This isn’t a witch hunt. These are the factual accounts of those of us that have actually used MX5 City. In my case they weren’t in the least bit interested in resolving my issues.
In my earlier response I’d already stated that they had been involved in helping Practical Classics in restoring an early MX5, but in many of our factual accounts their service appears to have gone downhill since they moved location.
I visited PR-Yorkshire and was impressed with a paint job they’d done for him but having seen the new workshop, I doubt you could guarantee the quality these days.
Besides, if the thread was locked would we have to run it by you to request it to be unlocked again ?
Well all will be revealed tomorrow afternoon when I go to pick it up again.
I mentioned in a previous post that I had been very explicit with them with regards to what I expect, my message to them was as follows;
'Hi *******,
Just want to check in and see how things are coming along with my car ahead of me collecting it on Friday.
I’m expecting that all over spray is removed/cleaned off (wheels, body panels, insides of panel gaps, all painted areas), the interior to be as spotless as it was when I dropped it off, the side skirts properly secured, any missed patches underneath are given another light coating (I spotted several, particularly around the rear subframe), the jacking points are smoothed over and retreated (from where the pinch weld Jack was in place), and I’d like the door shuts to be cleaned of all waxoyl too, there was quite a lot of overspray around the hinges and such and it looked really unsightly.
Plus anything else you spot… Ultimately I just expect it to come back to be as clean and well presented as it was when I dropped off in addition to a thoroughly well done undersealing job, and I will address the paint chip inside the rear passenger wheel arch myself, as well as the paint damage to the brake calipers, I’ll have to repaint them completely I think.
Thanks, and please let me know if theres any issues at all, I don’t want any surprises.
Chris’
There should be absolutely no doubt as to my expectations tomorrow… So we’ll know soon enough and this will make or break my relationship with them for evermore after this.
Well done Chris , got to speak up these day’s there’s to much grab your money and run , good service with a lot of things seems to have gone out the window nowadays , hope all’s well tomorrow for you.
I couldn’t agree more with the last post, why your even in this predicament baffles me.
A week after I had my “mx5 city experience” I took my T5 to a reputable company in Huddersfield for the roof wrap removing and renewing as i felt it needed freshening up,
Upon collection the job was in my opinion not good, the new wrap had holes, small creases, bubbling in places and you could see where all the old adhesive hadn’t been cleaned off before fitting the new one.
On airing my concerns with the shop manager I was told I was too picky and asked
who’s going to see it?
Well who’s going to see it?
I loved that one. Kev.
I deleted my 2 posts in this thread last week, but even they were simply regarding negotiation of discount due to disappointing results, and a seeming failure of the attitude test by the company involved.
I felt the post had all the ingredients, which I’ve seen happen many times in car forums, of going rather toxic with the potential of having to be deleted.
Certainly, over 40-odd years of both having had trades issues with interior renovations ( especially a well known kitchen company) and numerous Mx5 restorations most of which went well and some not so, it’s always been the case that some reparation was agreed just through having a coffee, sitting down as adults, and ensuring I saw the other’s point of view while sticking to my own. Did not always “win”, but usually a solution was found.
That’s just the way life goes.
However, I still hope…Chris gets his car back as he should have the first time, and more attention to detail has been applied plus I still hold the view that some token amount of bill discount is agreed in good faith It’s only fair, good for business and reputation, and good for the client.
Only last week, we had a new Combi boiler installed. The guy has worked for us before and hi work is 1st Class. Only htis time, I smelled a rodent price wise from the boiler purchase price. We only need a 35KW, I knew it was to be a run of mill well known brand, and he required £1,350.00 to order it. SWMBO did this when I was out. I thought not much about it until I looked up it’s specs out of casual interest only to discover the general online prices hovered around £780.00 incl VAT with fitting kits around £110.00.
In the event, no fitting kits were even needed…just a couple of short copper pipes which he had in the van as cut-offs.
His father was with him as a (retired plumber)second man that day.
We used to deal with him. Job was done perfectly in 3 hours.
Come fitting and pay-day for labour ( another £350.00) I took him to my laptop in the kitchen and told him what I’d found.
He knows he still has a fair bit of work to do here in the Spring by the way. Suffice to say…labour was waived to £50.00 quid. All I said was " Guys…best I leave the kitchen so you can chat to each other". I’ve been loyal to you two for years. Wife & I deliberately left the house for a half hour to let him stew and put pressure on himself. His argument was with himself, not us. Works a treat that does.
Well here is the end result of over a week’s work and £750 ex. VAT.
There’s still a lot of the waxoyl down the side skirts, the sills look like dog s***, and I’m eagerly looking forward to repainting my brake calipers that they oh so thoughtfully retouched in red paint that’s not even the same shade of red.
However the interior is clean, silver lining and all that
It was also blindingly obvious that someone has been driving my car while in their possession… When I collected it the car was up on the ramp as I requested so I could inspect it underneath. I would expect the engine to be luke-warm at best if it had been moved around the yard, however the gearbox was also quite warm/hot… I know for a fact that the back of the transmission at the furthest point away from the engine would not be warm unless the car had been driven, not at this time of year anyway.
Further to that when I went earlier on and I raised the issues above they said that the waxoyl on the bodywork will come off with traffic film remover and I asked for some of this so I can finish cleaning it up myself over the weekend… While I was waiting in the workshop for them find me some, the atmosphere with the workshop guys was particularly frosty where it usually isn’t, at all, and my overall impression of the workshop guys is that they actually do not give a s*** in any respect whatsoever and despite having had the car over a week have still failed to deliver what I expected as outlined in my message sent to them on Tuesday. Further to this they were pratting about in the workshop, one of them (the guy that worked on my car) was having a rant about his missus… Unprofessional is an understatement.
This isn’t so much about the poor workmanship anymore, it’s more about the fact that the owner(s) clearly haven’t held the moron in the workshop to account and looked over it themselves.
I haven’t bothered to argue with them about the price or anything, I’d rather take this as a lesson and go elsewhere in future - so yes, I said this would make or break my relationship with them… Here we are, I wish them all the best but I won’t be going back. Based on the quality of this work, they should wear a mask and a striped jumper.
So with that, can you all help me to find another good garage within 50 miles of West Yorkshire (WF post code) that actually do care and treat paying customers cars as they do their own, based on your own experiences?
I wish I’d have listened to the past experiences noted on here really, this is the first time they’ve let me down, and they’ve done that in spectacular fashion.
To the person that referred to this as a ‘witch hunt’… Take your car there and pay them your money… Report back and let me know if you feel the same afterwards
Many thanks for the update.
Pretty much stuck for words really.
Can’t quite see but looks like they haven’t even done the sills properly.
I appreciate you just wanted the problem to go away, but personally I would have told them exactly what I thought, read recent reviews on your work and demanded a discount then paid and drove off into the sunset . But that’s just me.
I think any one who reads this post will form their own opinion and look elsewhere for the future.
Chris, That is still not good. When I spoke to JR Classics about treating the areas that MX5 City missed on my car they said that this was a familiar story and have had a number of cars through like this. I will have a better idea as to how much they charge for touching up and treating the missed areas in January. They also carryout welding and body repairs.
Certainly looks like the sill covers need to come back off and the bottom sill seam needs cleaning, derusting and treating. As I have said before i would also look behind the wheel arch liners, particularly up towards the door pillar and around the side indicator repeaters.
For mechanical repairs Roddisons are only just down the M1.
Hi Chris. I am very sorry to read that things weren’t sorted to your satisfaction.
Thank you for taking the time to share this painful matter in such a balanced manner. Take comfort from the fact that you might save someone else from going through a similar experience.
I do hope that you manage to find an alternative place to get your pride and joy looked after properly in the future.
Cheers,
Guy
To my eyes, it appears rust has been deliberately sealed in with “Black Nasty” of some sort.
In short, it’ll all erupt in no time…say 6 months to a year. Looks to me the sills need stripped, bare-metalled, repaired if required, and properly re-treated with converters. I’d be tempted to go inside the sill sections too tbh.
The diff has over spray as well, but the shocks cap it all for me. Utter disgrace.
Otherwise, Chris might as well have set fire to that 4 figure sum in his back garden.
It’s all so bad, it’s bizarre. A demented chimp on crack would have done better.
Agree entirely.
I know Chris wants to put it to bed, but I couldn’t to be honest.
I had my ridge tiles done this year and was quoted £600 for 2 days work for 2 men.
The job was completed to a satisfactory standard in 5 hours!
I paid but disputed the overall labour cost and he refunded me a fair mutual amount.
These companies need good reviews to survive these days.
Yes I’m sure that’s not the product, never mind the procedure anyone wants blathering all over the underside of any vehicle,
Just looks like they’ve gone rouge with a old school shutz gun.
As for hiding all the alignment bolts and running gear under the stuff?
I’d be fuming as I’m sure anybody how has a clue would.
Nightmare,Good luck Chris.
I know where you are coming from. I found an excellent roofing chap, done me three jobs now, no nonsense, straight forward pricing and goes above and beyond to satisfy you. Even takes pictures to show his work. In turn I have recommended him to others, he’s had loads of work around our way, my son has paid him around £2.5k alone for roofing work and his neighbour around £900.
Do a good job at a fair price and you won’t go short of work.
I hate to say, but that does not look a good job especially the sills. It sounds like there is a toxic atmosphere at MX5 City.
It is a shame how the standards of trusted garages can change over time depending on who is managing the staff and who is working there. I had a trusted garage run by a mountain biking friend of mine. After suffering a serious debilitating illness his son took over running the garage and the standard of workmanship deteriorated to appalling and in one case left my wife’s car (Vauxhall Astra) in a pretty dangerous condition. After having the UJ on the steering column repaired there, I was driving the car when the large plastic trim cover fitted to the underside of steering column in the footwell dropped down and trapped my feet on the pedals! Instead of replacing the proper fasteners which they had broke/lost they had used a combination of a couple of tie-wraps and wedging to hold it in place. Never went back.
If you cannot get MX5 City to sort out the sills I would be tempted to redo them myself, as access should be reasonable and the job relatively easy to do. Having done them you will have more cause to be confident in the protection of your car.
Also noticed earlier that the engine mount access cover is missing… I’m waiting for them to explain this.
Does anyone know where I can buy one? I assume they’ve snapped it while taking it off… Easily done but I’d expect them to replace it.
I’ve ordered some waxoyl and I’ll be giving it a once over next weekend as well as a full detailing.
I’m done - I won’t be going back and I’d advise anyone else to avoid them too. I’ll put it down to a life lesson and that’s it. The loss of business from me and everyone else in the long run will hurt them more than any partial refund would benefit me right now.
And besides, it’s not about the money for me, it’s actually the least of my issues - I wanted a job well done and nothing more. They’ve failed to deliver this so that’s it - I won’t be seeing them again.
I hope they stumble across this thread too - maybe they’ll consider licking the staff into line going forward… Too late for me though.
. But that’s just me.
