[tony driscoll]

lockdown started 23rd march,so we  isolated for 3 months.service was due on my vw tiguan 68 plate,so dropped it off at lookers middlesbrough.then received phone call saying brakes had seized up,yet i drove it fine to the dealers.stating that they needed to be replaced at cost of £425,i told them its a motability car and not my problem,just wonder if they were trying to con me out of money.also then noticed they didnt add adblue because warning came on when driving home.

Topic

[Dave G]

Tony, do not be surprised if mechanic/service work isn’t carried out to your full expectation because they never do. Loads of complaints from motability customers.

My experience hasn’t been the greatest at all especially for my first lease. I always have a similar situation with my tyre pressure light, they have smart ways to turn them off then the warnings reappear a week later when we leave! Dealerships always try to throw the bill at you until you say you’re a motability customer.

[Paul]

Ive never had the issue of this ive had the other side of the coin ,where knowing your motorbility ,they will suggest extra repairs cost, knowing motorbility foot the bill,also found this with kwik fit too .I tested them one time ,went to a Mr Tyre auto they said “all legal good for a while”,drove to kwik fit and they said “on limit needs changing” and usual only got the most expensive brands in .

[Zoe]

I had the same thing with my mitsubishi they were saying the brakes and mot was going to be £1200 until I said it was a motability car then all of a sudden the issues changed. They realise it’s harder to get motability to agree to the repairs

[Matt B]

Hi,

There is a differing limit of tread depth on motability. The legal limit is 1.6mm, however motability have an agreement in their Kwik Fit contract to change any tyre that is on or below 2mm. This may account for the differing information Paul received from a 3rd party tyre company.

[Philjb]

Odd for brakes to seize up at the dealers, but always tell me they try and get as much work okayd by motability as possible?
Not that I’m bothered but what work the car is new, so no idea what work the car may need other then a service.

On the last service the car had just had  4 new tyres, the service sheet said 7mm tread on all tyres no damage etc. But they addes a quote for new tyres?

strangely when I’ve had private cars serviced at Vw they’ve never said anything other then we’ll ring you when it’s done.

[Rhodgie]

I doubt you’d notice while driving if a brake was binding unless it was seized on solid… and if it’d been parked up for 3 months then I’m not surprised.

[C2clo]

So much trouble with Lookers Middlesbrough in the past, I would never go near the place again. Always took the car in for service on Thursday, so I could take it back Friday to fix it. I discovered Ron Turnbull, VAG Specialists, on North Road after Lookers wanted a small fortune for brake repairs. The mechanic at Ron Turnbull said there was nothing wrong with the brakes at all. This was pre Motability, so things may now be a lot better, but they certainly lost a customer in me.

[ChrisK]

My guess would be that problems with brakes on a 2 year old car would be a warranty repair anyway unless they could prove the car had been mistreated in anyway and although that’s possible it’s unlikely.

[rox]

It really depends on the millage and how much you have used the brakes, My last car was a VW and as it had ACC, When it went for it’s Mot, it needed the rear brakes doing, not the front. But the car does brake alot more than i would and i use the acc 90% of the time I’d say, maybe more.

If you have brake regen then maybe even more, it will depend from car to car i guess how it’s designed.

At the end of the day we don’t pay for anything that goes wrong or needs servicing and i am sure Mbo would be on it if one dealer/  service agent was consistently doing work out of schedule. Also dealers have liabilty if they did not report work that would soon be needed and would likely fail before the next service. they also like most companies these days upselling stuff as well. I have had no issues with vertu Vw

[James]

Speaking personally I believe kwikfit are ripping motability off,I have had five cars on motability over the years and every time without exception if I have a flat wheel and go into kwikfit and mention it’s a motability car they have always replaced the tyre with a new one with no attempt to repair a puncture.I even made motability aware of this but seemingly no action was taken.It looks like a case of knowing its a big concern like motability there’s no hesitation in ripping them off. People may say “it’s not costing you” but it’s a cost to motability through my PIP payments and will likely be reflected in increased advance payments for future vehicles..

[Gary]

Its not every kwikfit as I have had several tyres repaired with them, and also advised that despite my service saying tyres are borderline kwikfit have advised that they are well above the depth that motability will allow them to change.

[Rhodgie]

James do you know that when kwik fit replace a tyre, whether worn or punctured, they have to keep the one taken off for a set length of time in case motability want to do an audit. Also if one particular branch had a much higher rate of replacing tyres than others nearby (or nationally?) then that also could trigger an audit.

Considering the amount of business that kwik fit receive from motability I doubt they’re likely to risk it for a couple of extra tyres.

Also the rules for being able to repair a puncture are quite strict so maybe (just maybe… I don’t know?) in this day and age of litigation, motability and kwik fit have reached an agreement where it’s deemed safer for disabled drivers to have a new tyre fitted instead of repaired?

[Author]

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