Thought I would post some positive news regarding my dealer and the work they carried out on my car today.....

Car is a 55 reg panda 4x4 just bought ex demo. On pick up I noticed that the rear seat cover had a small nick in it so the garage agreed to replace it foc. It's taken them a couple of weeks to get the seat cover in , and then a week for me to get it booked in.

So this report relates to the work carried out today - so not service ...all warranty/after sales work.


The garage couldn't get me a loan car but did offer to collect car and return. Car was booked in for today and I rang this morning at 0915 to check they were definitely still coming - pleasantly suprised when the person that answered the phone didn't have to put me through to an engaged service dept and could actually tell me the driver was on the way and would be 10 mins. He was...

And - the driver had the job card with him but also took the time to ask me if there was anything else I needed looking at. There was - I told the driver but had also written it down for the garage. I had asked for a few extra things (price for alarm fitting / check a squeek in the rear etc / needed letter confirming free 1st service that was part of purchase deal) and I also offered to collect car if they would be finished early and had asked that they call me at lunchtime to advise if this was required.

I half didn't expect any phone call - that's the normal level of service I'm used to from Audi...

but - they did call at lunchtime and explained they would need the car till later in the afternoon and in any case they were happy to drop it off for me (I'm about 15 miles from the garage).


I then had a call at 4pm to say the car was finished and the service guy then took me through everything they had done - and he covered everything on my list without me having to prompt and confirmed that all the work had been carried out and that the car would be back at 5pm ...Again ..this is marked difference to Audi ...they are good at sidestepping the extra items you might have asked them to look at.

The car was duly dropped of at 5pm and it had been washed and also hoovered - and a printed certificate for free service was sat on front passenger seat !

All in all for 1st visit to the service department I have to say that this dealer gets two thumbs up from me (and beats Audi hands down) !!

Panda4X4_Skydome said:

Thought I would post some positive news regarding my dealer and the work they carried out on my car today.....

Click to expand...

I refuse to believe it!
Bit concerned about my first service, due in 3 months.
H

Used to get that good level of service at a FIAT garage in Sprowston in Norwich ( Linfield? Fairfield? ) about 10-15 years ago. Now I get that level of service in France, at a FIAT garage where they look after you properly and have a set of classic FIATs ( and derivatives ) that they painstakingly maintain:

Fiat 124 Sport Spider Turbo
Fiat Dino
Autobianchi Abarth
Topolino 500

And some alfa romeo thing that looks like it is circa 1950s. Ragtop and very pretty.

When I see classic FIATs in their carpark, or under cover, I know it is a reasonably good garage.

Had a lot of respect for the service guys at AHF Auto when it was in Winchester. Unless you are being an arse ( and I saw a few when I was there doing the whole "push new yorker" thing ), they dealt fairly with you and explained everything. Hell, once or twice they could have ripped me off for 1000 pound rebuilds of the Spiders gearbox but didn't.

But then I do tend to set traps for garages, but am probably not being as clever as I think as they probably saw it all before and can see where I'm coming from. Aside from a problem on the Marea running gear ( drop link problem ) being near impossible to isolate without a hydraulic lift, I like to know what the problem really is before I take it in.

Oh and these new fangled ECU thingies are too black box for me.

I have so far found Fiat Research garage in Nuneaton to be fine when it comes to servicing and I'm on my second Panda!