2018 McLaren 570GT
Discussion
Cheers roadie and Christurbo... 
I didn't ever expect this thread to turn into what it has, but I guess my motoring life has kind of snowballed
I might take a garage tour video if we get a decent break in the weather.
An update on the 720S, well its still sat in Guildford... I had a voicemail from them yesterday afternoon (unfortunately I was in the doctors at the time and it was too late to do anything about it) to say their drivers were unable to take it to Steer, but it will be going there Monday morning. I'll be on the phone Monday morning making sure that happens, and if not I'll go and get it and take it there myself.
I didn't ever expect this thread to turn into what it has, but I guess my motoring life has kind of snowballed
I might take a garage tour video if we get a decent break in the weather. An update on the 720S, well its still sat in Guildford... I had a voicemail from them yesterday afternoon (unfortunately I was in the doctors at the time and it was too late to do anything about it) to say their drivers were unable to take it to Steer, but it will be going there Monday morning. I'll be on the phone Monday morning making sure that happens, and if not I'll go and get it and take it there myself.
christurbo said:
I’ve just read this from start to finish..
Me to.Its an enjoyable read, the car changes and journeys.
Feeling pretty drawn to the 570GT after reading this thread. Reads as a bit of a sweet spot between excitement, reasonably understated, usability. Just about useable everyday.
What a frustrating experience! I really hope the dealer get this sorted and should also offer some form of apology/compensation (they won’t).
I am a potential McLaren customer for a lightly used car still in warranty, but after hearing many stories about poor dealer experiences and general poor customer service across the McLaren network it’s putting me off.
The cars seem great and very desirable when working. It’s when issues arise, and they will, the dealers seem to let the brand down.
I suspect I’ll end up with a slightly older model and get a Thorney or similar warranty or abandon the McLaren idea altogether and opt for something else.
I am a potential McLaren customer for a lightly used car still in warranty, but after hearing many stories about poor dealer experiences and general poor customer service across the McLaren network it’s putting me off.
The cars seem great and very desirable when working. It’s when issues arise, and they will, the dealers seem to let the brand down.
I suspect I’ll end up with a slightly older model and get a Thorney or similar warranty or abandon the McLaren idea altogether and opt for something else.
It's a shame as Bell & Colvill used to be so very good. I actually re-read a lot of my own thread the other day, and in the early days of the 570GT I had a lot of praise for Damien who was the McLaren service advisor there at the time. They went downhill when Damien left and Luke took over, now he's gone and its worse again.
The car is now at Steer in Farnham, it finally made it there on Monday. I'm off to Portugal on Saturday, back on the evening of the 12th March, so hopefully the car is ready for me to collect on the 13th.
Given I haven't driven it in anger since the 6th of January, I'm going to push for them to tack on or defer the extended warranty by two months - no point in me paying for a warranty which I'm not using! Not sure if they will, but its worth a try.
The car is now at Steer in Farnham, it finally made it there on Monday. I'm off to Portugal on Saturday, back on the evening of the 12th March, so hopefully the car is ready for me to collect on the 13th.
Given I haven't driven it in anger since the 6th of January, I'm going to push for them to tack on or defer the extended warranty by two months - no point in me paying for a warranty which I'm not using! Not sure if they will, but its worth a try.
The title of this update is.... "where the f
k is my car?"
It was collected by Bell & Colvill on Friday 16th February, I was told on Tuesday 20th that they had resolved the idling issue and that it was then off to the bodyshop to have the bumper repaired. It finally made it to the Body shop on Monday 26th Feb.
I called B&C on Tuesday this week on my way back to Faro airport to ask when it was coming back... after a lot of procrastination and excuses George promised me it would be delivered back to me today.
Well, its nearly 2pm, I'm sat here waiting. They haven't called me. I assume its not coming back today, and I've been let down yet again.
Bell & Colvill, if you are reading this....
k is my car?"It was collected by Bell & Colvill on Friday 16th February, I was told on Tuesday 20th that they had resolved the idling issue and that it was then off to the bodyshop to have the bumper repaired. It finally made it to the Body shop on Monday 26th Feb.
I called B&C on Tuesday this week on my way back to Faro airport to ask when it was coming back... after a lot of procrastination and excuses George promised me it would be delivered back to me today.
Well, its nearly 2pm, I'm sat here waiting. They haven't called me. I assume its not coming back today, and I've been let down yet again.
Bell & Colvill, if you are reading this....
I know someone who was a senior techie for a Mc main dealer....he ultimately left them and set up on his own as he was amazed at what they were expected to do - it was too much of an up-selling situation at times and the manufacturer specifies what tools you are allowed to use to work on the car! There were things that could have been repaired so much quicker if he used alternative tools but the manufacturer wouldn’t allow it and this is why the likes of V Engineering & Thorney Motorsport are doing so well as independents. My techie does admit they’re great cars btw (& is Midlands based). Hope you get your car sorted v.soon, it looks cracking btw.
This is really sad to read, especially as B&C had a pretty decent reputation before becoming a Mclaren dealer.
However it does seem their service offering has gone seriously south over the past 6 months.
Ironically, I was looking at buying a 570GT and the seller enforced the need for a warranty and their local dealer was....... B&C.
However it does seem their service offering has gone seriously south over the past 6 months.
Ironically, I was looking at buying a 570GT and the seller enforced the need for a warranty and their local dealer was....... B&C.
Well some good news.... B&C managed to keep their promise and the car arrived back at 3.45 yesterday afternoon.
Bumper is all repaired and looks good.
It arrived back here in a covered trailer, but when started up it was on vapours, five miles of range. It left here with half a tank of fuel, so its a minor annoyance for it to arrive back with the fuel light on. It's lucky I have a Shell fuel station just around the corner from work.
The idle is exactly the same as it was before, they just left a piece of paper on the passenger seat which is a print out of a technical bulletin from McLaren, basically saying the idle is normal, and if you want the car to run correctly you have to have the A/C on. So what they say they've fixed, I don't know.
The frustrating thing is I didn't have this issue prior to January when B&C took the car in for service, I didn't always run it with the A/C on, and the car never had an idle so bad the car would stall, which it does now.
Where we go from here I don't know... I'll just keep the A/C on all the time, but its surely crazy that if you turn your A/C off in a car it runs like a dog!
Bumper is all repaired and looks good.
It arrived back here in a covered trailer, but when started up it was on vapours, five miles of range. It left here with half a tank of fuel, so its a minor annoyance for it to arrive back with the fuel light on. It's lucky I have a Shell fuel station just around the corner from work.
The idle is exactly the same as it was before, they just left a piece of paper on the passenger seat which is a print out of a technical bulletin from McLaren, basically saying the idle is normal, and if you want the car to run correctly you have to have the A/C on. So what they say they've fixed, I don't know.
The frustrating thing is I didn't have this issue prior to January when B&C took the car in for service, I didn't always run it with the A/C on, and the car never had an idle so bad the car would stall, which it does now.
Where we go from here I don't know... I'll just keep the A/C on all the time, but its surely crazy that if you turn your A/C off in a car it runs like a dog!
Easiest tech bulletin repair ever.
In cases of low idle : repair process is as follows :
Step 1 - locate AC button on dashboard.
Step 2 - using approved McLaren glove for technician protection apply a digit to button once for 0.6574 seconds. Time digit application using approved McLaren timing gear.
Step 3 - remove approved McLaren glove and hold palm of hand over dash vent to confirm AC is ACing.
Step 4 - errrr.
Dr Interceptor said:
Where we go from here I don't know... I'll just keep the A/C on all the time, but its surely crazy that if you turn your A/C off in a car it runs like a dog!
...and this is exactly where indies like V-Engineering and Thorney come in.I've been reading similar issues with other marques/dealers and it's a similar story which, in the end, is summarised as "most indies know more than dealers".
Dr Interceptor said:
Where we go from here I don't know... I'll just keep the A/C on all the time, but its surely crazy that if you turn your A/C off in a car it runs like a dog!
That's frustrating.Does it still stall from hot idle after the dealer 'fix' ? A car that stalls with the A/C off cannot be described as satisfactory; conversely if it's 'merely' suffering uncomfortable levels of vibration, it's to some extent arguable (by the dealer) that it's normal.
In terms of why it started after the first dealer visit I can think of a couple of possibilities; it's possible someone had previously adjusted your car to avoid the vibration, by tweaking the warm idle engine speed up a bit or something, and that they reset this when updating something at service. Another possibility is that McLaren have released a software update to reduce emissions by reducing warm idle speed, and applying this to your car has caused the issue. It's interesting that the document they gave you is dated 2021 when the 720S arrived in 2017, you'd think someone would've complained sooner than four years in if the vibration issue had been present from launch. Of course it's also possible they just broke/dislodged something in service and are incapable of fixing the issue they've caused.
If it's still stalling you could push back and say it's not acceptable.
Otherwise I think your options are either leave the A/C on, or talk to an independent - someone like V might be able to give some advice over the phone as to whether they think it's normal or something they could help with.
Edited by samoht on Saturday 16th March 12:45
CountyAFC said:
Which marques, which dealers?
Audi was the most recent one I was reading about dealing with an R8 and an engine warning light.Car’s been in to the dealer 4 times, eventually told just to drive it until it breaks. On the same thread an indie provided more info in a couple of texts than the dealer.
Just scrolling through a few/lot of messages to find which dealer…..
samoht said:
That's frustrating.
Does it still stall from hot idle after the dealer 'fix' ? A car that stalls with the A/C off cannot be described as satisfactory; conversely if it's 'merely' suffering uncomfortable levels of vibration, it's to some extent arguable (by the dealer) that it's normal.
In terms of why it started after the first dealer visit I can think of a couple of possibilities; it's possible someone had previously adjusted your car to avoid the vibration, by tweaking the warm idle engine speed up a bit or something, and that they reset this when updating something at service. Another possibility is that McLaren have released a software update to reduce emissions by reducing warm idle speed, and applying this to your car has caused the issue. It's interesting that the document they gave you is dated 2021 when the 720S arrived in 2017, you'd think someone would've complained sooner than four years in if the vibration issue had been present from launch. Of course it's also possible they just broke/dislodged something in service and are incapable of fixing the issue they've caused.
If it's still stalling you could push back and say it's not acceptable.
Otherwise I think your options are either leave the A/C on, or talk to an independent - someone like V might be able to give some advice over the phone as to whether they think it's normal or something they could help with.
All of that is possible, and yes it still wants to stall, soDoes it still stall from hot idle after the dealer 'fix' ? A car that stalls with the A/C off cannot be described as satisfactory; conversely if it's 'merely' suffering uncomfortable levels of vibration, it's to some extent arguable (by the dealer) that it's normal.
In terms of why it started after the first dealer visit I can think of a couple of possibilities; it's possible someone had previously adjusted your car to avoid the vibration, by tweaking the warm idle engine speed up a bit or something, and that they reset this when updating something at service. Another possibility is that McLaren have released a software update to reduce emissions by reducing warm idle speed, and applying this to your car has caused the issue. It's interesting that the document they gave you is dated 2021 when the 720S arrived in 2017, you'd think someone would've complained sooner than four years in if the vibration issue had been present from launch. Of course it's also possible they just broke/dislodged something in service and are incapable of fixing the issue they've caused.
If it's still stalling you could push back and say it's not acceptable.
Otherwise I think your options are either leave the A/C on, or talk to an independent - someone like V might be able to give some advice over the phone as to whether they think it's normal or something they could help with.
Edited by samoht on Saturday 16th March 12:45
It’s not right.
To be honest not having had the car since January I just want to get on and use it, I’ll just have to run it with the a/c on.
I mentioned a few posts back about doing a garage tour video, well if you have a spare 17 minutes of your lives and fancy watching an unedited video tour with dodgy camerawork, you’d be more than welcome.
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