but it's a fair assumption for them to make

thebullsback wrote: »

when it was suggested that maybe I had kerbed the vehicle I told the truth that I had not which is in fact true .

As far as you know.

Tyres are funny things - you can smack one into a kerb as speed without doing any harm, another time you can just push one against a kerb while parking, so gently that you don't notice, and damage the sidewall.

Bottom line is that the vibration wasn't there when you got the car and it developed sometime during the next week. Seeing as it wasn't a simple balance problem (they would have spotted that striaght away and would have re-balanced rather than replacing the tyres) by far the most likely reason is that the tyre suffered impact damage of some sort.

Yes, it could have been a hidden manufacturing fault on the tyre that just happened to show up in that time but the odds are massively in favour of impact damage.

Joe_Horner

artbaron wrote: »

I don't agree. Goodwill and good service is not equivalent to compensation culture. If I'd had to take my car in five times and wait a week in order to balance the wheels I wouldn't be happy at all, a monkey could detect a wheel balance problem inside of 5 minutes. That said, if the OP got two new tyres out of it then in this case it would make up for the inconvenience IMO.

Except that is seems it wasn't a balance problem because they wouldn't have replaced the tyres for that. It will have been a structural fault in the tyre - which can give exactly the same symptoms but won't show up on a balancing machine.

eschaton

thebullsback wrote: »

Would you expect a sweetener

Next you will be wanting a cup of tea to go with it.

Car fixed for free? - yes
Courtesy car provided? - yes

What more do you want?