MG Assistance -or Not!

[bigal]

I broke down on my drive on Sat 4th Nov with the error message Vehicle Control Fault on my ZS EV
I called MG Assistance where an AA mechanic turned up. After trying all he could he said that it needs recovering to MG.

imagine my surprise when my local dealer where I recently had it serviced said that they do not accept recoveries - Palmers at Hemel Hempstead for any people in HH

So I called the garage where I bought the car. Although more helpful they were unable to accept my breakdown. So I called Glynn Hopkins who have several garages - still waiting for a reply!

Finally managed to get it into a garage who said they would take it but could not look at it for several days. Still waiting for A fix

Some issues out of this story
1 - even though you have a 7 year warranty unless you can get a garage to accept your breakdown the warranty is pointless

2- MG Assistance are actually just the AA. When I told them that my garage would not accept my car and asked for advice in finding a garage that would accept it, they just said we are the AA your own your own. Call us when you find somewhere
3- when you breakdown you are covered by an AA hire car for four days to allow MG to look at the vehicle and assess the problem.MG can then extend the hire if they need parts etc. However, after taking 3 days to get my car towed away I had to return the car and I am now marooned at home waiting for MG to actually do something

A very depressing experience !

 

[Alb]

I'd be contacting MG if the dealer was refusing to offer a service but was it a downright refusal or just an indication that they couldn't deal with the car in a reasonable timescale?

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

On a recent breakdown I found the AA was very good but MG very slow.

My MG4 Trophy refused to charge on the A1. My plan B was to charge at my hotel. Car did not charge at the hotel. Called MG Assist who arrived within the hour and who escorted me to another charger. It failed. They disconnected the 12v battery and left it for 10 mins or so. That didn’t work. They agreed recovery the following day would be necessary. I was left alone to drive back to my hotel with about 14 miles range. Only problem was roadworks - the A1 was down to a single lane and unbeknownst to me my exit on the A1 was closed. It was busy, dark and blowing a storm and my fear was running out of juice and blocking the A1.

I did reach the hotel with 6 miles left. The car was recovered the next day and towed (rear wheels up) from Yorkshire to London. Both AA guys who came out were very friendly and helpful .

It turns out that if you chose not to accompany the car on its recovery the AA has 48 hours to deliver it. Mine took about 36 hours to arrive in London. It stopped for long periods at various motorway services awaiting the next AA driver to take it to the next leg in a long relay. Whilst parked up the key is “hidden” under the wheel arch. But of course an opportunist thief could try the doors and they would open given the proximity of the key. I need to check that nothing has been stolen (eg charging cable, V2L, and granny etc).

MG Assist arranged a taxi to take me to Leeds Bradford Airport (an hour’s drive) to pick up a courtesy car (a manky manual petrol thingy). I had the car for 4 days. I have repeatedly asked MG Chiswick for an extension to the courtesy car period but they have not arranged anything.

My car arrived at MG Chiswick on Tuesday morning. Their mechanic (apparently there is only 1!) was on holiday. The first time they looked at the car was Friday night.The car sat from Saturday night until Friday with about 6% charge which is not good for battery health. It was then left on charge all weekend and sat at 100% from early Saturday morning bad until this morning (Monday) which is also bad for long term battery health.

MG Chiswick called today (Monday) to say they are applying a software update for a known battery problem. I may get the car back tomorrow but won’t know if the car has been fixed until I can try a fast charger.

 

[Buchanty]

Hi all. If I may, I might as well join in here.

In a nutshell, until a week ago my MG5 Long Range has been faultless in 18 months and 20k miles. Then one morning it simply refused to start (yes, as you probably guessed, 'system fault'). After a 35 minute wait for the AA to answer my call, the technician arrived at my isolated rural location within an hour (I was very impressed). No luck with his various tests and tricks. I've only recently moved to Northern Ireland and have had no contact with a dealer over here. The car was therefore recovered to the AA's default choice in these circumstances and was taken to SERE MG in Belfast.

The technician also arranged a four-day courtesy rental. Enterprise car hire at Mallusk, Belfast, were excellent and delivered a vehicle to me by the middle of the afternoon. They also told me that the dealer could extend the free rental if the car was still there at the end of the fourth day (which I expected to be the case).

At this point, SERE's service reception told me they probably wouldn't be able to take a look at it until the end of the week (the last day of the rental). Fair enough, I thought to myself. I mentioned the extension to the rental agreement and was promptly informed this could only be done if a part was on back order. My free rental was likely to be no more and, as I'm living in an area that doesn't even have a rural bus service, I sensed even greater chaos ahead of me.

By the end of the week I'd had no luck getting through by phone, so made the 80-mile round trip to visit SERE. The car had not been seen and the timescale of their intervention was no longer the end of the week and had become "when we have a cancellation or no-show". The car was stuck there, possibly for good, ridiculous as it seems (to me, but not to SERE).

At this point I contacted Enterprise who continued to be excellent and offered to extend the hire car (an Audi Q2) for half the cost of their cheapest runabout (a Toyota Aygo) for as long as I need it, so at least I'm still mobile. I couldn't be more grateful.

Various options have occurred to me, the most likely of which is that I'll visit SERE again and have a chat with the service manager. If necessary, I'll book the car in, and at least it'll have an appointment, hopefully early next year. Frankly, I'm astonished and thoroughly fed up, but there's a lot of useful experience on this forum, so please don't hesitate if anything comes to mind. Thanks and best wishes to all!

 

[Gadget Geek]

Have you tried other MG dealerships to see if they are less busy? You could be cheeky and say it's faulty and off the road and ask if they can recover it, only then would I tell them where it is located.

 

[Buchanty]

Have you tried other MG dealerships to see if they are less busy? You could be cheeky and say it's faulty and off the road and ask if they can recover it, only then would I tell them where it is located.

That’s a very interesting thought. Thanks!

 

[Gadget Geek]

Another thought is an independent garage. If they follow MG's repair recommendations and use genuine parts, they can do warranty work.

 

[Buchanty]

Another thought is an independent garage. If they follow MG's repair recommendations and use genuine parts, they can do warranty work.

That’s really helpful. Thanks again!

 

[Gomev]

Another thought is an independent garage. If they follow MG's repair recommendations and use genuine parts, they can do warranty work.

They may have problems connecting to the MG servers to diagnose the problem though.
Independent dealers are a useful alternative for the mechanical stuff, but are they able to do the EV stuff?

 

[Gadget Geek]

They may have problems connecting to the MG servers to diagnose the problem though.
Independent dealers are a useful alternative for the mechanical stuff, but are they able to do the EV stuff?

The larger garages probably would. As I understand it, the garagage has to buy the computer module from the manufacturer to diagnose their vehicles, which isn't cheap, so a lot of smaller businesses aren't able to fix newer models.

You would have to ask.

 

[Gomev]

The larger garages probably would. As I understand it, the garagage has to buy the computer module from the manufacturer to diagnose their vehicles, which isn't cheap, so a lot of smaller businesses aren't able to fix newer models.

You would have to ask.

I agree but since even MG dealers have to liaise directly with MG with the results of diagnosis and receive instructions on what to do next, would they do that for an independent ? Otherwise why be a franchised dealer ?
Don't want to be negative but it seems like MG hold the whip hand.

 

[Gadget Geek]

I should imagine it's a revenue stream for legacy manufacturers. I know you can buy the technical manuals from MG, which suggests you can also buy their information and advice services. Tesla on the other hand don't allow anyone to fix their cars except Tesla.

 

[Buchanty]

Just a quick update. The dealer has now had a look at the car but is unable to reach a diagnosis and is in discussion with MG. At least it's now in hand and, for me, that's a relief (no matter how long it takes to resolve things from here). I'll post further updates as and when. Thanks so much for your thoughts and comments.

 

[Buchanty]

I collected the car today. The dealer has replaced the CCS (as in Central Control System, not Combined Charging System) and I’d say the car’s now running more smoothly than ever. And I wouldn’t want to go through that again . . .