Been looking at this thread and the comments about Fiat dealers. One of the many roles I had was selling Garage equipment, the likes of oil pumps, vehicle lifts, MOT bays etc. Anyway, as part of this role I had to visit a number of dealers and workshops around the country and what was really noticeable was how crap some Ford, Vauxhall and Rover workshops were. Talk about dirty, poor lighting, poor use of space and having to work in a barn!
As I remember at the top were Jag, BMW and the Japanese franchises, Jag and BMW certainly believed that cleanliness was next to godliness and that engineering had to be treated like surgery, dirt or 'contamination' within a component can seriously damage a car.
Fiat were not far behind. Most workshops were clean, to a corporate standard and above all most technicians believed that the product overall was good. Compare that to a visit to a Vauxhall dealer whose service manager admitted Vectras were a good money maker for the workshop.
Anyway, buy Ford but not only will you have a car that is no more reliable than a Fiat and in a lot of ways badly screwed together and more likely to fail but you may end up having it serviced in a shed that's worse than been under a railway arch. Another worthy point is that Fiat sales last year fell by 50% and that has made Fiat strive harder to improve customer service, Ford and Vauxhall don't have to sell cars as much, many are leased or bought by people who still do what their dad told them " buy Ford, good cars". On that basis they are good earners and so the same effort into aftersales doesn't really need to be put in because there are plenty more owners out there.
