Another rant about Macklin Edinburgh West (now Vertu Newbridge)

[Rolfe]

Before I went out I tried the pre-heat, as the car was still plugged in and at 100%, and it definitely worked. Dropped the SOH down to 99%, so I knew it had done it even before I went out to check. (Previously I'd noticed that no power was being taken from the battery even when it was supposedly heating.) While the SOH was still high I tried a few smart-ish stops, and the car was fine, no noise, no vibration.

I did the hill reverse, twice, and there was no sign of anything wrong at all. No sound, no vibration, no juddering, no scraping, the car just went down the hill backwards with no fuss at all. I'm pretty dubious about this entire brakes story. Although, what do I know about it.

Then I went on a joy-ride on the same road I took when the car was new, and the LKA definitely wasn't driving me to distraction this time. A few beeps but very little pulling on the wheel at all, even when I turned the sensitivity up to high on the way back. And that was on a winding road where you tend to cross the centre line on the bends. My impression was that if the line wasn't terribly clear it was just ignoring it.

The speed limit recognition was just as terrible as always, seeing what it shouldn't be seeing and sometimes not seeing what it should have seen. But the A701 is particularly bad for this, with big signs warning HGVs that they're limited to 40 mph shortly after almost every "national speed limit" indication, and of course the car sees that, and of course it flashes 40 at you for the next 20 miles. It was also seeing some 20 mph signs relating to side roads, and it completely missed the "national speed limit" sign exiting Broughton, because it's dirty and partly overhung by branches. But then it was always thus.

I'm encouraged enough to leave off the pre-flight check-list for now and see how I get on.

So the bottom line is that, assuming they fix the door handle next week as arranged, everything I wanted done has actually been done this time. If they'd been a bit pleasanter to me and hadn't tried to upsell me £2,000 worth of what I suspect is make-work, they might have been in with a chance. As it is, after Friday of next week I hope never to see them again.

 

[DixieTGS]

You have to be quite careful selecting neutral. It is quite easy to go past neutral and select reverse instead, In which case it does pop up that warning. It's reassuring to know it does have sensible protection in for that situation.

 

[Rolfe]

Might well have been that, good thought. I don't feel like doing any more for now, because I can't fault the way the brakes are operating no matter what I do to the car. I'll just have to see what Andrew says tomorrow.

 

[Rolfe]

You have several ways to escalate any issues:
Vertu - head office or social media channels (which tend to elicit the quickest response)
Retail Motor Industry - as Vertu are a member RMI | Retail Motor Industry Federation
The Motor Ombudsman - again Vertu are a member Home

and of course the Supply of Good and Services Act as outlined here

Vehicle servicing and repairs

Taking your car or vehicle to be serviced requires you to put trust in the garage or mechanic who is doing the work for you. However, you don’t need to rely on trust alone to get a fair deal.

www.araglaw.co.uk

I also suspect, as has been the case with my wife and I when we enter a car dealership, there are still those in the motor trade who treat men and women differently when explaining things.

Most of that isn't really relevant, thankfully, because I have not actually been scammed. I backed off before agreeing to the work. Probably a complaint to Vertu about over-selling is the way to go. I hadn't thought about attacking them on Twitter, that's definitely a better idea than a private email.

You might think, given that I presented them with a list of things to do including the numbers of the software updates needed, and was aware that the door button was a common fault, and had had a steaming row with them about poor service last year, they might have realised that there weren't too many flies on me. (Unlike the car until half an hour ago, just had to remove several hundred more insect corpses.)

On the other hand, maybe they remembered my saying I was a moderator on this forum, something they definitely disapprove of, and decided to stick it to me in revenge.

Just checked the Twitter accounts.

That looks highly promising. Definitely a line of attack.

 

[Rolfe]

Look what I just found in my email inbox.

I could get quite creative with this. Probably will, actually.

 

[Archev]

Look what I just found in my email inbox.

View attachment 36721

I could get quite creative with this. Probably will, actually.

I cannae wait to read the next episode

 

[Rolfe]

Should have Andrew's verdict by close of play tomorrow. That will dictate the next move.