PDI check, what a laugh!

[MikeB2]

Picked up my new Yaris Cross Design on Friday evening. It was pouring with rain so didn't have a good look around the car and plus it was getting dark. However on the journey back home the steering felt incredibly light. I went in to the menu to check the tyre pressures and was amazed that they were all showing a staggering 48psi.

I know from experience that the tyres are always over inflated for delivery but surely this should have been picked up by the dealers when they took delivery? Not only that but I had paid extra for the Essential Protection Pack which consists of a boot liner, rear seat protectors and rubber floor mats. Guess what? Yes they were not fitted in the car. I telephoned the dealers and they said that the pack is factory fitted in France. I don't know why the dealers didn't pick this up either. They told me that they will order the parts for me and will call me when they arrive so that they can fit them, another 40 mile round trip for me. My other gripe is that when I received the invoice for me to sign a front and rear dash cam was showing at a cost of £490. I had cancelled them ages ago because I wanted a more up to date system. The dealers response was that they had been fitted at the factory and they couldn't take them out. I responded by saying that I had already purchased a new system and as I had cancelled the dash cams before delivery then I shouldn't have to have them. After speaking to the General Manager he said that they could offer me a discount if they remained in place, I was getting a little bit "cross" by now (pardon the pun.) I said that I would not sign the paperwork and would cancel the order. Well that certainly shook him and he swiftly came back with a gesture of goodwill offer he would get them removed if I signed the paperwork. I replied that as long as I had written proof that they would be removed at no charge to me then I would sign the paperwork. I received an email within minutes confirming this. I have used the same dealership for the last 4 Yaris/Cross that I have had from new but I think this will be the last time I deal with them because every car I have purchased I have had issues with them.

 

[Jimota]

You did the right thing.  If dealers suspect you are mild mannered, accept their explanations without question or naive, they will take you to the cleaners.

[SinglePointSafety]

Perhaps we got lucky with our YC (although my general demeanour in the showroom makes it quite plain that I 'pay attention to detail' and won't ever back down). Our YC had everything fitted that should have been, including our own Nextbase Dashcam with its approved hardwire kit which they agreed to do as part of the deal. The tyres were 'only' 35 psi in each, so acceptable but not 10/10

But there are worse PDIs: a colleague went to collect a new Volvo XC40 a few years back. Arrives at showroom early afternoon, "here's your car, would you like to inspect it and we'll run through the features etc". "Er, nice car, but that's not mine, it's the wrong spec". Glum faces all round.... Short version of the story, a previous customer from that morning was now the proud owner of a very high-spec car....

Another colleague went to collect a VW Golf with DSG gearbox. The big reveal in the showroom, remove the cover, ta-da! "Um, ah, why is there a manual gear lever and 3 pedals in my DSG car?" Big argument, you didn't order an auto, of course I did, colleague pointed out that his order included the 'DSG' description, but the underling who filled out the actual VW order form (evidently an agency temp) neglected to include that vital descriptor

[Graham47]

One new car was supplied with different number plates front and back, one digit out !
As I always approached the car from the rear, parked on my drive, it was some time before I spotted the fault !

[Bernard Foy]

8 minutes ago, Graham47 said:

One new car was supplied with different number plates front and back, one digit out !
As I always approached the car from the rear, parked on my drive, it was some time before I spotted the fault !

Lucky you weren't stopped by the police 😂 

[Mjolinor]

8 minutes ago, Bernard Foy said:

Lucky you weren't stopped by the police 😂 

I am not sure policemen can read now. 🙂

[SinglePointSafety]

I think the police would have appreciated the humorous side of the situation! - especially when you see the reality TV shows and what they encounter

Had a car repaired once after being rear-ended by a drunk driver, the repairer provided a nice new plate (of course) in the process but, unfortunately, it didn't match the front. Mrs SPS was with me and she noticed it immediately, it took me a few seconds to realise what she was on about (doh!)

[Bernard Foy]

Collected my new Opel Vectra from the dealership and on the way home the charging light came on so I pulled into nearby petrol station and lifted the bonnet, the belt had come off the pully .😡

[Primus1]

Read a story once where two apprentice mechanics were carrying out pdi,s on two rover sd1s, both went on a test drive line astern the leading car had to do an emergency stop, and, although brakes used to have to be bedded in , they did an excellent job of stopping the car, with the resulting following rover rear ending the leading car..both written off..

[SinglePointSafety]

The Yaris Cross is my 3rd (but non-consecutive) Toyota and I recall some years back a Toyota service person telling me that basically the PDI consisted of removing the 'transit wax' (as it was back then), checking the tyres and that was it - the cars arrived at the dealership with practically zero faults/issues. Back in the last millenium this certainly wasn't the case for all manufacturers - find an older person and ask them about 'British Leyland' cars and prepare to be regaled with many sordid tales of woe and misery

[Dexter290]

Back when I was a callow youth in the early 70's I worked during school holidays at the local Rootes/Chrysler main dealer. Used to help doing PDI's. Best one was a Hillman Hunter estate in beige. Having cleaned the wax off, found four different shades of paint on various panels, leaks around front and rear windows, two doors wouldn't lock and one that opened and refused to shut again. We didn't bother completing the PDI, it went back on the next transporter.

[Cyker]

It does seem the PDI has been neglected a bit - Mine came with tyres at 60 psi and lots of part number QR code stickers were still stuck everywhere, e.g. the seat belt latches, the mirror, the cup holder base, the arm rest etc..

It's one of the many things that reinforced my view that buying cars new isn't worth the extra money, as I wasn't taken care of any better than when buying used from a third-party dealer...

I'm not really one for much fanfare, but I had expected it to feel less like picking up a missed-delivery parcel from a courier depot than it did...

[Roy124]

My final pre-Toyota was a 10 year old Mercedes E class bought from Fort Autos in Birmingham.

My home garage had a long chat with the salesman.   After all he was going to service it.  When we went the forecourt was a nightmare.   We managed to find somewhere to park our rusty one.

Inside was a hangar sized garage with just about any car you might consider including a Bentley. 

The traffic was horrendous so we didn't bother with a test drive, we got the salesman to demo it.  Oddly getting Mrs Roy to so the test often wrong foots them.   This did too.

[Rhymes with Paris]

17 minutes ago, Dexter290 said:

Back when I was a callow youth in the early 70's I worked during school holidays at the local Rootes/Chrysler main dealer. Used to help doing PDI's. Best one was a Hillman Hunter estate in beige. Having cleaned the wax off, found four different shades of paint on various panels, leaks around front and rear windows, two doors wouldn't lock and one that opened and refused to shut again. We didn't bother completing the PDI, it went back on the next transporter.

Similar, before embarking on my illustrious career ln construction, I too had a fill in job as a yoof de waxing and finishing the bodywork on new cars in the early 70s.

This was in the local jaguar/triumph main dealers, after destroying the first pair of Wiper Blades with the steam wand you certainly get pretty good at removing wiper arms.

This was a subterranean job in the basement with an abandon hope all ye who enter here notice, with a steep ramp out to where the real people were.

I so longed to drive those XJ6s and stags, even for a few yards, but alas was not trusted to do so, being so young and careless, so older people in white overalls came down to shift them up to the showroom, by 'eck how they used to screech those cars up that ramp.

IIRC in those days it was British Leyland who had those marques, so maybe it didn't matter what was done at the dealers,as in you can put lipstick on a pig , but it doesn't make it Marilyn Monroe.

 

[bathtub tom]

I had an old Fiat 850 that never had the front badging. On a trip to Spain you could see them piled high in scrapyards with Seat badging. I negotiated a bottle of wine to swap for a Badge. Now all RHD fiat 850s were made by Seat and there was a label in the engine compartment confirming this. Mine now had a Seat Badge on the front and Fiat everywhere else. It didn't matter, unless you read the front Badge closely. Unfortunately, one day a car pulled out in front of it and got T-boned. The other driver was annoyed enough for being so stupid, but he was inconsolable over whether it was a Fiat or Seat. It got written off!

[BerksBrad]

3 hours ago, Cyker said:

It does seem the PDI has been neglected a bit - Mine came with tyres at 60 psi and lots of part number QR code stickers were still stuck everywhere, e.g. the seat belt latches, the mirror, the cup holder base, the arm rest etc..

It's one of the many things that reinforced my view that buying cars new isn't worth the extra money, as I wasn't taken care of any better than when buying used from a third-party dealer...

I'm not really one for much fanfare, but I had expected it to feel less like picking up a missed-delivery parcel from a courier depot than it did...

Sounds like the movie Virtual Nightmare (2000)...

[Jimota]

20 hours ago, Graham47 said:

One new car was supplied with different number plates front and back, one digit out !
As I always approached the car from the rear, parked on my drive, it was some time before I spotted the fault !

That reminds me of a similar situation when a Fiat owner traded in his car after owning it for 3 years.  It was only at the point of the changeover the car dealership pointed out that the front and rear plates didn’t match.

[Graham47]

Funnily enough…mine was a Fiat too !

[SinglePointSafety]

23 hours ago, Dexter290 said:

Back when I was a callow youth in the early 70's I worked during school holidays at the local Rootes/Chrysler main dealer. Used to help doing PDI's. Best one was a Hillman Hunter estate in beige. Having cleaned the wax off, found four different shades of paint on various panels, leaks around front and rear windows, two doors wouldn't lock and one that opened and refused to shut again. We didn't bother completing the PDI, it went back on the next transporter.

Totally believable up until the last sentence: any 'real' dealer would just have sold it and then refused to rectify the faults..... 😁🚙    IIRC consumer protection back then was somewhat lax!

Nice one Dexter! Probably a great holiday job eh?

[anchorman]

I was at a major Toyota dealer in Derby the other day and every single one of the numerous new cars outside had the number plate out of kilter.  That’s not just spotty Derek who fitted them but any other person working there that can’t see it or do anything about it.  Perhaps letting half of the over inflated tyres down on one side would level it up.  I presume the Toyota zone manager either doesn’t visit or he/she has got one leg shorter than the other.  It’s not just about “units”, these are customers cars.  I must stress that not all dealers are like this, some take pride in their work.  

[RickyC]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:31 PM, bathtub tom said:

I had an old Fiat 850 that never had the front badging. On a trip to Spain you could see them piled high in scrapyards with Seat badging. I negotiated a bottle of wine to swap for a badge. Now all RHD fiat 850s were made by Seat and there was a label in the engine compartment confirming this. Mine now had a Seat badge on the front and Fiat everywhere else. It didn't matter, unless you read the front badge closely. Unfortunately, one day a car pulled out in front of it and got T-boned. The other driver was annoyed enough for being so stupid, but he was inconsolable over whether it was a Fiat or Seat. It got written off!

Wow what a monster car !!!! It was my first car.  I leaned driving with a Fiat 850 and I used it to get my driving licence.

30 roaring horses on your back and Porsche 911 performances ( as fuel consumpion 😉)

 

[Dexter290]

16 hours ago, SinglePointSafety said:

Totally believable up until the last sentence: any 'real' dealer would just have sold it and then refused to rectify the faults..... 😁🚙    IIRC consumer protection back then was somewhat lax!

Nice one Dexter! Probably a great holiday job eh?

They had a contract with a big construction company to supply lots of cars and they would take cars with mismatched paint, but the sales manager thought even they would refuse this one.

Good holiday job, worked in all the different departments. Had a local hairdresser who always bought her cars from them and insisted on whatever was top of the range, on one occasion that being the Hunter GLS with the Holbay head and twin 40DCOE Webers. About once a month she would drop it off complaining it wasn't running well, she lived about a mile down the road and her shop was just round the corner from the dealer. My job was to stick a couple of gallons in it and run it up and down the town bypass without getting done for speeding to clean out its pipes. Never did find out what they charged her for that.