Failure is the Key to Success

It’s a while since I have had a rant about car dealerships. I had my Volvo MOT’d a couple of weeks ago. It went so smoothly, that I forget to even put a post up about it.

Jo’s Toyota Avensis had an engine management warning light come on, so she contacted Steven Eagell Toyota in Luton to get them to check it out and resolve it. Although the next service wasn’t due until October, she asked them to do the service now, as being school holidays it is easier to have them collect the car and return it when finished. Otherwise, it would mean me taking it to work and having the fun with the Milton Keynes branch of Steven Eagell Toyota that I have previously had with MOTs and garages , Car Window 2 and Car Window 3. She also asked them to get a replacement drivers side sunvisor as the plastic hinge/mounting bracket had broken.

So, anyway they evidently collected it this morning without any issues and called her this afternoon to say that all the work was done and to get her to pay for it. When she asked what the story with the engine management light was, she was told that it was the oxygen sensor. After the car had been returned, she was looking at the paperwork and noticed that she hadn’t been charged for the oxygen sensor. This was the first she knew that the fault hadn’t been repaired. She rang the garage and spoke to the deputy service manager who explained that the car is safe to drive and that they will get the part in, but it will be the other side of the Bank holiday. Jo has impressed upon them the need to get this resolved before the end of the school holidays. They did confirm that the sunvisor was broken, and I thought it was supposed to separate into two parts and fall off the car , that is also on order. They seem to have grasped the concept of investigate fault, but the final part of communicate the findings to customer is lacking.

Jo did agree tonight that when it comes time to replace the Avensis, it is unlikely to be another Toyota; not because the car is bad, she loves the car, but because the dealer network is appalling.

Tags:poor communication,toyota dealer

The weather on Saturday was really good, almost like summer is finally here.

We are going on holiday to Centre Parcs again this year, but this year we are planning to take the kids bikes with us. I looked at the options available and settled on a roof mounted solution. This meant I needed to get some roof bars and then bike carriers to attach to it. I got Thule roof bars which attach to the existing mount points on the roof of my car, then I got Thule bike carriers which attach to them.

We wanted to test this out before we go away, but as the weather has been so bad for weeks, we hadn’t had the opportunity to do this. Anyway, Saturday was good, so we fitted the roof bars and carriers and then fitted the bikes. They were really secure and apart from a bit of wind noise, I wasn’t aware it was there. The kids got to ride their bikes in a new location and I got to put my mind at rest with roof mounting the bikes.

I don’t know if I am just getting older and more aware of it, or have driving standards really have dropped.

I don’t have a particularly long drive to work, about 30 minutes, but in the last few weeks, the sheer stupidity and lack of respect by some drivers for other road users has amazed me.

This morning was a prime example: leaving town, I travel through a cutting with a 40mph speed limit and I had a little white Renault van impatiently sat behind me, obviously annoyed because I was driving at the speed limit. After the speed limit is lifted, there is a roundabout which you take the right lane to go straight over on the A5 or the left lane to turn off on the Leighton Buzzard bypass. I take right lane as I follow the A5 for most of my route to work and wasn’t surprised to see the Renualt come up the inside of me, however when I stopped to allow the traffic on the roundabout, which has priority, to continue round, I didn’t expect the Renault to carry on onto the roundabout forcing the traffic to stop. Once they had stopped, he then pushed through the gap he had caused and continued on up the A5. Once the traffic had cleared, I continued on the A5 only 2 cars behind him all the way to Hockliffe, where he left it very late going through the lights as they went red as he turned off to Woburn.

I sat at the lights in Hockliffe at the front of the queue today, but quite often I am further back, where on most days I witness another dangerous annoyance. When approaching the lights from the south, the road is a single lane splitting to two for maybe 20 yards. When traffic is queuing in the right hand lane to go straight over (or right) the queue will stretch back beyond the split of the lanes. Almost every day everything from cars to vans and minibuses will mount the pavement and drive half on the road, half on the pavement down the inside of the queue just so that they can wait at the red light a few yards further ahead.

Overtaking is another area that seems worse than it used to be. When I learnt to drive I was taught that you only overtook when you could do so safely without danger to other road users. Last night while driving home, an oncoming motorist, couldn’t wait until I was past; the road behind me was clear. He just indicated and pulled out and then proceeded to force me to take avoiding action. All he had to do was wait another 10 seconds and it would have avoided the issue.

Drivers just seem so much more impatient and don’t look ahead the see oncoming dangers and obstructions. Drivers seem so intent on there own goals that they lose awareness of the needs and rights of other road users. Others like the Parcelforce driver a couple of weeks ago who in a traffic queue, deliberately moved over into the cycle lane to block the way for the cyclist who was riding up, are just agressive.

Is it just me or do you have similar stories?

Tags:bad driving,driving standards

The online petition against the proposed introduction of vehicle tracking and road pricing has currently reached 1,559,649 signatures and finishes on 20th February 2007.

This is a protest against the rapidly increasing cost of motoring in the UK and invasion of privacy.

I am against the introduction of additional forms of tax and the bureaucracy needed to gather it. I does seem unfair to introduce charging for roads which we already pay for. A litre of petrol costs about 85 pence, 48 pence of this is fuel tax and 12 pence Value Added Tax (VAT). Add to this the annual Vehicle Excise Duty ‘tax disc’ at £175 for cars over 1600cc and we are paying quite a bit to run a car these days.

Some of the proposed road pricing schemes are talking of compulsory GPS fitted to cars. This is just wrong. We in the UK are probably one of the most monitored societies in the world, with about 1 CCTV camera per 14 people. Combined with data gathered from use of mobile phones and loyalty cards, we are rapidly bringing George Orwell’s vision of 1984 to life. The privacy issues aside, who will have to fund this compulsory technology, the motorist I expect.

I do agree that the car does causes massive damage to the environment and agree that something needs to be done. Much as I am against ‘stealth’ taxes, I believe if the cost of motoring needs to be increased to force cars off the road then it is best to add the tax to fuel, this way additional complex schemes the identify and collect the funds don’t have to be created. It’s simple if you used fuel, you pay the cost.

The problem with forcing the car off the road is that the public transport system isn’t up to being its replacement. This will lead to people having to reassess where they work and spend their leisure time, which could have long term impact on many industries in the UK. If a company really wants to retain it’s staff it will end up paying the charges, which will force to costs of goods up and so impact inflation. If they don’t pay the charges then they will loose experienced staff and so impact their effectiveness.

I have just read on the BBC website that Tony Blair will be sending an email in the next few days to the people who have signed the petition, so I shall wait to see what it says.

I do know that this is a complicated issue that will take some time to resolve. What do you think?

Tags:road pricing,vehicle tracking

Just to show how organised Steven Eagle Toyota are, I had a phone call this morning following up the service reminder that they had sent for the Avensis. They wondered if I wanted to book it in for the service.

This is of course the same service that they did when they had the car in during October (see post)

They will now update their records.

Tags:disorganised,toyota dealer

Earlier in the year (see this post), we had a note on Jo’s car when she parked out side one of our neighbour’s house. Yesterday when I got home from work, the road was really busy and so I parked on the road just up from their house. When we went out last night, we were planning to take Jo’s car anyway, which was just as well because they have parked 6 inches from both the front and back of my car, effectively trapping it where it is.

Hopefully some time over the weekend one of the cars will move, allowing me to move my car, otherwise Monday morning when I need to go to work will be interesting.

[Edit] Both cars have just moved, so I took the opportunity to move my car back in front of my house. Its bright with cloudless skies, but quite cold out today.