Not how I thought today was going to pan out...

[macd2401]

Having had a night to sleep on, the first port of call now has to be AC customer services. As we've seen on other threads throughout the piece, MG aren't interested. In fact, emails were sent some time ago to the supposed head of their customer services department... I'm glad I never held my breath for a reply. There's certainly a chance of AC at least agreeing to fix some of the bits that their own service desks have pretty much ignored.

But the battery is a biggie, and I don't understand why something that protects the integrity of the battery isn't made from something more durable...like the entire rest of the battery compartment. To put a piece of plastic over something that critical seems to me to be a design oversight. Given the service centre missed something as simple as excessive pad wear, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even look at it.

Wonder if any other mk1s are in a similar condition, but they've just been lucky so far.

 

[Caramaddy]

Dreadful, beyond belief.

 

[Robf]

Having had a night to sleep on, the first port of call now has to be AC customer services. As we've seen on other threads throughout the piece, MG aren't interested. In fact, emails were sent some time ago to the supposed head of their customer services department... I'm glad I never held my breath for a reply. There's certainly a chance of AC at least agreeing to fix some of the bits that their own service desks have pretty much ignored.

But the battery is a biggie, and I don't understand why something that protects the integrity of the battery isn't made from something more durable...like the entire rest of the battery compartment. To put a piece of plastic over something that critical seems to me to be a design oversight. Given the service centre missed something as simple as excessive pad wear, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even look at it.

Wonder if any other mk1s are in a similar condition, but they've just been lucky so far.

Give citizens advice a call, they will ensure you are going through the correct procedure and steps, it is extremely important you do this. They will also advise on how to deal with it and supply letter templates.

 

[chowbenter]

Dear me! you've been treated appallingly throughout this sorry saga, I feel terribly sorry for what you've been through with this lemon of a car. I really hope you can get sorted out in your favour from MG.

I can't believe the condition of your wheel discs after such a short life span, I had zero trouble with my Gen1 MG ZS EV & took pics of the wheel discs after every service, they were in tip-top condition after the third service & MOT as were the pads in this pic.

 

[Tim Green]

MacD241 surely your car is not fit for purpose and should be rejected back to your dealer on that basis.

 

[decrep]

Are you sure they are your wheel discs. I've had service people show me stuff that wasn't even part of my car, saying this is stuffed it has to be replaced.

 

[macd2401]

Are you sure they are your wheel discs. I've had service people show me stuff that wasn't even part of my car, saying this is stuffed it has to be replaced.

They're definitely my discs, because I looked at them when the car was moved to this new dealers. AC give you a Web portal page to book your car in, and mention any issues... I only had a few hundred characters to explain what was all knackered, and laying the brakes on the 7 month wait took up a large part of that...

 

[macd2401]

Update time, and it ain't good news.

Water ingress into the battery.

MG won't touch it under warranty.

AC have been advised to strip the battery down, test all the cells, dry everything out, and test again. Price for that to happen, we're now up at 3 grand.

If the cells are salvageable, that's what it'll cost to repair the battery on its own.

If the cells are not salvageable...2 grand PER CELL. They think there are at least 4 cells that have been affected.

That's 11 grand for a 10 grand car, and that's excluding all the other work needing done.

This week just keeps getting better and better ?‍?‍?‍

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

Update time, and it ain't good news.

Water ingress into the battery.

MG won't touch it under warranty.

AC have been advised to strip the battery down, test all the cells, dry everything out, and test again. Price for that to happen, we're now up at 3 grand.

If the cells are salvageable, that's what it'll cost to repair the battery on its own.

If the cells are not salvageable...2 grand PER CELL. They think there are at least 4 cells that have been affected.

That's 11 grand for a 10 grand car, and that's excluding all the other work needing done.

This week just keeps getting better and better ?‍?‍?‍

Truly, truly, shocking experience.
Deeply impressive that you have kept your cool!

You have been treated despicably and agree that you should seek some advice from Citizens Advice or similar.

 

[Caramaddy]

Does not bode well for warranty claims.

 

[chowbenter]

Good grief, what a nightmare. I really feel for you over this debacle.

 

[macd2401]

Spoke to Citizens Advice, and they advised to put in a formal complaint to Arnold Clark. That was done at the start of the week, and no reply so far, although I have missed a call from the branch the car is at, and when I returned the call today, the person is off.

Having finally got hold of someone at the insurance company who could properly answer my questions (first fella actually put me through to their breakdown line, bit late for that... and the 2nd attempt gave me a chatbot that asked if I wanted to cancel my policy, then set up a text conversation that the operator closed when THEY stopped answering questions) I've been told by them that it's nothing to do with the insurance company either. The only advice the fella could give (because I don't think I have legal cover on the policy) was to try phoning some lawyers offices, and see what they say. Unfortunately, that was something I did even before contacting the CA, and my local options couldn't offer any help.

Do newspapers still do their legal help pages? Last time I read a paper, Austin Lafferty was the fella in the know, but that was a bit more than a few weeks ago...

 

[Rob24]

BBC One - Rip Off Britain - Consumer Advice

Rip off Britain.

BBC One - The One Show - Watchdog on The One Show

Watchdog

? Rob

 

[fred12345]

Spoke to Citizens Advice, and they advised to put in a formal complaint to Arnold Clark. That was done at the start of the week, and no reply so far, although I have missed a call from the branch the car is at, and when I returned the call today, the person is off..

Can you put together list of dates when stuff happened, starting from when you bought the car to what happened next and next and next.. it will help you explaining your situation.

Where did that water in the battery come from?

 

[Gadget Geek]

I agree with fred12345. A diary of events, conversations, emails and responses is essential for making a complaint and a claim.

 

[macd2401]

Already had all the info collated, everything was put into the complaint. Wasn't quite War and Peace, but it was pretty detailed on dates and information. Unfortunately, MG tell nobody about the work they do at Longbridge, so there's no way to detail what the faults were, or the repairs carried out when it was down there.

Fred12345, the water has apparently entered through some vents at the front end of the battery compartment, and AC are attributing that entirely to the damaged cover. The vents are positioned in such a way that tyre spray from the passenger side is fired at it when turning left. IMO, it seems a poor design choice to place vents in the spray path, when the only thing protecting them is a thin piece of plastic.

 

[macd2401]

Finally had a reply. Ignored all the other issues I raised in the email regarding everything else that's failed.

 

[Susanna]

The frustration and anger you must be feeling both with the length of time this is taking, and the total lack of responsibility, understanding and action by both MG and Arnold Clark. Absolutely unbelievable.

 

[fred12345]

Finally had a reply. Ignored all the other issues I raised in the email regarding everything else that's failed.

How was the protective heath shield damaged and when?

I don't know what other issues you raised but whatever it is, even if they sort them out, the problem with the battery remains and it's the biggest one. so, let's try and clear that up first

 

[macd2401]

How was the protective heath shield damaged?

Absolutely no idea. When they put the car up on the ramp, they found it was damaged.

And there's no way that's a heat shield. It's a plastic cover that spans the front of the battery. Don't have any real details of it, since I've only got the AC video to go off of.