Long long repair time on contract purchase car

Long long repair time on contract purchase car

Author
Discussion

WahooBuckeroo

Original Poster:

6 posts

95 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
I had a RTA 6 weeks ago and the car was taken to an approved Mercedes Dealer for repair as per MB Finance request. The car in question is a Mercedes R350 and they are telling me it "may" be repaired in 6-8 weeks due to lack of bonnet anywhere in Europe (they have mentioned getting a batch made). Allowing for summer factory shut downs etc and an element of trying to keep me happy Iwould think this would be more like September-ish when the repair is completed. The car is financed through a contract purchase scheme and ends 25th March 2017. I have a Toyota Aygo courtesy car which isn't exactly a suitable replacement for an R Class so for the summer I would have to hire a replacement in at circa £2K+ to meet the family needs.
I don't think this is acceptabe for MB to sell a car and then not have spares in stock (I could understand if I was running something exotic). I have threatened to cancel the direct debit but just wondered if anyone else had had this problem?


ging84

8,832 posts

145 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
it's not Mercedes fault you crashed thier car.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
All cancelling the direct debit will get you is a demand for payment of the remaining amount you're liable for under the contract you signed, which will be substantial.

It does suck but I imagine it's covered in the T&Cs. What do the terms of your lease agreement say about this situation?

surveyor

17,768 posts

183 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
Have seen success with customer services or ceo emails before in similar circumstances.

I'm assuming that this is a fault claim?

KungFuPanda

4,324 posts

169 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
Who's fault was the accident? Yours or a TP?

grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
Not being up to date with model numbers ,is the car in question a current model or is it a older style .
Many manufacturers have panel shortages at some time normally due to forming mould failing ,most cost 100s of £ks to replace .
The worst I had to deal with was tailgates for vauxhall corsas ,9 month wait for the press mould to be re manufactured .


anothernameitist

1,500 posts

134 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
Ghastly Car.

and the Toyota too.

herewego

8,814 posts

212 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
If it's only the bonnet that they're short of maybe they can get a used one as a temporary measure.

If you need a bigger car you can buy one for a couple of grand and get most of the money back later.

creampuff

6,511 posts

142 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
ging84 said:
it's not Mercedes fault you crashed thier car.
But it is Mercede's fault they don't have commonly required spare parts

KevinCamaroSS

11,555 posts

279 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
creampuff said:
But it is Mercede's fault they don't have commonly required spare parts
But they have not sold many R class cars (with reason).

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
WahooBuckeroo said:
I don't think this is acceptabe for MB to sell a car and then not have spares in stock (I could understand if I was running something exotic).
You're running something US-built, which was imported to Europe relatively briefly, sold badly, and dropped nearly five years ago. That sounds fairly "exotic" to me.

I presume there's a difference between NA-spec and European-spec bonnets that's stopping them from simply importing one?

Chrisgr31

13,440 posts

254 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
I had an Impreza on contract purchase from Subaru. The engine went bang on the M20 whilst under warranty. Subaru Assistance recovered me to the local dealer and gave me an Astra hire car from Enterprise. 4 weeks later they decided they were bored of paying for the hire car so asked the dealer to provide me with one.

The dealer offered a Justy, turned that down and was give a Legacy off the forecourt. 4 weeks later the car was eventually fixed. I complained to Subaru and they refunded the contract patments for the period it had been off the road. Not bad really.

TVR1

5,460 posts

224 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
WahooBuckeroo said:
I had a RTA 6 weeks ago and the car was taken to an approved Mercedes Dealer for repair as per MB Finance request. The car in question is a Mercedes R350 and they are telling me it "may" be repaired in 6-8 weeks due to lack of bonnet anywhere in Europe (they have mentioned getting a batch made). Allowing for summer factory shut downs etc and an element of trying to keep me happy Iwould think this would be more like September-ish when the repair is completed. The car is financed through a contract purchase scheme and ends 25th March 2017. I have a Toyota Aygo courtesy car which isn't exactly a suitable replacement for an R Class so for the summer I would have to hire a replacement in at circa £2K+ to meet the family needs.
I don't think this is acceptabe for MB to sell a car and then not have spares in stock (I could understand if I was running something exotic). I have threatened to cancel the direct debit but just wondered if anyone else had had this problem?
Slightly off topic, have you thought about what you're going to do at the end of the agreement? There is no way the car will be worth the Guaranteed Value so very shortly you're going to be handing the car back anyway. My advice is to VT the thing now. Let MB finance deal with administering the repairs and save the hassle of trying to recoup the rentals for a more suitable vehicle (you don't allude to fault, so I assume as its a bonnet, it's yours when you thumped the driver I front? So no credit hire possible?)

If nothing else, threatening to VT a damaged car (notwithstanding they know it's being repaired) will put the fair wind up them!

Then, contact me by PM and purchase a cheeky Aufi Q7!

Sebring440

1,926 posts

95 months

Thursday 23rd June 2016
quotequote all
grumpy52 said:
Many manufacturers have panel shortages at some time normally due to forming mould failing ,most cost 100s of £ks to replace .
The worst I had to deal with was tailgates for vauxhall corsas ,9 month wait for the press mould to be re manufactured .
That's interesting. I've got to say that I've never heard of "moulds" being used in steel or aluminium body panel manufacture. Every day's a school day!

DB531

87 posts

146 months

Friday 24th June 2016
quotequote all
Sebring440 said:
grumpy52 said:
Many manufacturers have panel shortages at some time normally due to forming mould failing ,most cost 100s of £ks to replace .
The worst I had to deal with was tailgates for vauxhall corsas ,9 month wait for the press mould to be re manufactured .
That's interesting. I've got to say that I've never heard of "moulds" being used in steel or aluminium body panel manufacture. Every day's a school day!
A while back when on a factory visit at the Ford factory at Dagenham (they were still making Fiestas). At the press shop the guide referred to the tools in use as moulds. Having been a toolmaker I did query this description of the particular tool in use as to me it was a forming tool. The reason given for the description was that the general public could identify with mould.

PorkInsider

5,877 posts

140 months

Sunday 26th June 2016
quotequote all
Can they not just stick the bent bonnet back on for now?

Would it straighten out enough to be used temporarily?

It would look st obviously but you're clearly not one to worry about aesthetics, OP.

grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Monday 11th July 2016
quotequote all
DB531 said:
Sebring440 said:
grumpy52 said:
Many manufacturers have panel shortages at some time normally due to forming mould failing ,most cost 100s of £ks to replace .
The worst I had to deal with was tailgates for vauxhall corsas ,9 month wait for the press mould to be re manufactured .
That's interesting. I've got to say that I've never heard of "moulds" being used in steel or aluminium body panel manufacture. Every day's a school day!
A while back when on a factory visit at the Ford factory at Dagenham (they were still making Fiestas). At the press shop the guide referred to the tools in use as moulds. Having been a toolmaker I did query this description of the particular tool in use as to me it was a forming tool. The reason given for the description was that the general public could identify with mould.
Having worked for a tool makers ,our description would be a press tool.
They are in two pieces and sheet steel is placed in the tool and the two parts are "pressed" together usually in a 100ton + hydraulic press .
The tools can cost £100k plus each ,are huge pieces of precision engineering and it could take up to 6 tools to form all the parts of a bonnet .
The cost of tooling for a completely new model is huge costing many millions .
I have operated one of two laser cutting machines made costing €1.5m .These can be loaded with upto 10 pallets of sheet steel and left to run being monitored from a home pc .The other is owned by Ford Europe .
It is an amazing boys toy ,so simple in theory but very easy for it to go wrong so quickly

mph1977

12,467 posts

167 months

Tuesday 12th July 2016
quotequote all
DB531 said:
A while back when on a factory visit at the Ford factory at Dagenham (they were still making Fiestas). At the press shop the guide referred to the tools in use as moulds. Having been a toolmaker I did query this description of the particular tool in use as to me it was a forming tool. The reason given for the description was that the general public could identify with mould.
I would have said press tool , but that is as the child of a Professional (IEng) Engineer and grandchild of toolmaker.

mould to me means composites or poured stuff (resins / plaster etc)

sidekickdmr

5,065 posts

205 months

Tuesday 12th July 2016
quotequote all
I wouldn’t hire a car without them agreeing first, id be surprised if you were re-imburced.

You can only really do 2 things

1. Ask for a suitable replacement, they will have one, and they will give it with enough threats/persuasion.

2. take the cheap nasty courtesy car back, source another car yourself, and ask for a refund of lease payments for downtime.

Our old financed insignia had a clutch failure when it was about 6 months old, we had another car so didn’t need a courtesy car but it took them about 2 months to argue between them as to who was paying. We got 2 months payments refunded from the finance co.