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Good garage awards.

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Good garage awards.

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christopher watson

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I was wondering if we could have a good garage award, i could get a trophy made, and every year, the award goes to the most voted for garage on this forum. We use the same trophy every year, put the winners name on it (like the world cup, it will have a list of names on it).

I nominate Gainmanor fiat near Newcastle.
 
well fiat themselves have stated that they need to more ..and many fiat owners say the same....but the message is still the same...fiat dealers are crap....once the car is sold.....i have had many cars over the years and it has to be fiat who fall down on aftersales service..some others come close...but fiat are the best at doing the worst....shame as the cars they sell are all in all ok...but in todays worldf we demmand more from aftersales services....as we have paid for it in the most part in the price of the cars .. :mad:
 
the men who get there hands dirty in the workshops are ran by the men in the office who are ran by the men who own the garage..so it is down to cash..and fiat is not that forthcoming in that department as a little birdie tells me they are heading down the same path as rover...as fiat is subserdised by the state and that is now looked on as a state fiddle..banks are complaing about fiat and they need to ""restructure" but the unions will not let them..so all bodes bad for fiat in the next 2 years..but back to the dealers who are "fiat dealers" now i understand this as they are approved repair centers and they sell fiat cars and in doing so they can order parts under warranty repairs but fiat are paying out about half the cost of the car in repair bills under the warranty so one wonders how long this can continue but the fact is the workmanship needs improvment but that needs investment but the cost of the car needs to be low enough to be atractive to buyers but half the sale price of a new car is eaten away by repairs under warranty....so how long can fiat continue....just a thought..
 
There are alot of other makers who will go same way as Rover before fiat do,all car manufacturers are in trouble & Fiat are along way down on the list.
Fiat are I agree paying out alot in warranty but the 'belt' is being tightened & new cheaper methods of warranty repairs are in place in known problem areas.However dont forget alot of parts are supplied to Fiat (Bosch etc) so Fiat are billing these companies for faulty units under the warranty period.
Workmanship needs improvement? well Fiat are undertaking IMI training (like ford & BMW) foe their technicians so hopefully the benefit will show through in the next few years.Workmanship at the factory? well yes cars are built on the 'cheap' (by all manufacturers) & many shortcuts are undertaken but this is because the customer wants more and more for their money (and can quite rightly go elsewhere if they choose) when they buy a car yet are happy to shell out £150,000 (average price) on a house :confused:
You get what you pay for it's as simple as that,also there are losts of posts here about 'kicking up a fuss' & trying to get dealers to do work for nothing! well end of the day its the customer that pays in one way or another.
 
people shell out £150,000 for house because there isnt another low cost alternative... if fiat increased prices by a fair sum then there are low cost alternatives to fiats, but other than that i agree with the above post :D
 
T14086 said:
There are alot of other makers who will go same way as Rover before fiat do,all car manufacturers are in trouble & Fiat are along way down on the list.
Fiat are I agree paying out alot in warranty but the 'belt' is being tightened & new cheaper methods of warranty repairs are in place in known problem areas.However dont forget alot of parts are supplied to Fiat (Bosch etc) so Fiat are billing these companies for faulty units under the warranty period.
Workmanship needs improvement? well Fiat are undertaking IMI training (like ford & BMW) foe their technicians so hopefully the benefit will show through in the next few years.Workmanship at the factory? well yes cars are built on the 'cheap' (by all manufacturers) & many shortcuts are undertaken but this is because the customer wants more and more for their money (and can quite rightly go elsewhere if they choose) when they buy a car yet are happy to shell out £150,000 (average price) on a house :confused:
You get what you pay for it's as simple as that,also there are losts of posts here about 'kicking up a fuss' & trying to get dealers to do work for nothing! well end of the day its the customer that pays in one way or another.
Click to expand...

100% agree (y)
 
SOrry T14086 but you're wrong. You can find out that most car manufacturers are making profit, i even found out the amounts for a large number of companies before. wow, I actually found it:

https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=21229&highlight=profit

Renault:
The company said its net profits rose 27% in 2003 over the previous year to 2.48bn euros ($3.2bn; £1.7bn).

Ford:

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford Motor Co. posted a profit of $1.95 billion in the first quarter, more than double its earnings of a year ago, as improved automotive profits and continued cost cutting lifted results. Its shares rose sharply in early trading.

VW's profit halved....allbeit to 1.1 billion lol:
Net profit fell 58 percent to 1.1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) from 2.6 billion euros in 2002 on sales that increased only 0.2 percent to 87.1 billion euros ($112.4 billion) in what the company described Wednesday as "difficult economic conditions."


Volvo manages:
Ford’s Swedish car unit Volvo PV is heading for a full-year 2003 profit above budget of around five billion crowns ($US650 million), a Swedish newspaper reported on Sunday, according to Reuters

I would quote saab but as they have so much interest in every area other than cars it would be an abstract figure.

Peugeot and Citroen:

PSA Peugeot Citroen has reported an 11% drop in first half net profit to 30 June of €681 million compared with €869 million a year ago.



On the other hand, Fiat:
MILAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Fiat Auto will struggle to meet its target of breaking even in terms of operating profit next year as sales remain depressed, the head of the core car-making unit of the Fiat group <FIA.MI> told an industry magazine.......The company has plunged into a financial crisis as demand for its cars in Italy dropped and sales elsewhere in Europe also fell. Fiat has forecast that it will make an operating loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.22 billion) this year, roughly equal to its nine-month loss.
Click to expand...

I.e. yes, it's a hard time in the motoring world but by hard time, most manufacturers are still making profits beyond our comprehension.

Sales of fiats in the last quarter of last year halved in Ireland and more concerning, also in the UK approximately. It's not as bad in Italy but sales of Fiats have gone through the floor lately.

Comparison to house?! Erm, houses don't depreciate if you sped the correct money, no matter what you do however, a old car will always be old, an old house is just as good to most as a new one.

I hope Fiat survives, competition is a great thing, however, Fiat as it is today doesn't appear to have a very strong future.
 
I found on the net that for 2004 Fiat (as a whole) made 22million euros!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4304985.stm

Depends on what figures you want to use dont forget most car companies own each another & sub divisions etc....anyone can make figures look good.

You missed my point about the houses,I was saying that people expect more from a car & yet want to pay less for it,yet will spend large amounts of money on a house without even getting a proper survey etc...as for houses depreciating well will shall see about that in a few years.There have already been warning signs already has there not?

Fiat are undergoing a period of transistion (like Ford started few years ago) so will take 4-5 years to see if it has worked & obviously depends on new models soon to be available.

Ghost......ever considered a caravan :rolleyes:
 
The point about paying what you get for is a valid one, but unfortunately these days what you pay for seems to be poorly made by any standards. This applies to a lot of products made, not only cars but obviously this is an auto forum so I'll concentrate on that.

How many people here bought a car years ago that was better made than one they've bought recently? I know I have. Is it because the auto industry is more cut throat and manufacturers are cutting corners or is it lack of pride in workmanship or because they can get away with it as no one complains?

I am currently having a running battle with AMC gararage in Chelmsford regarding a brand new Punto I bought for £11,600 which is built like crap and has a few issues. I know that they didn't build the car but they sold it to me and have to take the responsibility. The dashboard has been replaced because of a dig ripped out of it with a dashboard that has scratches all over it. This isn't 'you get what you pay for', this is downright shoddy. Isn't £11,600 enough for a car? Should I only expect a decent car if I pay £20K or more? If you pay for a new product costing £1 or £100,00 one should expect a product to be in good order.
 
As you quite rightly say its a cut throat industry so therefore you have to offer the customer more(elec windows-air con etc)but yes there is a price and short cuts are made.Yo uwould really expect the car maker/dealer to give you a electric pack for nothing would you?

Sorry to hear about your dashboard though,obviously wasn't PDI'd correctly or this would of have been noticed.I however think people do complain about cars more than most other things (and quite rightly so in alot of cases) but do people really fully test drive new cars & carefully inspect them before delivery? How many times have you heard someone say "yeah got Punto last week but dont like it now,too small & not enough power"....if I had £11,000 to spend (highly unlikely) on a car i'd take it on motoway/country roads & through town and if salesman dont like it i'd go elsewhere considering i'd be stuck with the thing for next 3,4 or 5 years!

Hope you get your car sorted anyway ;)
 
I work for Gainmanor, have done for nearly 2 years since they opened.

And we have won the Fiat Distinction award twice in a row, this is awarded by Fiat themselves.

And we have been top dealer 2 times in a row :)
 
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