13 Dec 06
Well, under normal circumstances, I'd be the first person to celebrate the arrival at Mudfordshire Towers of a shining black R-Class with blacked out rear windows, an automatic tailgate, DVD-playing headrests and an inadvertently personalised number plate. On this occasion, however, its arrival is unfortunately due to the fact that the identical car it temporarily replaces threw its electronic toys out of the pram and reported an airbag system failure.
Now, this is not about to develop into a rant about manufacturer reliability, build quality, etc. Boasting levels of sophistication to shame the electronics and computer power with which NASA put a man on the moon, it's inevitable that something may go wrong every now and then with any car. A chum in the village has a new Avensis which has thrown a 'shan't' wobbly three times in the last month. And, as we know, Toyotas never, ever go wrong.
No, what's interesting about this little experience is the treatment you can expect at the hands of your local dealer...
On discovering the fault, I rang the Mercedes dealership in Kidlington, just outside Oxford, to be told we shouldn't really be driving the R-Class and should bring it in ASAP. I was told that if we arrived first thing on Monday it would go straight to diagnostics and we'd then know more. On arrival at the dealership, however, my wife was told that they couldn't look at the car until that afternoon (hmm...) so, on the basis that the Sudoku puzzle in the paper and the dealer's execrable coffee was unlikely to keep her going until then, I went to fetch her.
The dealer then rang back later that day to say they'd temporarily fixed the problem and, despite the fact no one seemed to know exactly when they closed for the day (hmm...), we could come and pick up the car.
