McLaren Servicing - What a shambles....

McLaren Servicing - What a shambles....

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100 IAN

Original Poster:

1,091 posts

169 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
In my 2 1/2 years of owning a McLaren the dealer service capacity has gone from bad to worse....and is only getting worse...!

McLaren are fixated by the vanity of launching nearly 3 new cars each year but cannot see that their service capacity is currently at breaking point.

As of today 2 of their dealers are 'closed' (until further notice) as far as accepting additional cars in for repair work, and the others cannot even look at my car (which was recovered by McLaren Assist this morning with a suspension fault) for typically 3+ weeks.

This is the OFFICIAL POSITION of each dealer service department as of this morning -

ASCOT – Not accepting any breakdown work. Cars can be booked in for Service from 4th Sept
HATFIELD – Not accepting any breakdown work. Only got 2 ramps in temporary workshop until end of the year
BIRMINGHAM – Not able to do any service or breakdown work until tail end of Sept
BRISTOL – Can’t look at car for at least 2 weeks. Earliest service booking date 23rd
LEEDS – Only 1 ramp until June/July NEXT YEAR and primarily its to prep sales cars not to do service/repair work.
MANCHESTER – 3 weeks until they can look at any car taken to them
GLASGOW - 3 weeks until they would be able to look at car.

New cars are being delivered to customers weekly and additional new service capacity only consists of 4 extra ramps at HATFIELD when they move into their new premises at the end of the year, and LEEDS service centre when it opens officially but that's not until Jun/Jul 2019!!!!

McLaren have a MASSIVE problem with their own Dealer Service Capacity which is made worse by their steadfast refusal to support Independents who deny access to their diagnostic data, despite European law obliging them to do so. (Yes I know a couple of Indies advertise McLaren servicing but they are limited in what they are able to do because they cannot access full diagnostic data.)

Am I being unreasonable expecting my car to be at least looked at in less than 3x weeks? (plus additional time for any parts and repair work that may be necessary...)

This situation will only get worse unless McLaren wake up and properly address the problem.

anonymous-user

61 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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I have no idea how that compares to the likes of Lamborghini and Ferrari, but on the face of it it sounds crap.

After saying that, my local BMW dealer normally has a 1-2 week wait so maybe it’s par for the course with more exotic brands.

s2000db

1,199 posts

160 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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Park it on McLaren’s front lawn, with a big placard stuck on it...

Bet it’ll get fixed quick then... biggrin

Ferruccio

1,840 posts

126 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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If they really cared, they’d sort it out.

Nano2nd

3,426 posts

263 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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do you get a courtesy car while its broke?

isaldiri

20,224 posts

175 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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Unfortunately I can't say I'm surprised. Older cars are definitely lower priority and the dealerships are and have been busy fixing up faults with new cars that Woking seemingly chooses to release without too much care about quality control. It took almost 2 months for my car to even start to be looked at last year when it threw a problem and the year before 5 weeks to get booked in for a slightly early service as an issue had come out. I think in that 10 month period my car had spent longer in the dealership than with me...

mclaren hq know that service capacity is hugely stretched and already were told multiple times in 2015 by people at various levels it was insufficient even without the higher volume 570s entering the market. They clearly simply do not care about anything other than selling more new cars imo.

MOD500

2,686 posts

257 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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Sorry to hear of your problems. Is it not still the case that Mc has rule where dealer has 5 days (?) to look at car recovered and brought in by McLaren assist, so they 'have to' look at it within that time frame? Have you spoken to Mc client services also to express your disdain and see if they can assist the situation? Details here:
http://cars.mclaren.com/contact-us
Hope you get sorted asap.

anonymous-user

61 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
s2000db said:
Park it on McLaren’s front lawn, with a big placard stuck on it...

Bet it’ll get fixed quick then... biggrin
Just in front of the security booth!

Pothole

34,367 posts

289 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
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Do they have a twitter account? tweet them and copy in the Daily Mail motoring editor.

100 IAN

Original Poster:

1,091 posts

169 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
MOD500 said:
Sorry to hear of your problems. Is it not still the case that Mc has rule where dealer has 5 days (?) to look at car recovered and brought in by McLaren assist, so they 'have to' look at it within that time frame? Have you spoken to Mc client services also to express your disdain and see if they can assist the situation? Details here:
http://cars.mclaren.com/contact-us
Hope you get sorted asap.
Sorry there is no such 5 day policy and yes i've not only been in contact with Client Services but also personal email exchange with Mike Flewitt.

It really shouldn't be necessary for a simple maintenance issue to need the intervention of the company Chief Executive.

McLaren need to sort out the most basic of company issues otherwise they're simply not going to be able to sell their cars - who's going to buy a car they can't get serviced?

100 IAN

Original Poster:

1,091 posts

169 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
Nano2nd said:
do you get a courtesy car while its broke?
Officially yes, an Enterprise Rental car, but only for 2x days. Unofficially client services will *generally* extend it.

Look out for a very out-of-place car amongst the McLaren's at Beaulieu Super Car w/e on Sunday and probably the same the following weekend at the McLaren Owners Group BBQ get together..... rofl

RamboLambo

4,843 posts

177 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
Yep that's poor service and not acceptable but sadly its the same with BMW and Audi these days.
Lead time should be 3 - 5 days for volume brands let alone prestige

As owners we need to force McLarens hands to take some form of action on aftersales, whether that be more independent authorised repairers or their own aftersales operations funded by McLaren themselves.

I will add though that personally to date I may have been lucky and not really had an issue

Wacky Racer

38,972 posts

254 months

Friday 3rd August 2018
quotequote all
100 IAN said:
McLaren need to sort out the most basic of company issues otherwise they're simply not going to be able to sell their cars - who's going to buy a car they can't get serviced?
Plenty of people by the sound of it.

Bad show though. Hope you get sorted quickly.

marky1

1,087 posts

203 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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RamboLambo said:
Yep that's poor service and not acceptable but sadly its the same with BMW and Audi these days.
Lead time should be 3 - 5 days for volume brands let alone prestige

As owners we need to force McLarens hands to take some form of action on aftersales, whether that be more independent authorised repairers or their own aftersales operations funded by McLaren themselves.

I will add though that personally to date I may have been lucky and not really had an issue
What does "not really" mean out of interest? You've had an issue but can't quite build up the courage to mention it through fear of saying something negative?

DeltaOne

560 posts

220 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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My most amusing McL service story was a few years ago now on my first 12C.

The car needed to go back to MTC for something pretty minor. No problem there. I live about 20 mins from MTC so you’d have thought it would be simple enough. Nope. Had to go back to the supplying dealer (Manchester) on a transporter, then to MTC, then back to Manchester, and then to me.

Efficient eh.

MrVert

4,427 posts

246 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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For comparison....over three years of Ferrari ownership I had two small issues. Both times the car was collected within a couple of days on a car transporter, issue fixed and car delivered back to me within a week.

Servicing bookings were on approx two week notice, again car collected via transporter from me (East Mids), taken to JCT in Leeds and bought back to me within a couple of days.

Hearing stories like this from Mc owners who are clearly aggrieved is a real shame. When you’re spending this sort of money on any purchase the ownership experience needs to feel ‘special’ and that includes the customer service.

Clearly McLaren just do not get this.

w11dys

21 posts

92 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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To add some perspective, I had mine serviced at Leeds with absolutely no drama or issues with booking in when I wanted and returned to me within 48 hrs, could have actually collected the afternoon before had I been around to get it. Yes only 1 bay at present but 6 in total when new facility built, which should be well before June/July next year.

I agree totally it is frustrating when a car has issues and you want to drive it or have trips planned and so want it repaired and back on road quickly.

alephnull

358 posts

182 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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Ha! For a Ferrari specialist I'd be happy if they could look at it in 4 weeks! I'm hearing of 6-8 week waits. Two weeks doesn't sound bad at all to me...

Glasgowrob

3,264 posts

128 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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its not just supercars,

vauxhall needed 5 weeks to book my vivaro in for a egr fault

RamboLambo

4,843 posts

177 months

Saturday 4th August 2018
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marky1 said:
What does "not really" mean out of interest? You've had an issue but can't quite build up the courage to mention it through fear of saying something negative?
Replacement key under warranty took 3 days to come through when I would of expected it overnight. Like I say not really an issue as they lent me a 720S for 3 days