Land Rover, San Pedro, Spain, Rip-off!
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05-31-2015, 02:45 AM
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Land Rover, San Pedro, Spain, Rip-off!
My sad, sad experience with LR Marbella (SALAMANCA, San Pedro) and a warning to all.... My RRS TDV8 2008 was not performing well at all. It would drive fine, but on firm acceleration or driving up a slight incline it would splutter and go into limp mode (quite a common problem I later learned). Restarting it would then fix the immediate issue, until the next time. But if I drove it very gently I could avoid the problem pretty much always.
But it needed fixing, and suspecting (hoping) it might be a just a blocked fuel filter, I took it to a local indy garage (in La Campana, poligino) where I asked the Spanish owner to order a new fuel filter for me. The following day I left my car with him and several hours later he phoned me to come and collect it. When I arrived a very solemn looking owner told me "there is much wrong with your car" and that I need to take it to Land Rover to get everything fixed. I thanked him and asked how much I owed him for the new fuel filter, to which he replied "no charge, it's nothing". I’m aware those fuel filters cost aprox €60, so I offered again to pay him, but again he insisted that I didn't need to pay him, repeating "it was nothing". He then added that I should speak with his friend at the LR dealership and he would ensure I would even get his 5% discount. He even went as far as to phone his friend in LR for me (how nice). But not charging me made me a bit suspicious, although I figured that he will most likely be getting a referral kick-back from LR, which I’m sure he figured would cover his costs.
VERY worried about all the faults this guy warned me about, I wasted no time taking my car to the main Land Rover dealership here in Marbella for an initial inspection (Salamanca, San Pedro). I dropped my car off, and to cut a long story short I returned six hours later to be told by Jose Antonio in service reception that there was a long list of things that needed doing to fix the car. To my absolute horror, the total bill amounted to nearly €7000 to fix all its faults. There were four main areas of concern...
1) They advised me that the high-pressure fuel pump needs replacing to fix the engine problem.
2) My cooling system had two leaks in it and must be fixed as the car could easily overheat costing me €1000´s.
3) I had several components in my suspension that needed replacing, including something pneumatic which “could burst at any given moment”.
4) A bearing in the differential needed replacing (even though they later commented they hadn’t even test driven the car)
For the benefit of this experience and knowledge they charged me €120. But fortunately for me, I also have a bit of mechanical knowledge, as well as some basic understanding of body-language, waffle & when somebody is curiously over-selling a point. So over the next few days, I emailed LR, San Pedro (SALAMANCA) several times asking for further explanations and if they had checked other things in the fuel system, such as the low pressure fuel pump (rather than just choosing the most expensive). In writing they said that they were confident in their assessments and reading of error codes. In writing, I then also specifically asked them if they had checked the fuel filter, and in writing they said they had!
To cut a long story short, I smelt a rat. So I drove my car 30km to a small indy English owned garage (in Estapona) for a 2nd opinion on just the engine problem (however, wanting an unbiased assessment, I did NOT mention anything about my LR experience and their assessment). The garage put the car on their diagnostic computer, which threw up a fuel problem related error code. The mechanic simply suggested I come back when they had more time when they could change my fuel filter, to see if that fixes the problem. This gave me some hope, and in the meantime I was recommended to a another more local British owned indy garage in Marbella.
To cut a long story short, I took my car to the Marbella garage for a 3rd opinion (but again, I made no mention whatsoever about LR and their findings). Following their initial inspection, I booked my car in with my instructions to… 1) check/change the fuel filter, 2) check/fix the suspension, 3) check/test the coolant system.
Later that day I collected my car from the Marbella indy garage and was given the following report…
It seems strange that two small separate independent garages would both immediately link the engine problem, to possibly a simple fuel filter. Yet Land Rover, San Pedro, with all their computers and expertise chose the €2´000 repair option. This experience has me now wondering about if garages “conspire together”.
Would it be crazy for me to consider, that perhaps LR and the original Spanish garage owner maybe have some kind of "deal" going on? For curiously, they BOTH told me the fuel filter had been changed/checked, which it clearly had NOT!
Would it be crazy for me to consider that perhaps the profit/kick-back/commission earned adversely influenced the advice that they give to such a degree?
A week or so after receiving the initial LR quote of nearly €7´000, I decided to take it up with LR directly. With my iPhone in my pocket on video record, dirty old fuel filter in my bag and LR unaware the car was now repaired, I visited the LR dealership on the pretext that I wanted to book the car in for the repairs they diagnosed. Firstly though, I wanted to give them a little more rope to “hang themselves” with, so I asked to speak with the mechanic who inspected my car and diagnosed all the faults. When he arrived, together with the service reception manager (video cam on) l allowed them to rattle on, telling me how they had considered/checked everything, low pressure pump, high pressure pump, fuel filter, cooling system, differential, suspension etc, etc.
Then, after gently quizzing them a bit more and listening to their final confident assurances, I reached into my bag, pulled out the dirty old fuel filter, and placed it on the table in front of them. It was like time stood still for a few moments. But eventually, even faced with the knowledge that €60 fuel filter fixed the engine problem, with the knowledge that another garage said there was NOTHING wrong with my coolant system and the it cost me just €382 for the other garage to repair my car, they still couldn’t bring themselves to apologise. I heard excuse after excuse until the mechanic declared he had an urgent meeting to attend, and quickly disappeared. In the end I walked out, without receiving a single apology or attempt to explore my findings in any detail. Absolutely shocking!
For anybody that has read this rather long-winded sorry tale, I thank you and I feel the moral of the story is this... please do not ever trust LR, and always get a 2nd opinion!
So... now it’s my turn for some fun.... I’m soon to build a website/blog outlining my experience with the LR garage, including videos, photos and the email correspondence... Revenge will be sweet!!!
But it needed fixing, and suspecting (hoping) it might be a just a blocked fuel filter, I took it to a local indy garage (in La Campana, poligino) where I asked the Spanish owner to order a new fuel filter for me. The following day I left my car with him and several hours later he phoned me to come and collect it. When I arrived a very solemn looking owner told me "there is much wrong with your car" and that I need to take it to Land Rover to get everything fixed. I thanked him and asked how much I owed him for the new fuel filter, to which he replied "no charge, it's nothing". I’m aware those fuel filters cost aprox €60, so I offered again to pay him, but again he insisted that I didn't need to pay him, repeating "it was nothing". He then added that I should speak with his friend at the LR dealership and he would ensure I would even get his 5% discount. He even went as far as to phone his friend in LR for me (how nice). But not charging me made me a bit suspicious, although I figured that he will most likely be getting a referral kick-back from LR, which I’m sure he figured would cover his costs.
VERY worried about all the faults this guy warned me about, I wasted no time taking my car to the main Land Rover dealership here in Marbella for an initial inspection (Salamanca, San Pedro). I dropped my car off, and to cut a long story short I returned six hours later to be told by Jose Antonio in service reception that there was a long list of things that needed doing to fix the car. To my absolute horror, the total bill amounted to nearly €7000 to fix all its faults. There were four main areas of concern...
1) They advised me that the high-pressure fuel pump needs replacing to fix the engine problem.
2) My cooling system had two leaks in it and must be fixed as the car could easily overheat costing me €1000´s.
3) I had several components in my suspension that needed replacing, including something pneumatic which “could burst at any given moment”.
4) A bearing in the differential needed replacing (even though they later commented they hadn’t even test driven the car)
For the benefit of this experience and knowledge they charged me €120. But fortunately for me, I also have a bit of mechanical knowledge, as well as some basic understanding of body-language, waffle & when somebody is curiously over-selling a point. So over the next few days, I emailed LR, San Pedro (SALAMANCA) several times asking for further explanations and if they had checked other things in the fuel system, such as the low pressure fuel pump (rather than just choosing the most expensive). In writing they said that they were confident in their assessments and reading of error codes. In writing, I then also specifically asked them if they had checked the fuel filter, and in writing they said they had!
To cut a long story short, I smelt a rat. So I drove my car 30km to a small indy English owned garage (in Estapona) for a 2nd opinion on just the engine problem (however, wanting an unbiased assessment, I did NOT mention anything about my LR experience and their assessment). The garage put the car on their diagnostic computer, which threw up a fuel problem related error code. The mechanic simply suggested I come back when they had more time when they could change my fuel filter, to see if that fixes the problem. This gave me some hope, and in the meantime I was recommended to a another more local British owned indy garage in Marbella.
To cut a long story short, I took my car to the Marbella garage for a 3rd opinion (but again, I made no mention whatsoever about LR and their findings). Following their initial inspection, I booked my car in with my instructions to… 1) check/change the fuel filter, 2) check/fix the suspension, 3) check/test the coolant system.
Later that day I collected my car from the Marbella indy garage and was given the following report…
- The fuel filter had NOT been changed. In fact he said the filter was about as old as the car (seven years old) and he gave it to me after replacing it with a new one.
- He changed a single bush on one wishbone.
- He asked me “why did I ask him to check the coolant system, as he checked it thoroughly and there is nothing wrong with it”
It seems strange that two small separate independent garages would both immediately link the engine problem, to possibly a simple fuel filter. Yet Land Rover, San Pedro, with all their computers and expertise chose the €2´000 repair option. This experience has me now wondering about if garages “conspire together”.
Would it be crazy for me to consider, that perhaps LR and the original Spanish garage owner maybe have some kind of "deal" going on? For curiously, they BOTH told me the fuel filter had been changed/checked, which it clearly had NOT!
Would it be crazy for me to consider that perhaps the profit/kick-back/commission earned adversely influenced the advice that they give to such a degree?
A week or so after receiving the initial LR quote of nearly €7´000, I decided to take it up with LR directly. With my iPhone in my pocket on video record, dirty old fuel filter in my bag and LR unaware the car was now repaired, I visited the LR dealership on the pretext that I wanted to book the car in for the repairs they diagnosed. Firstly though, I wanted to give them a little more rope to “hang themselves” with, so I asked to speak with the mechanic who inspected my car and diagnosed all the faults. When he arrived, together with the service reception manager (video cam on) l allowed them to rattle on, telling me how they had considered/checked everything, low pressure pump, high pressure pump, fuel filter, cooling system, differential, suspension etc, etc.
Then, after gently quizzing them a bit more and listening to their final confident assurances, I reached into my bag, pulled out the dirty old fuel filter, and placed it on the table in front of them. It was like time stood still for a few moments. But eventually, even faced with the knowledge that €60 fuel filter fixed the engine problem, with the knowledge that another garage said there was NOTHING wrong with my coolant system and the it cost me just €382 for the other garage to repair my car, they still couldn’t bring themselves to apologise. I heard excuse after excuse until the mechanic declared he had an urgent meeting to attend, and quickly disappeared. In the end I walked out, without receiving a single apology or attempt to explore my findings in any detail. Absolutely shocking!
For anybody that has read this rather long-winded sorry tale, I thank you and I feel the moral of the story is this... please do not ever trust LR, and always get a 2nd opinion!
So... now it’s my turn for some fun.... I’m soon to build a website/blog outlining my experience with the LR garage, including videos, photos and the email correspondence... Revenge will be sweet!!!
#2
05-31-2015, 02:50 AM
Join Date: May 2015
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