83 days to get vehicle back from dealership

A Pretoria restaurant owner was left frustrated and annoyed after his car remained at a vehicle dealership owned by JSE-listed Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) for 83 days.

Theo Rapanos had his 2015 Ford Kuga diesel towed to the dealership with an overheating problem on 5 January.

He said on Wednesday he finally got his vehicle back and the service manager at CMH Ford Hatfield had given him “a massive discount” for the inconvenience he had suffered.

During the 83 days his vehicle was at the dealership, it informed Rapanos of a litany of new problems with his car and a succession of different parts or components were replaced in an attempt to resolve the overheating problem.

In the almost 12-week period:

• The dealership said the overheating problem was caused by the thermostat housing, but that it had to order this part and it would take a week or two to be delivered.

• The car was returned to Rapanos on Friday 20 January but was still overheating and he returned it to the dealership on Monday 23 January 2023.

• The dealership said the problem was caused by the engine management system. Rapanos received a quote of R26 294.75 to have it replaced, which he accepted. The dealership then told him it would only get the replacement engine management system on 10 February 2023.

• The dealership then said the replacement engine management system had been installed but the vehicle was still overheating.

• A further diagnosis revealed that the engine head was warped from the overheating and the engine would have to be removed to skim the head, which would take 10 days to complete. It said the vehicle would be ready for collection on Friday 24 February.

• On Friday 17 March, exactly three weeks after the ‘ready for collection’ date, the dealership indicated that it needed dowels, which were unavailable, for the alignment of the engine and the engine block. New dowels would have to be manufactured.

• Rapanos was offered a courtesy car for the first time, on Friday 17 March.

• The dealership said the engine was reinstalled and the car started, but the heater was not working, which was indicative of another problem and the water pump would have to be replaced.

• On Tuesday (28 March), shortly before 17:00, Rapanos received a call from the dealership informing him that his car was ready for collection.

Rapanos said he and his wife went to collect it on Wednesday and were extremely concerned about the cost of the repairs, particularly as he was unsure if it was necessary to replace all the parts the dealership had replaced.

Amicable – and ‘a huge discount’

Rapanos said the service manager explained everything that had been done to his car and admitted the dealership had misdiagnosed a problem with the engine management system. He removed the system and labour installation costs from his account.

“He [the service manager] was surprised they didn’t offer me a [courtesy] car. He did offer me one last week but by then it was already too late.

“I’m happy I have my car back. I didn’t have my car for a long time,” said Rapanos.

‘Still a lot of money’

“It was a good outcome in the end. It’s still a lot of money, but they did have to do the head and put in a new water pump.

“That was the last thing they checked and it probably should have been the first thing they checked.

“But the service manager said to me there is absolutely no way to check a water pump because they cannot measure if it flows well or badly,” said Rapanos.

“At the end, I’m happy because my car is fixed.”

He added that if he had taken his car to the dealership in January and was told it was going to take four days to repair and he had to pay what he now had to pay, he would have accepted it.

“It is a positive ending. They really tried to accommodate me and the service manager told me to phone him if there are any [further] problems.

“This is how customer service works. There are always going to be problems and it’s how you handle them. At the end they handled it well when he [the new service manager] came on board.”

Ford’s response

Ford South Africa corporate communications manager Dudu Nxele said on Tuesday in response to a request for comment from Moneyweb that Ford SA and the dealer were aware of the matter.

“The dealer has methodically been working through the vehicle and is engaging with the customer to find a workable solution. The customer will be taking delivery of the vehicle today,” she said.

Read: Ford South Africa failed to protect its reputation [Jan 2017]

“We appreciate that it is never ideal for a customer to be without their vehicle and apologise for the inconvenience.”

CMH did not respond to nor acknowledge an email and a WhatsApp message requesting comment.