Gregor
19-11-2001, 14:58
I've had a history of shodiness from various SEAT dealers in Scotland, oddly enough - they were all Arnold Clark.
After the disaster of my driver's steering console needing replaced and the eight week wait to get it done, I simply couldn't stand taking my pride and joy back to Arnold Clark, Sighthill.
So ... I looked for dealers further afield, asking SEAT Customer Care if they had feedback on their Scottish dealers and if they could recommend one to me.
They couldn't however, it was pointed out to me that a technician at Glenvarigill had just been awarded Technician of the year or something, so I gave them a phone.
I think I was on the phone to these guys for about fifteen minutes ; I explained my problem and he was sympathetic ... gallantly refusing to put the boot into Arnold Clarke but also mentioning that their waiting list for services was quite large and I wasn't the only person driving up from Edinburgh for such work.
So I arranged to take a day off work (if anything, the drive would be fun ... I normally only have time at the weekends to rack up the mileage and we all know how busy the roads are then, don't we?)
We also discussed the news of the V6 Cupra (this was quite a few months ago) and whether SEAT UK were going to bring it over ; he'd already enquired about this himself and received a poor response, hinting himself that SEAT UK were generally ignorant to the market that they'd managed to make for themselves in the UK. He hoped they would change their approach.
So, four weeks later, I drove the car up for a service. I sat around in the dealer ship, slavoured over a very nice jet-black Ibiza Cupra for a while and some area manager from the Edinburgh branch (Ferrari, Masserati and Porsche) had driven up in a spanking new Masserati, sat outside for ten minutes are brrrrrrmmed the engine while the entire place switched off for ten minutes to listen and drink in the vision on the forecourt.
Two hours later, my pride and joy was sitting on the forecourt, clean, polished, valeted - the service history was stamped, my invoiced explained to me and I left, a very happy man indeed ... the engine felt a lot happier (probably due to the petrol treatment, but I could be wrong).
If you live in the East of Scotland, give these guys a shot.
After the disaster of my driver's steering console needing replaced and the eight week wait to get it done, I simply couldn't stand taking my pride and joy back to Arnold Clark, Sighthill.
So ... I looked for dealers further afield, asking SEAT Customer Care if they had feedback on their Scottish dealers and if they could recommend one to me.
They couldn't however, it was pointed out to me that a technician at Glenvarigill had just been awarded Technician of the year or something, so I gave them a phone.
I think I was on the phone to these guys for about fifteen minutes ; I explained my problem and he was sympathetic ... gallantly refusing to put the boot into Arnold Clarke but also mentioning that their waiting list for services was quite large and I wasn't the only person driving up from Edinburgh for such work.
So I arranged to take a day off work (if anything, the drive would be fun ... I normally only have time at the weekends to rack up the mileage and we all know how busy the roads are then, don't we?)
We also discussed the news of the V6 Cupra (this was quite a few months ago) and whether SEAT UK were going to bring it over ; he'd already enquired about this himself and received a poor response, hinting himself that SEAT UK were generally ignorant to the market that they'd managed to make for themselves in the UK. He hoped they would change their approach.
So, four weeks later, I drove the car up for a service. I sat around in the dealer ship, slavoured over a very nice jet-black Ibiza Cupra for a while and some area manager from the Edinburgh branch (Ferrari, Masserati and Porsche) had driven up in a spanking new Masserati, sat outside for ten minutes are brrrrrrmmed the engine while the entire place switched off for ten minutes to listen and drink in the vision on the forecourt.
Two hours later, my pride and joy was sitting on the forecourt, clean, polished, valeted - the service history was stamped, my invoiced explained to me and I left, a very happy man indeed ... the engine felt a lot happier (probably due to the petrol treatment, but I could be wrong).
If you live in the East of Scotland, give these guys a shot.