McLaren refusing to supply independents

[r o n n i e]

Abacus21 said:

r o n n i e said:

Wow this forum never fails to deliver.

Someone posts an unsubstantiated statement from another forum… queue outrage from tyre kickers (“potential” owners) and non-owners alike and now demands for a policy statement on the matter.

I think McLaren have higher priorities.

Higher priorities above looking after the customer base at all levels ? Please elaborate what you think they are I would like to know.

Wow another self entitled demanding answers.

Looking after actual customers is a very high priority and the smarter ones have already worked out the most likely reason (if true) is exactly to prioritise where the majority of owners are getting their cars serviced - at Mclaren dealerships.

I hope any Thorney situation is resolved as independents are important but not more important than dealer network.

[Northernboy]

barriejames said:

Guys I don't really see the issue? The servicing costs at Mclaren are no different to those at Audi or BMW? Have I missed something? And to be honest would you want an unknown Indy working on your Mac? Plus sometimes you get a 200k courtesy car, not many indy's offer that

Edited by barriejames on Monday 27th September 18:55

Do you still have yours serviced at an official dealer then?

I’m likely to use Thorney after this year, but if they have lost supply of parts then I’lol not be able to.

The last official McLaren service on my car was £39,000; I’d prefer to avoid that next time.

[Kid B]

Indies should not be barred from getting parts or equipment/tools from manufacturers/dealers. That's healthy for competition. A lot of the McLaren service price is pure markup/profit and I'd like to see indies being able to chip away at that.

Not sure why a few people here seem to rabidly support the marque. You can like the cars but still realise that the manufacturer is absolutely pissing on you when it comes to servicing and warranty prices. I think the cars are great but it wouldn't bother me to see McLaren losing profit to independents. I have no loyalty to the brand, only the specific car.

[Bispal]

Northernboy said:

barriejames said:

Guys I don't really see the issue? The servicing costs at Mclaren are no different to those at Audi or BMW? Have I missed something? And to be honest would you want an unknown Indy working on your Mac? Plus sometimes you get a 200k courtesy car, not many indy's offer that

Edited by barriejames on Monday 27th September 18:55

Do you still have yours serviced at an official dealer then?

I’m likely to use Thorney after this year, but if they have lost supply of parts then I’lol not be able to.

The last official McLaren service on my car was £39,000; I’d prefer to avoid that next time.

That doesn't sound like a service to me, more like a long list of issues on a car without a warranty or was a warranty claim? The last service on my 675LT at McLaren Guildford was £700 all in. Generally services are between £600 and £1,200.

4 days on and still no other independent McLaren service centre has had this alleged commination.

[Bispal]

Kid B said:

Indies should not be barred from getting parts or equipment/tools from manufacturers/dealers. That's healthy for competition. A lot of the McLaren service price is pure markup/profit and I'd like to see indies being able to chip away at that.

Not sure why a few people here seem to rabidly support the marque. You can like the cars but still realise that the manufacturer is absolutely pissing on you when it comes to servicing and warranty prices. I think the cars are great but it wouldn't bother me to see McLaren losing profit to independents. I have no loyalty to the brand, only the specific car.

They are not 'pissing' on us though. My 675LT cost me less to service annually than my Audi S5 did (and that was at an Audi specialist not a main dealer and yes just a service). The warranty is expensive, granted, but it is thoroughly comprehensive. In 5.5 years of McLaren ownership, with warranties, I have spent a grand total £0 on repairs and parts. My cars have cost me the warranty, service & tyres, nothing else. I have had Michelin and Pirelli tyres, both were £800 a set. With a warranty these cars are not expensive to run. It would be great if the warranty was cheaper and that is something McLaren does have to get to grips with.

[Monkeylegend]

Northernboy said:

The last official McLaren service on my car was £39,000; I’d prefer to avoid that next time.

What did they do to charge that sort of money and for you to pay?

[Sarnie]

This just seems to me that McLaren saw Thorney's global expansion plans and decided to ensure he doesn't get above his station.....

[Northernboy]

Monkeylegend said:

What did they do to charge that sort of money and for you to pay?

I didn’t pay; the previous owner did. I can’t remember the details, but all four accumulators were needed.

It was all covered under warranty, but at £5,500 per year it’s clear that some owners will prefer to seek alternatives.

McKaren tend to replace, not repair, anything that’s not A1.

[Ferruccio]

Bispal said:

Kid B said:

Indies should not be barred from getting parts or equipment/tools from manufacturers/dealers. That's healthy for competition. A lot of the McLaren service price is pure markup/profit and I'd like to see indies being able to chip away at that.

Not sure why a few people here seem to rabidly support the marque. You can like the cars but still realise that the manufacturer is absolutely pissing on you when it comes to servicing and warranty prices. I think the cars are great but it wouldn't bother me to see McLaren losing profit to independents. I have no loyalty to the brand, only the specific car.

They are not 'pissing' on us though. My 675LT cost me less to service annually than my Audi S5 did (and that was at an Audi specialist not a main dealer and yes just a service). The warranty is expensive, granted, but it is thoroughly comprehensive. In 5.5 years of McLaren ownership, with warranties, I have spent a grand total £0 on repairs and parts. My cars have cost me the warranty, service & tyres, nothing else. I have had Michelin and Pirelli tyres, both were £800 a set. With a warranty these cars are not expensive to run. It would be great if the warranty was cheaper and that is something McLaren does have to get to grips with.

This isn’t about comparing dealers but franchised vs independent.

All franchised dealers are charging huge gross margins.
To pay for their huge mausoleums that most customers don’t want + their profit.

Just got asked by an Aston Martin dealer for £81.74 for tyre sealant as mine is out of date and £372 for wheel alignment.
Sealant is £6.25 delivered from Amazon prime. Wheel alignment £35 at my local indie.

I want the choice.

[Bispal]

Ferruccio said:

Bispal said:

Kid B said:

Indies should not be barred from getting parts or equipment/tools from manufacturers/dealers. That's healthy for competition. A lot of the McLaren service price is pure markup/profit and I'd like to see indies being able to chip away at that.

Not sure why a few people here seem to rabidly support the marque. You can like the cars but still realise that the manufacturer is absolutely pissing on you when it comes to servicing and warranty prices. I think the cars are great but it wouldn't bother me to see McLaren losing profit to independents. I have no loyalty to the brand, only the specific car.

They are not 'pissing' on us though. My 675LT cost me less to service annually than my Audi S5 did (and that was at an Audi specialist not a main dealer and yes just a service). The warranty is expensive, granted, but it is thoroughly comprehensive. In 5.5 years of McLaren ownership, with warranties, I have spent a grand total £0 on repairs and parts. My cars have cost me the warranty, service & tyres, nothing else. I have had Michelin and Pirelli tyres, both were £800 a set. With a warranty these cars are not expensive to run. It would be great if the warranty was cheaper and that is something McLaren does have to get to grips with.

This isn’t about comparing dealers but franchised vs independent.

All franchised dealers are charging huge gross margins.
To pay for their huge mausoleums that most customers don’t want + their profit.

Just got asked by an Aston Martin dealer for £81.74 for tyre sealant as mine is out of date and £372 for wheel alignment.
Sealant is £6.25 delivered from Amazon prime. Wheel alignment £35 at my local indie.

I want the choice.

You have a choice, buy a Hyundai with a 7 year all inclusive warranty or buy an Aston Martin / Ferrari / McLaren / Lamborghini. Only Thorney is claiming McLaren wont supply him, 4 days later no other indy has reported the same.

[Northernboy]

Bispal said:

You have a choice, buy a Hyundai with a 7 year all inclusive warranty or buy an Aston Martin / Ferrari / McLaren / Lamborghini. Only Thorney is claiming McLaren wont supply him, 4 days later no other indy has reported the same.

Which other independents are there that offer similar?

As for telling people to buy a Hyundai, why so patronizing? You seem almost offended that other owners have a different view to yours.

[Streetbeat]

Ferruccio said:

This isn’t about comparing dealers but franchised vs independent.

All franchised dealers are charging huge gross margins.
To pay for their huge mausoleums that most customers don’t want + their profit.

Just got asked by an Aston Martin dealer for £81.74 for tyre sealant as mine is out of date and £372 for wheel alignment.
Sealant is £6.25 delivered from Amazon prime. Wheel alignment £35 at my local indie.

I want the choice.

You did have the choice though, you bought from Amazon and used an indie.

I just had the exact same from Mclaren re tyre sealant, the dealer told to me to go to Halfords for it, cant say fairer than that!

[Kid B]

Bispal said:

They are not 'pissing' on us though. My 675LT cost me less to service annually than my Audi S5 did (and that was at an Audi specialist not a main dealer and yes just a service). The warranty is expensive, granted, but it is thoroughly comprehensive. In 5.5 years of McLaren ownership, with warranties, I have spent a grand total £0 on repairs and parts. My cars have cost me the warranty, service & tyres, nothing else. I have had Michelin and Pirelli tyres, both were £800 a set. With a warranty these cars are not expensive to run. It would be great if the warranty was cheaper and that is something McLaren does have to get to grips with.

I see it as being pissed on. My Audi A4 cost A$400/year on average (200 pounds) to service at an indie and my 981S costs about $600/year (300 pounds) to service at an indie. Somehow I figure a McLaren will be multiples of that - and a lot of it is pure profit on the labour and parts. Just like when I walked into a Porsche dealership and they quoted $2200 for a service that the indie did for $700.

Manufacturers can set any prices they like but only when there's legitimate competition from independents.

The McLaren warranty at 4 or 5 thousand pounds a year also seems to me to be an absolute rip, but perhaps the situation is different here in Australia where we have a statutory warranty regime that obviates the need for manufacturer warranties, at least up to about 5-7 years from first registration. All the luxury marques are taking the piss with their extended warranty prices imo. If you spend $400k/200k pounds on a car the warranty should be default extend to 5-7 years. The Australian Consumer Law lends consumers here a pretty reasonable argument that it does, though I'm not aware of any test case (yet) which confirms it.

[Ferruccio]

Bispal said:

Ferruccio said:

Bispal said:

Kid B said:

Indies should not be barred from getting parts or equipment/tools from manufacturers/dealers. That's healthy for competition. A lot of the McLaren service price is pure markup/profit and I'd like to see indies being able to chip away at that.

Not sure why a few people here seem to rabidly support the marque. You can like the cars but still realise that the manufacturer is absolutely pissing on you when it comes to servicing and warranty prices. I think the cars are great but it wouldn't bother me to see McLaren losing profit to independents. I have no loyalty to the brand, only the specific car.

They are not 'pissing' on us though. My 675LT cost me less to service annually than my Audi S5 did (and that was at an Audi specialist not a main dealer and yes just a service). The warranty is expensive, granted, but it is thoroughly comprehensive. In 5.5 years of McLaren ownership, with warranties, I have spent a grand total £0 on repairs and parts. My cars have cost me the warranty, service & tyres, nothing else. I have had Michelin and Pirelli tyres, both were £800 a set. With a warranty these cars are not expensive to run. It would be great if the warranty was cheaper and that is something McLaren does have to get to grips with.

This isn’t about comparing dealers but franchised vs independent.

All franchised dealers are charging huge gross margins.
To pay for their huge mausoleums that most customers don’t want + their profit.

Just got asked by an Aston Martin dealer for £81.74 for tyre sealant as mine is out of date and £372 for wheel alignment.
Sealant is £6.25 delivered from Amazon prime. Wheel alignment £35 at my local indie.

I want the choice.

You have a choice, buy a Hyundai with a 7 year all inclusive warranty or buy an Aston Martin / Ferrari / McLaren / Lamborghini. Only Thorney is claiming McLaren wont supply him, 4 days later no other indy has reported the same.

There are none so blind as those that will not see.

I mainly exercise my choice by buying Lamborghinis.
I get them looked after by both a franchised dealer and indies.
The factory aren’t knobs about parts, because they are sensible people.

The quasi religious element that some people on here have about McLaren makes me laugh.
Had dinner recently with a couple of senior people from McLaren. They were open and reasonable. They said it had been a tough time. They saw the strengths and the flaws and were interested in how other brands deliver to their customers. Kinda depends who makes the calls though.

[Streetbeat]

Kid B said:

Just like when I walked into a Porsche dealership and they quoted $2200 for a service that the indie did for $700.

So how do you think that dealership pays for the vast showroom, loads of varying staff, loan cars, transporters etc, the overheads are huge, way beyond an indies relatively low overheads, its simple economics/business.

I recently choose to have my 570s serviced at a main dealer, nearest to me is 35 miles, the car was collected and returned on an under cover transporter.

Indy minimum a hundred miles. Sure it cost more for main delaer, roughly 30%, but by the time i had taken the time out of work to deliver the car, find a way home and done exactly the same for the collection process, it would have cost roughly the same with costs to me.

Sure if the Indy was in my home town i might have thought different, but there is so much more than just parts and labour to consider, the service i have received from my local dealer has been second to none and that doesnt come cheap imho and to me its all part of the experience.

[davek_964]

First - I will make it clear that I think Indy's are essential - and Thorney (and other Indy's that have started since) have made ownership of older McLarens possible for a lot more people.

But...........

There are (at least) two sides to every argument. So far, we've only heard one.

The original statement in this thread is that McLaren will no longer sell to Indy's. If that were true - It would be absolutely outrageous, I'd be horrified and I'd be selling my car. Having spoken to another Indy - face to face - and heard from other dealers via other owners - that does not seem to be the case. It currently seems to be unique to Thorney - most likely for reasons that have already been posted in this thread.

Stuff about "the price of McLaren parts" vs stuff like Halfords is not specific to McLaren, it's true of every marque out there including people like Ford. But let's get a dig in about McLaren for it anyway shall we?

McLaren make as many mistakes as other manufacturers - maybe a few more, since they're still learning. But the number of unhappy McLaren owners seems to be a very small fraction of unhappy non-McLaren owners.

McLaren are a young company (for road cars) so of course there are fewer indy's than there are for Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo etc. But they are beginning to increase and I may well use the nearest to me in future.
When I bought my car two years ago, I went in half expecting it to be the biggest mistake I'd made - and I was buying a car I'd never be able to sell again. Things have changed in that time - servicing is very reasonable, even at my local official dealer, Indy's are starting up, people are finally realising that they are much better than the internet (especially PH would have you believe) and if I wanted to sell my car tomorrow I don't think it would be particularly difficult.

Only McLaren and Thorney know what their current issue is and I guess they will be having a few chats to resolve it. Even if it's a positive outcome, I doubt that would be posted quite so publicly.......

Edited by davek_964 on Tuesday 28th September 14:57

[Jim82]

Absolutely right - odds on it’ll be a storm in a tea cup. Seems to be a lot of overreaction.

[r o n n i e]

Good to see some sensible balanced posts on here at last.

Gets a bit boring when tyre kickers and non-owners turn every slightest thing in to a sla g off mclaren dump fest.

This appears to be an isolated dispute with one indy so why twist it into mclaren refusing to supply all indies forever more and they’ve sign a deal with Satan thread?

Yawnnn I’m outraged and will no longer be buying one even though I like to post that I’ve been looking to buy for the last x years yawnnnn. Or I get my Ford serviced cheap so why not my mac?

[R8Reece]

r o n n i e said:

Good to see some sensible balanced posts on here at last.

Gets a bit boring when tyre kickers and non-owners turn every slightest thing in to a sla g off mclaren dump fest.

This appears to be an isolated dispute with one indy so why twist it into mclaren refusing to supply all indies forever more and they’ve sign a deal with Satan thread?

Yawnnn I’m outraged and will no longer be buying one even though I like to post that I’ve been looking to buy for the last x years yawnnnn. Or I get my Ford serviced cheap so why not my mac?

To be fair I'm unsure if any twisting was needed - the quote from one of the Facebook posts was fairly clear:

"We have been informed today that McLaren Automotive have instructed all of their UK dealers to cut off the supply of parts to us and any other third party"

[davek_964]

R8Reece said:

To be fair I'm unsure if any twisting was needed - the quote from one of the Facebook posts was fairly clear:

"We have been informed today that McLaren Automotive have instructed all of their UK dealers to cut off the supply of parts to us and any other third party"

Very clear.

And according to every other Indy and dealer I've heard from - first or second hand - not true.