Hi all,
First service update (15K/1Y), Adelaide SA, this is going to be a long one!
Booked in for the service with Adelaide Hills Nissan in Bridgwater who has recently become our Ineos agent and got a date in a few weeks time, asked for some warranty issues to be looked at, listed below, was aware of some recalls being needed after speaking to the former Adelaide agent (Adelaide Hills Motor Group who were in Fullarton) in their final few weeks and asked for a price.
The warranty issues were:
- Main cargo door upper seal coming off
- Heater not working
Recalls I’m aware of:
- Something to do with the bottle jack handle not being able to operate the jack
- A sheath being required for a section of wiring
- Some minor software updates (not a full firmware update)
I got a very quick response booking in the service via text but no confirmation on the warranty/recall issues or price. Though about a week later I received an email informing me they had the seal in but nothing else so I followed them up. The price was $1300 which didn’t sit well with me so instantly asked them for a full breakdown of costs, labour, parts and fluids etc.
I spent some time speaking with redundant staff from the original agent (who spent their last week of employment training the staff that were replacing them) as well as other agents, independent mechanics and just searching the net. At the end of the day found that they were charging 3 hours for 2 hours of work and had prices of 50-100% more for parts and fluids etc.
After another chat with a former employee of the former agent was suggest a first service was around the $900 mark from his memory, for everything including engine air filter and wiper blade rubbers.
Eventually got them down to $1020 but that would mean the air filter would just be inspected/cleaned (assume banged on a bench then hit with an air compressor) rather than replaced (and I’d source a new one to replace it with myself), same for the wiper blade rubbers. Still looked elsewhere but getting my car serviced in time for a planned trip was going to be difficult due to their current workload and we weren’t 100% sure we’d be able to source all the parts required in that time either so just had to suck it up and deal with it.
I took it up first thing THU, booked it in at 8:30 and left it for the morning having gone through everything I wanted done, was assured it would all be good.
Fast forward a few hours…
Cold called to see if my car was ready after a couple of hours, it was but I hadn’t been called, so although I picked it up 2.5H after dropping it off I still got charged what appears to be 3 hours labour (at over $150 and hour), either that or their labour rate is over $225 an hour if it took the suggested 2 hours.
First the warranty stuff, when I picked my car back they said the heater worked fine (it didn’t work at all on the way up) but it was a bit hard to check on the way home, it was 25 degrees outside. The cargo door seal hadn’t been replaced either, got told they hadn’t ordered it in yet despite a week earlier being told they had it, wasn’t impressed…
As for recalls, they didn’t do any of them either, said they would when they got the cargo door seal in so they could do them all at the same time, not sure what was stopping them from doing what was required so wasn’t too happy about this either as it would mean another trip back.
Didn’t drive it on FRI as I had my wife’s car to do some running around in, namely fitting some proper tyres. Ironically it is a Suzuki Jimny we bought from them (they’re also a Suzuki dealer) when I booked my service in and were very well looked after by the sales team, both in terms of price and securing a vehicle within a week despite the 6-12 month wait typical of what we were after.
Took my car out early this morning (SAT) and still no heater so once I was home let it cool down and decided to open the hood and have a look at what had been done.
First thing I noticed was that it didn’t appear to have been touched, it was pretty dusty after getting back from a trip a few weeks ago and I hadn’t had time to give the car a full wash which includes a house out of the engine bay, I’d just pressure washed the exterior an underside to get off any salt and caked on dirt/mud. There wasn’t a single finger print on anything, none of the fluid caps or oil filter housing.
So I started checking things, first up the cooling as I’d been having problems with the heater, the reservoir levels were very low, clearly they hadn’t looked at the heating, or even checked the coolant levels as part of the service. I also ran the automated oil level check which came back as the car being low on oil, OK for on-road use but not off-road, which is where it was when I took it in.
Drove up to the dealer in the hope of them giving me the fluids required to top it up to spec (fluids I had already paid above RRP for) but despite advertising as being open on SAT mornings they are not, had a chat with the service team and they jumped straight on it, after hearing what I had to say they go the dealer manager on the phone (who had been off for a week with COVID) to go through it, we then went out to my car to get photos of the engine bay and fluid levels etc. to send him. The recommendation was that the car is not suitable to be driven without causing damage in the near term.
Even the sales team member who I do like said it looked like it hadn’t been touched, he said the first thing done by the service team was a dust out of the engine bay to prevent contamination etc, something that clearly hadn’t been done, and he also noticed the lack of fingerprints in the dust around the engine bay.
It’s now been left there so the dealer manager can look into things when he gets back next week, in the meantime I have their demo as a loan car. Ironically as soon as I started it to head home the service warning messages came up on the infotainment screen, it’s 37 days overdue for it’s first service, I’m not even going to bother looking at the fluid levels in it, their car, their problem! And a pretty bad look for prospective buyers, and mores myself who’s just been given the car as a loan while they sort out the servicing of my own!
Short of it is, I have no confidence or trust in them to service a Grenadier, they may be grossly incompetent but it appears more likely they’re just ripping people off assuming we don’t know anything about the car while charging a premium for the service. It appears I’ve paid $1020 to have the service warning codes cleared, the outside be hosed (but not actually washed) and some tyre black put on it.
Also gotta question their log-book entry, it’s just a stamp from the previous agent with it being noted as a 15K/1Y service, they’ve left off all other details regarding service manager and comments that I would have thought should be completed regarding warranty and recall work requested/conducted.
Will keep you posted on the outcome!
Cheers,
Paul
