Kwik-Fit ruined my car's handling!

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
21

 Kwik-Fit was sold to Ford at one stage, about the time KF started to go down the pan (IMHO).

 

Having heard this lot - mty KF story is

 

Handbrake cable snapped on my immaculate sapphire red Cavalier - I live near Longbridge (Brum) worked north Wolverhampton.

Booked it in for emergency repair at KF (No choice, no time), cost should have been £45

On arrival at work (9am) had call from KF - shocks worn, brake pads worn, etc. etc. cost £400. I asked for brake cables to be fixed and would book in for rest of work at later date. KF refused on basis that car is “dangerous to drive”.

I called thier call centre to complain, they backed up the local branch.

I got time off work, travelled back to collect car. They had parked it facing down steep slope, in 1st gear, with the steering turned to the left. 6 inches away from the front passenger door was a jagged piece of metal sticking-out of a wrecked car that was parked next to mine. NOTE THE ORIGINAL FAULT! Fortunatley I had presence of mind to hold car on footbrake while I took it out of gear and turned the steering …

Took car to Halfords Selly Oak (Sadly no longer with us) for cable replacement and brake/shocks etc and full safety check. No faults found (surprise surprise), £45 for handbrake cable.

Written complaints to Kwik Fit produced an off-hand response.

I haven’t been back.

It was the second issue I had had with that branch - they had MOT’d and failed a 1973 Escort that I had - on emissions. The discussion that took place after this was “interesting” (and very public) and resulted in a pass certificate being issued. The mechanic there had offered my wife £80 for the car as an “MOT Failure”. Draw your own conclusions - I did, and said so to the manager.

Would I trust them to do MOT’s - NO

Would I trust them to swop Summer-Winter-Summer tyres on my rims - NO

Had they ever been any good - emphatically YES, in earlier years I had had brilliant service from several of thier branches, no problem.

Does it still rankle even after all this time? Trying to put a fast one over on my wife? - Judge for yourself…

 

22

 Hi Retrostate

I see later in this thread you have had the car done already - pleased it has improved it so much. If you need it done again you might try Imperial Tyres in Swindon. I have no connection with them but have only had excellent service and support from them when they set-up my 5 and when they’ve done other work. Reasonable pricing aswell.

Just to add to the K-F dossier, approx 15 years ago I had  an ‘82 Cavalier needing new front tyres. I went to K-F for a couple of Michelins (highh roller y’see!) As part of the arrangement I had the tracking done also. Car seemed ok afterwards but within one month (!) it had developed a completely bald strip approx 1.1/2" wide along the inside edge of the O/S tyre. Clearly bad tracking - which somehow didn’t show up in the handling. I put that down to the fundamentally dead handling of the dear old Cav but that’s another story! I contacted K-F and they suggested that it was nothing to do with them as I could have clouted a kerb on the way out! Of course, I hadn’t and pot-holes just weren’t such a feature back in those days. Head office, as was mentioned elsewhere in this thread simply backed-up the local branch management and stood by them. After a bit of to and fro the best they came up with was if I cared to get a new tyre from them, they would do a free alignment for me! I went elsewhere and have done to this day only using K-F to benchmark prices, unless I have no other choice eg my daughters’ Seicentoes use a tyre size that only Pirelli and some “economy brand” supply so we can be seriously caught out with availability from time to time.

Strangely enough, the one time that I was forced to use K-F, for said Seicento, I had absolutely no probs at all. This was however, a branch that had been a small independant in Swindon, taken over by K-F - maybe the old staff was still there?

cheers all!

Rick