Not just technical but mainly mental! Let me take a little time to tell you all about it, the story goes a little something like this.......... on 21st febuary of this year I traded in my lovely saab 9-3 areo for a cool little run around for the missis to pose in, the day after taking delivery of this 2002 2.0 206cc I noticed that the car had an intermittant judder as you released you foot slowly off the clutch, believing this could be human error and that the fault could be mine as the car was new to me I soldiered on, but to my dismay the fault reacurred numerous times, I decided to take the car back to the garage from which it came and was told 'no sir that is perfectly fine....no fault there sir!' Again I disembarked through the town on my homeward journey and noticed that NO this was not fine there was a bloody problem! so I candidly returned to the garage and spoke with the owner who reluctantly booked the car into his garage for investigation, in the mean while I decided to take the car to an inderpendant peugeot specialist who when first test driving the car said 'bloomin heck the clutch is on its way out'!
Armed with this new and unexpected piece of information I again returned to the garage from which the car was bought and told them of my findings, to which the now unimpressed garage owner test drove the car and once again said it was perfectly ok but they would have their technicians look at it. At this point I should have known the outcome of the forthcoming investigation but stupidly agreed to have it looked at, so the following day I took the car down and left it at the hands of the 'EXPERIENCED' technicians. It must of been around 1600 when the sudden vibrating of my phone made me feel sick in anticipation of the converstion, 'Yes sir could you please come and show our technician what the problem is?' EH? I thought have I heard this right.........I am a qualified paramedic not a motor technician but the penny did not drop at this point and I went down to tell the 'EXPERIENCED TECHNICIANS' what was up with the car, the next part will be very boring so will simplify.
(them) So whats up mate?
(me) Duno your supposed to be telling me!
(them) Well whats it doing?
(me) Juddering in first when you take you foot off the clutch.
(them) Ohhh well it is a 2002 what do you expect?
(me) A car that drives properly!
(them) So you are just gona come round here and get bolchy then?
(me) Eh? what you on about? I came round to tell you what the problem is as you asked me too!
(them) Well yea there is a problem and the clutch plate is warped but thats expected.
(me) Ah right so you admit theres a problem?
(them) Thats not what I said!
(me) Yea you did, you said the clutch is warped!
(them) your putting words in my mouth!
(me) No I am repeating what you said!
(them) Well theres no problem with it!
At this point and fearing for the personal safety of the 'EXPERIENCED TECHNICIAN' I walked back to the show room to talk to the sales advisor who fleeced me of my saab and hard earned cash,
Now whilst waiting for the advisor and minding my own business I was handed a mobile phone and told it was for me, me.......I said, why on earth would it be for me, no-one knows im here and if they wanted me they surely would call my own mobile, so timidly taking the phone I said 'yes' and the conversation went a little like this.
(me) hello
(sales advisor) what are you doing round there?
(me) coming to speak to you about my car!
(sales advisor) Well what do you want me to do about it? they have told you they are looking into it so what do you want?
(me) I want to speak to the person I bought the car off!
(sales advisor) But we are the same company!
(me) yea but they did not sell me the car did they?
(sales advisor) well if you continue to wind people up they will just put your car to the back of the que!
(me) Nice customer service!!
The day after this little experience I was called by the owner of the garage apologising for the outburst and telling me 'yep its all sorted'.
Fan Bloody Tastic I thought, and went back happily to pick up my wifes new motor, there it was sat waiting for me like a lepar missing a vital limb, I gingerly got in expecting the worst, but I pulled away and all seemed fine and as it was quite a nice day I decided to put the windows down and as I did I thought I had exerted to much pressure on the button and it did not stop when taking my finger off, well that was it all 4 windows went down..... so I put my ample digit under the button to try and rectify the mistake and guess what??? yep you guessed it! none of the windows would go back up! HOORAH you hear me cry!
As Fast as a Bulimia suffer to get to the toilet I turned around to return to the garage as I was now fuming that it had not only gone in with one defect but now had another, as I pulled up on the forecourt I could see the confused expression of the owner and believed that he must had seen the slightly red and blotchy face of mine as the pressure built up in my head the chance of a sudden onset of a Stroke was iminent! I wont bore you with the next conversation but it went like this.
(them) whats up?
(me) another problem! goes in with 1 comes out with 2 fooooookin great the windows wont go up!
(them) thats coz you have had the windows tinted!
(me) I bought it from you with tinted windows.......TIT (under my breath) get it sorted!
Well the day after I was at the garage and very appreciative of a lecture in my illegal window tint from the local windscreen fitter who was on hand to advice me, though I was shocked when he was asked to reverse my car to see if he could feel the clutch judder, amazed by this supermans outstanding talent I simply asked if he was also a professional peugeot specialist aswell as local windscreen man? 'Oh no!' he said but its good to have another opinion and see if he could feel the judder, sweet jesus son of god! not only is this guy a bellend who was trying to act like a pre school teach with little man syndrome trying to justify his experience but he was expecting me to listen to his opinion on wether he thinks it has a judder or not, anyway we went back to the specialist and they found about 50ml of water had been poured in the electric window switch in the center consol! I found this very odd and Although rude I had to ask the question to the garage owner and said could their own garage have done this because I had gone there the day before and complained at the 'EXPERIENCED TECHNICIAN', NOOOOOOOOOO he said that would cost me money! Also to my discust the professionals said the ECU in the engine was not attatched with mountings and the fan was not working nor the air conditioning plus the power steering sensor was missing from undernieth the car!
Well the demon car was booked back in to have more investigation and everything sorted and on the day it was due in we were on the way there and all of a sudden 'ANTIPOLLUTION FAULT' was displayed on the dash with the engine management light, well after looking in the manual and stopping the car immediately in fear of anything else going wrong we called the garage to explain our newest found fault, 'Oh thats fine dont worry' came the reply, 'Mines been like that for months' so we continued our journey and left the car in their hands which felt a bit like leaving a paedophile in a play park!
Well what can I say........ that was the last we saw of the car, bought on 21st feb driven it for the first 4 days on and off and not seen it since! Aparantly it has been to 3 different specialist each of which can not mend it, it has had a new ECU but to no avail! I Only have the fond memories and pictures of the car we bonded with so well........BEFORE WE PAID FOR IT! I thank you for sharing this disappointing episode in my life and can only call on you for advice.
