Courtesy car lead time at main dealer
Discussion
Booked my Superb in for a service at my local (14 miles away) Skoda dealer and it was a 2 week wait if I wanted a loan car, which I did. My car is a DSG so I was offered a choice of a manual or auto loaner, which was a nice touch. But they charged 12p a mile for the fuel I used in their car, which was a bit petty I thought. They were already relieving me of £149 for a glorified oil change.
Al U said:
My Honda dealer have always had a courtesy car available, I've only had to test that theory out twice so far however. It was about a week in advance both times I booked in, once for warranty work and once for servicing.
Yet we have two Hondas in the family (wife's and daughter's) and I thought it would be efficient to book them in at the same time so did so about a month in advance and booked a courtesy car.On the day the service advisor said they didn't have any cars available, so what was I going to do about it! I was completely gobsmacked that as far as he was concerned it was my problem to sort out.
Silverage said:
Booked my Superb in for a service at my local (14 miles away) Skoda dealer and it was a 2 week wait if I wanted a loan car, which I did. My car is a DSG so I was offered a choice of a manual or auto loaner, which was a nice touch. But they charged 12p a mile for the fuel I used in their car, which was a bit petty I thought. They were already relieving me of £149 for a glorified oil change.
I'd be fine with that - I generally put in far more fuel than I use and it's a right pain picking up a courtesy car on fumes. I put a fiver's worth in a Jazz once and the warning light stayed on!A SEAT dealer did apologise the car they gave me was empty and gave me a £10 chitty for fuel - but that's very much a one-off in my motoring career.
I've found if a car is offered, it's taken.. Even if it'll sit in the train station car park all day, or driven home and back a few miles. Even when a lift home/station is offered.
We've got 24 loan cars, we book out 12 a day and have 12 for overrun jobs, recoveries etc.. Yet we still have a 4 week lead time.
We've got 24 loan cars, we book out 12 a day and have 12 for overrun jobs, recoveries etc.. Yet we still have a 4 week lead time.
Sheepshanks said:
Al U said:
My Honda dealer have always had a courtesy car available, I've only had to test that theory out twice so far however. It was about a week in advance both times I booked in, once for warranty work and once for servicing.
Yet we have two Hondas in the family (wife's and daughter's) and I thought it would be efficient to book them in at the same time so did so about a month in advance and booked a courtesy car.On the day the service advisor said they didn't have any cars available, so what was I going to do about it! I was completely gobsmacked that as far as he was concerned it was my problem to sort out.
Silverage said:
Booked my Superb in for a service at my local (14 miles away) Skoda dealer and it was a 2 week wait if I wanted a loan car, which I did. My car is a DSG so I was offered a choice of a manual or auto loaner, which was a nice touch. But they charged 12p a mile for the fuel I used in their car, which was a bit petty I thought. They were already relieving me of £149 for a glorified oil change.
Why should the dealer pay for the fuel that you are going to use?Sheepshanks said:
Yet we have two Hondas in the family (wife's and daughter's) and I thought it would be efficient to book them in at the same time so did so about a month in advance and booked a courtesy car.
On the day the service advisor said they didn't have any cars available, so what was I going to do about it! I was completely gobsmacked that as far as he was concerned it was my problem to sort out.
The local Honda dealer (our Jazz still visits them as the servicing under the Honda 12 scheme is very competative) is great with courtesy cars. If non are available they'll run you into the city and pick you up once it's done. I'd have been annoyed if they'd tried that on after I'd booked a courtesy car with them.On the day the service advisor said they didn't have any cars available, so what was I going to do about it! I was completely gobsmacked that as far as he was concerned it was my problem to sort out.
Always had a problem with courtesy cars when I worked in a dealer, there were never enough to go round.
When people booked in a car for an MOT only and took a car with them it used to gall a bit! You can imagine the dealer profit on an MOT pass certificate then the car would come back with the previously half full tank completely empty!
Glad I'm out of that job, was a real eye opener that one...
When people booked in a car for an MOT only and took a car with them it used to gall a bit! You can imagine the dealer profit on an MOT pass certificate then the car would come back with the previously half full tank completely empty!
Glad I'm out of that job, was a real eye opener that one...
HTP99 said:
Why should the dealer pay for the fuel that you are going to use?
If they are going to offer courtesy cars then I would expect their running costs to included in the price of the services I am buying from them. It just seemed a bit petty to be adding £3-odd to the bill. If I took one of their cars out for a test drive I wouldn't expect to see a bill for the fuel I'd used at the end of it.Short Grain said:
My automatic answer would've been "What am I going to do about it? Easy, Take them to....." (name of a n other Honda dealership nearby) though realize this may not be convenient. But to come out with What are YOU going to do about it! what a tw*t!!
Have to be careful with that - many Honda dealers have closed down and the one we have to use now replaced two, highly regarded and long standing, dealerships. So they're getting pretty thin on the ground now. My wife has already changed to something else and it's unlikely we'll replace the other one with a Honda.I was gobsmacked by his attitude - I made several suggestions and he said "no" and I was quickly getting to a boiling piss eruption when another service advisor piped up that she'd just had a customer say he didn't need the car he'd booked so we could have that one.
Edited by Sheepshanks on Tuesday 18th July 17:09
Sheepshanks said:
I was gobsmacked by his attitude - I made several suggestions and he said "no" and I was quickly getting to a boiling piss eruption when another service advisor piped up that she'd just had a customer say he didn't need the car he'd booked so we could have that one.
I'd have asked him where the car you had booked was...It's a good point about Honda dealers, apart from the one I use (Salisbury) the next nearest one is in the new forest but that's part of the same set-up (Balmer Lawn).
I'm just fortunate to have had good service from them I guess..
Silverage said:
HTP99 said:
Why should the dealer pay for the fuel that you are going to use?
If they are going to offer courtesy cars then I would expect their running costs to included in the price of the services I am buying from them. It just seemed a bit petty to be adding £3-odd to the bill. If I took one of their cars out for a test drive I wouldn't expect to see a bill for the fuel I'd used at the end of it.Silverage said:
HTP99 said:
Why should the dealer pay for the fuel that you are going to use?
If they are going to offer courtesy cars then I would expect their running costs to included in the price of the services I am buying from them. It just seemed a bit petty to be adding £3-odd to the bill. If I took one of their cars out for a test drive I wouldn't expect to see a bill for the fuel I'd used at the end of it.Deerfoot said:
I'd have asked him where the car you had booked was...
Bit pointless. I didn't book a specific car and I suppose there's a load of legitimate reasons why it might not be available. No problem with that as long as they come up with a solution. A lift or a taxi home would have been fine (although my wife had intended to use the car for the day). Public transport to the out-of-town dealer location isn't feasible.Deerfoot said:
It's a good point about Honda dealers, apart from the one I use (Salisbury) the next nearest one is in the new forest but that's part of the same set-up (Balmer Lawn).
I'm just fortunate to have had good service from them I guess..
To be honest I've no idea how any of them survive - Honda geared up the network up to sell 100K cars per year and they dropped to 50K and have been stuck there for several years. I'm just fortunate to have had good service from them I guess..
Edited by Sheepshanks on Tuesday 18th July 21:22
Ninja59 said:
2-3 weeks usually, usually I am one of *those* customers though and know the SM very well...which usually means I get his current car or one of the sales cars 
.
X4 30D, F10 530D (very nicely specced!), 218i and few others in my time....
That could be why I managed 2 courtesy BMW's over 4 years with the same car. Must have been back to the same dealer over 30 times between servicing, repairs and warranty work but still virtually always ended up in a Enterprise hire car. They still seemed surprised when it wasn't replaced with another BMW.. X4 30D, F10 530D (very nicely specced!), 218i and few others in my time....
Jonnny said:
Silverage said:
HTP99 said:
Why should the dealer pay for the fuel that you are going to use?
If they are going to offer courtesy cars then I would expect their running costs to included in the price of the services I am buying from them. It just seemed a bit petty to be adding £3-odd to the bill. If I took one of their cars out for a test drive I wouldn't expect to see a bill for the fuel I'd used at the end of it.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff