Poor Build Quality & Customers Service - Caterhams
Discussion
A Word Of Warning If You Deal With Caterham Cars
I recently spent £ 25,000 on a Factory built Caterham Superlight and it was the worst car I have ever owned... The Build Quality and Componants was RUBBISH.. and the when I tried to get this sorted out with Caterham the company was not that much better at the end of the day.... In the end they would not honnour a warrenty problem.
When I went to collect the car I had to return to Caterham 5 times that day, on the 6th time they was closed. I had to return 3 times the next day and them get the train back home. the car was returned to me some time later to still have the same faults and they had to come back up to Birmingham to get it. In the first two months the car was off the road for most of the time.
They had to change or changed items to sort out the whole problem: the cooling system, radiator, wiring loom, ecu? and engine (Possibly cooked) and Injection system (Not sure if they repaired that one). At this stage the car had been off the road for the first two months of ownership.
I soon found out that the geometry was not set up at the time of build and the LSD was pissing oil out of it. the car went to Caterham Midlands to sort out. ( I had to wait almost two weeks to get it looked at and when they had the car I waited a week, and they hadn't done the work from what I can see. I think they just wiped the oil of the diff).
I had to pay Team Parker Racing to sort the Geometry out. (They did a good job on it).
On a number of occasions I had to get the spare tyre rack sorted out because the rear wheel kept'ed bouncing about on the back of the car.
I went to Le Mans with the owners club and the Oil pressure sensor packed up, Oil started to pisss out of the diff again, it developed a strange noise when braking once the pads had warmed up. If that was not enough most of the time I couldn't get reverse gear and some times I didn't have 3rd gear.
Caterham had to come to Birmingham and get the car again to sort things out again.
Having spent £ 25,000 on a car, last winter so that the car would be built through the winter and run in, in the spring to enable me to do loads of Lotus 7 Club events, I ended up being unable to do any of them.
I had to pull out of the Mira Sprint, Oulton Park Track day, A track day at Donnington, Llandow Trackday and sprint and gave up ever thinking I would make Curborough Sprint for the Marshalls club and the 7club, Not to mention club events.
There was other events that I would like to have done but knew the car would not be up to it.
It turned out that Caterham had the wrong oil in the gear box, The car had the wrong half drive shaft on it or it was defective. And if I understood it correctly a lug was not removed and it had bent part of the De Dion tube. And to think I trusted them to build the car.
When the car came back to me after sorting out that lot I took it for a test drive and one of the Shocks went bang.
When I rang Caterham on the matter they didn't seem interested with comments from the Sales & Marketing Director like:
"What do you want me to do about it?", "O' they all do that, I know we have a problem with them, but don't worry just drive it", "I don't think we can build a car that you will be happy with, why don't you go and buy a Ford" and "We are in business to make money".
The car was only six months old and had been off the road for about three of them and had only cover 3000 mile and a good amount of them was when Caterham was doing test miles in it.
I still love Caterhams as a car but not the company and there Crap customer service.. They did start off really trying to help and get the problems sorted out but in the end I feel that their attitude was sod it we don't care.
Caterham offered me £ 16,000 for my £ 25,000 car to take it off my hand because I no longer wanted a car with such poor reliability... Given the situation I would have thought that they would have done what most motor manufacturers would have done and put me into a different car or done a very favourable trade in. I got the impression that Caterhams was sod off we don't care.
I managed to get a good deal for the car as a trade-in from a Lotus dealer for an Elise S2 111s.
Regarding the Elise, ok like everyone they have had some problems as well but my new car did 3000 mile in 3 weeks and the only problem has been a small reflector feel off. I can live with little problems...
I must say the Elise is a very nice car which I am sure in time I will have to fiddle with when minor problems arise.. like any car. I must say that I am very impressed with it..
Ok its not as fast as the Caterham but at least it dosn't brake every time you drive it.
When you take in the amount of money I lost in six months on my car because of Caterham (The Company) and the offer they made me there wasn't many smiles per mile per pound!!!!!
And the worst car in the world is ......................................... A Caterham......
Mined you at the moment Caterham's build quality and customer service seems to be at an all time low. From what some of the customers tell me.
There seems to be a lot of unhappy customers around at the moment who have parted with a lot of good money only to be disappointed with the product..
If Caterham carries on like this there may not be a future for them..
I recently spent £ 25,000 on a Factory built Caterham Superlight and it was the worst car I have ever owned... The Build Quality and Componants was RUBBISH.. and the when I tried to get this sorted out with Caterham the company was not that much better at the end of the day.... In the end they would not honnour a warrenty problem.
When I went to collect the car I had to return to Caterham 5 times that day, on the 6th time they was closed. I had to return 3 times the next day and them get the train back home. the car was returned to me some time later to still have the same faults and they had to come back up to Birmingham to get it. In the first two months the car was off the road for most of the time.
They had to change or changed items to sort out the whole problem: the cooling system, radiator, wiring loom, ecu? and engine (Possibly cooked) and Injection system (Not sure if they repaired that one). At this stage the car had been off the road for the first two months of ownership.
I soon found out that the geometry was not set up at the time of build and the LSD was pissing oil out of it. the car went to Caterham Midlands to sort out. ( I had to wait almost two weeks to get it looked at and when they had the car I waited a week, and they hadn't done the work from what I can see. I think they just wiped the oil of the diff).
I had to pay Team Parker Racing to sort the Geometry out. (They did a good job on it).
On a number of occasions I had to get the spare tyre rack sorted out because the rear wheel kept'ed bouncing about on the back of the car.
I went to Le Mans with the owners club and the Oil pressure sensor packed up, Oil started to pisss out of the diff again, it developed a strange noise when braking once the pads had warmed up. If that was not enough most of the time I couldn't get reverse gear and some times I didn't have 3rd gear.
Caterham had to come to Birmingham and get the car again to sort things out again.
Having spent £ 25,000 on a car, last winter so that the car would be built through the winter and run in, in the spring to enable me to do loads of Lotus 7 Club events, I ended up being unable to do any of them.
I had to pull out of the Mira Sprint, Oulton Park Track day, A track day at Donnington, Llandow Trackday and sprint and gave up ever thinking I would make Curborough Sprint for the Marshalls club and the 7club, Not to mention club events.
There was other events that I would like to have done but knew the car would not be up to it.
It turned out that Caterham had the wrong oil in the gear box, The car had the wrong half drive shaft on it or it was defective. And if I understood it correctly a lug was not removed and it had bent part of the De Dion tube. And to think I trusted them to build the car.
When the car came back to me after sorting out that lot I took it for a test drive and one of the Shocks went bang.
When I rang Caterham on the matter they didn't seem interested with comments from the Sales & Marketing Director like:
"What do you want me to do about it?", "O' they all do that, I know we have a problem with them, but don't worry just drive it", "I don't think we can build a car that you will be happy with, why don't you go and buy a Ford" and "We are in business to make money".
The car was only six months old and had been off the road for about three of them and had only cover 3000 mile and a good amount of them was when Caterham was doing test miles in it.
I still love Caterhams as a car but not the company and there Crap customer service.. They did start off really trying to help and get the problems sorted out but in the end I feel that their attitude was sod it we don't care.
Caterham offered me £ 16,000 for my £ 25,000 car to take it off my hand because I no longer wanted a car with such poor reliability... Given the situation I would have thought that they would have done what most motor manufacturers would have done and put me into a different car or done a very favourable trade in. I got the impression that Caterhams was sod off we don't care.
I managed to get a good deal for the car as a trade-in from a Lotus dealer for an Elise S2 111s.
Regarding the Elise, ok like everyone they have had some problems as well but my new car did 3000 mile in 3 weeks and the only problem has been a small reflector feel off. I can live with little problems...
I must say the Elise is a very nice car which I am sure in time I will have to fiddle with when minor problems arise.. like any car. I must say that I am very impressed with it..
Ok its not as fast as the Caterham but at least it dosn't brake every time you drive it.
When you take in the amount of money I lost in six months on my car because of Caterham (The Company) and the offer they made me there wasn't many smiles per mile per pound!!!!!
And the worst car in the world is ......................................... A Caterham......
Mined you at the moment Caterham's build quality and customer service seems to be at an all time low. From what some of the customers tell me.
There seems to be a lot of unhappy customers around at the moment who have parted with a lot of good money only to be disappointed with the product..
If Caterham carries on like this there may not be a future for them..
Blimey snapper! Just to give a balanced opinion, I have owned a K-series Caterham for the past three years and it is easily the best and most reliable car I have ever owned. I have done nearly 30,000 miles, and the car has started first time every time. I did build the car myself, and do all the maintenance and servicing myself. It’s not had an easy life either: it’s also thrashed around various tracks on a regular basis.
I think that’s the problem, they aren’t everyday cars, they need pampering, regular and often maintenance. I think if you buy one you really should be prepared to get your hands dirty occasionally. It’s all part of the fun.
If I had to sell it, it would be for another one, but then I’d rather upgrade mine. I certainly wouldn’t swap it for an Elise, far too slow and boring IMHO.
As for customer service, I have found them to be excellent. If I e-mail after sales with a question I usually get a reply within the hour. And if I e-mail the parts department, I get a reply within minutes.
I think that’s the problem, they aren’t everyday cars, they need pampering, regular and often maintenance. I think if you buy one you really should be prepared to get your hands dirty occasionally. It’s all part of the fun.
If I had to sell it, it would be for another one, but then I’d rather upgrade mine. I certainly wouldn’t swap it for an Elise, far too slow and boring IMHO.
As for customer service, I have found them to be excellent. If I e-mail after sales with a question I usually get a reply within the hour. And if I e-mail the parts department, I get a reply within minutes.
Hi Dave
Glad you have been happy with yours.
This car was a brand new upgrade for my last Caterham which was a 1.6K Roadsport..
It had 14,000 mile on the clock and was a great car and in just over a year of owning it I put another 12,000 miles on it and I know that the new owner has now taken it to about 30,000 mile of trouble free motoring..
I own a normal tin top for my every day driving and seeing that I owned the previous car I know what to expect and what leval of build quality I should get.
I upgraded to the Superlight because I wanted the 6-speed Gear Box, Wide Track & LSD & Big Brakes.
I don't mind getting my hands dirty or paying someone else to do it for me.
I at least expected to do some event in it without all these problems, I know that I had to have a maintainance budget for doing these event but it couldn't even do road mile without falling apart.
I still can not believe their poor leval of customer service
Glad you have been happy with yours.
This car was a brand new upgrade for my last Caterham which was a 1.6K Roadsport..
It had 14,000 mile on the clock and was a great car and in just over a year of owning it I put another 12,000 miles on it and I know that the new owner has now taken it to about 30,000 mile of trouble free motoring..
I own a normal tin top for my every day driving and seeing that I owned the previous car I know what to expect and what leval of build quality I should get.
I upgraded to the Superlight because I wanted the 6-speed Gear Box, Wide Track & LSD & Big Brakes.
I don't mind getting my hands dirty or paying someone else to do it for me.
I at least expected to do some event in it without all these problems, I know that I had to have a maintainance budget for doing these event but it couldn't even do road mile without falling apart.
I still can not believe their poor leval of customer service
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