Nobody reports good things.
One gearbox (or even 10) is a minimal percentage on par with any other manufacture...I really dont see your point?
Bit of a selfish observation
General BSM using the Fiat 500
- Thread starter PistonBroke
- Start date
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General BSM using the Fiat 500
Nobody reports good things.
One gearbox (or even 10) is a minimal percentage on par with any other manufacture...I really dont see your point?
Bit of a selfish observation
You sure about that? Curious then that some manufacturers get to the top of customer service surveys wouldn't you say?
T14086 said:
My point is that most other dealers would at least entertain the idea of warranty instead of telling the customer to basically get stuffed and then charging them a fortune to fix it.
customer surveys are a different matter all together to internet forums & lets not forget companies like lexus have a slightly smaller customer base that Fiat (or ford/vauxhall/citroen/pug etc)
Are you seriously suggesting that Fiat should get off lightly and we should all disregard the consistently rubbish rankings because Lexus sells fewer cars? Whether you sell 10 cars or 10 million treating your customer like Fiat does in the thread I linked to is a terrible way to behave.
And if you glance around this forum or pick up a customer satisfaction survey you'll see the same results. Fiat customer service, on the whole, sucks. And I say this as a Fiat fan. If I was a normal car buyer I'd have fled the brand already.
No I never said that, what I am saying it is easier to 'control/look after' a small amount of cutsomers than a large amount. Probability will tell you that you will get more complaints due to having a larger amount of clients.
I think thats its not fair implying the BSM made a bad choice based on one report of a failed clutch at 12000miles when the whole story hasn't been told/investigated. As for the costs involved for the repair thats between the owner & garage.
As a73uk has already stated;
Clutch kit £159.88
Hub Nut £ 4.29
Collar £ 4.16
Oil £ 15.40
Brake cleaner £ 3.56
Oil disposal £ 10.00
Consumables £ 6.92
Labour £369.96
Subtotal £574.17
Plus VAT@15% £ 86.12
Total £660.30
I agree £370 labour is alot (5 hours at £75?) or as numanR stated 'The petrol clutch takes 3.7 hours' thats around £100/hour ,which is not unheard of, certainly I wouldn't pay that and I wonder why the owner of the car diodnt get another quote from elsewhere even if it ment getting the car transported.
I never said they made a bad choice. If they have, well then I've made the same bad choice. As have a lot of people on this forum. I was thinking out loud that someone else on the forum who makes his living as a driving instructor had also made that choice and been burned on it. And quite recently. If I was a fleet buyer for BSM it's the sort of information I'd want to know about. Even if it was a one off I'd still want to know about it because it's indicative of the attitude dealers have to customers.
In all fairness Fiat are going to lick BSM's nuts when it comes to warranty work. It's the way all warranty work goes. When someone buys one of something from you then it's not a big deal if you get one or two warranty claims a bit wrong, but if someone has bought thousands then you're going to get down on your knees and do anything they want when they ask because they've spent millions with them......
yeah i agree, and just to add to something i said earlyer about putting off young male learners (under 20) i asked my neighbours kids (17) if they would like to learn in a 500 there responce was " ha ha ha er no it's a hairdressers car" so personnaly i think bsm have not realy thought this through,unless they are going to aim more towards female learners, more of a publicity excersize if you ask me ( seeing as it's on sky news aswell..) i'm now looking for my next car. Thank's fiat
But surely this will at least partly be offset by the fact that there will be more people who want to buy a second hand Fiat 500 because they learnt to drive in one?
I would take that with a pinch of salt. When it comes to the cost of the lessons and they realise how expensive it is, they'll be looking around for the cheapest deal and they won't care less about what car it is. I was a 17 year old once. I learnt to drive in an F reg Metro - seriously uncool but then again when you're bunny hopping in any car with giant driving school signs and L plates on it, is it possible to look cool? The instructor was cheap (£10 an hour), had a good reputation, and he got me through the test in 11 lessons- that was the important bit.
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its probably not they dont care, they're just happy with the car they passed in. their first experience of driving was in that car and if it was a good one why look somewhere else for possible dissapointment.
i did it backwards i learnt in my first car
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well my g/f is a hairdresser and she likes the 500
i learned in a Fiesta Diesel and found it easy to drive but first car was a Nissan coupe
a Corsa isn't exactly hairy chested is it
According to the instructor with the failed clutch, both he & his pupils love the car, he has people literally approaching him in the street asking for his card & sometimes booking there & then!?
His pass rate has gone up & the pupils that straddled his previous car (a Corsa) & this 2009 500 1.2, instantly became better drivers & his already very good pass rate went even higher.
However, since this clutch issue surfaced, he`s rethinking the whole Fiat experience & is bitterly disappointed. Unsuprisingly he isnt happy about spending £2000 a year on clutches (I`m looking into competition clutches for him) as well as servicing costs (higher than Vauxhall) and replacement parts (not as easy to get as a Corsa & more expensive when you do).
I`m sure Fiat will treat BSM infinately better because they will be spending hundreds of thousands, in my opinion that stinks. This guy has just gone self employed as of March 1st when he got the 500, potentially £2000 a year on top of servicing, brakes, tyres, kerbed alloys, broken mirrors, insurance etc IS a big deal.
He intended to buy a new 500 every year & he does 35-40,000 miles a year, so he would have been a potentially good customer IF he`d been treated properly. He even did all his signage, cards, stationary etc with a picture of the 500 on it...
I await BSM`s clutch reports & treatment on here with baited breath....
His pass rate has gone up & the pupils that straddled his previous car (a Corsa) & this 2009 500 1.2, instantly became better drivers & his already very good pass rate went even higher.
However, since this clutch issue surfaced, he`s rethinking the whole Fiat experience & is bitterly disappointed. Unsuprisingly he isnt happy about spending £2000 a year on clutches (I`m looking into competition clutches for him) as well as servicing costs (higher than Vauxhall) and replacement parts (not as easy to get as a Corsa & more expensive when you do).
I`m sure Fiat will treat BSM infinately better because they will be spending hundreds of thousands, in my opinion that stinks. This guy has just gone self employed as of March 1st when he got the 500, potentially £2000 a year on top of servicing, brakes, tyres, kerbed alloys, broken mirrors, insurance etc IS a big deal.
He intended to buy a new 500 every year & he does 35-40,000 miles a year, so he would have been a potentially good customer IF he`d been treated properly. He even did all his signage, cards, stationary etc with a picture of the 500 on it...
I await BSM`s clutch reports & treatment on here with baited breath....
Attachments
I learnt in a Corsa Diesel (instructors car) and my parents's Tipo (occasional extra driving).
My sig doesn't have a Corsa in it
My sig doesn't have a Corsa in it
I never bought a Hillman Limp...
I never bought a 126.
Well not till about 20 years later.
Have to ask why he bothered shelling out the extra £700 for funk white though if he intends changing the car every year!
Have to ask why he bothered shelling out the extra £700 for funk white though if he intends changing the car every year!
Probably the same reason he spec`d red leather, bumper chromes, wing flags & treated it to a suitable number plate a month ago! (PA55 UNO) to stand out! its certainly good for advertising....
I hope Fiat has the sense and the decency to treat him decently and pay up, if only for good publicity. If the clutches start failing on the BSM cars we'll soon know about it.
And I know a good few new drivers who bought the same cars they trained in. Many people really do find driving stressful, and anything new for these types is a horror.
A good friend has recently changed her car and is still nervous about opening the door with the remote because it has three buttons, and she is confused by it.
Still: with the GP about to be beaten with the ugly stick Fiat will need all the advertising it can get.
And I know a good few new drivers who bought the same cars they trained in. Many people really do find driving stressful, and anything new for these types is a horror.
A good friend has recently changed her car and is still nervous about opening the door with the remote because it has three buttons, and she is confused by it.
Still: with the GP about to be beaten with the ugly stick Fiat will need all the advertising it can get.
