Had the Toyota Vigo in for a 20,000 km service. However, as it was almost 18 months old, it was booked as a 30,000 km service. When questioned, apparently Toyota has a 10,000km/6 month warranty period between services, whichever comes sooner. Which means, I will only get the free labour if it is within a 30 month period from new EVEN IF the truck has done less than 50,000 km.
Bit of a rip-off in my opinion.
Right.
Had the Toyota Vigo in for a 20,000 km service. However, as it was almost 18 months old, it was booked as a 30,000 km service. When questioned, apparently Toyota has a 10,000km/6 month warranty period between services, whichever comes sooner. Which means, I will only get the free labour if it is within a 30 month period from new EVEN IF the truck has done less than 50,000 km.
Bit of a rip-off in my opinion.
Right.
Aren't all car warranties in all Countries like this? Seems the norm to me, and not unreasonable
Had the Toyota Vigo in for a 20,000 km service. However, as it was almost 18 months old, it was booked as a 30,000 km service. When questioned, apparently Toyota has a 10,000km/6 month warranty period between services, whichever comes sooner. Which means, I will only get the free labour if it is within a 30 month period from new EVEN IF the truck has done less than 50,000 km.
Bit of a rip-off in my opinion.
Right.
Aren't all car warranties in all Countries like this? Seems the norm to me, and not unreasonable
Understand the 'either - or' clause, just annoyed that the time frame given is only 6 months between services. Would have expected a wee bit more. Also, wasn't it either a certain *total* mileage (as in 50,000 km) or *total* time (as in 3 years)?
Don't have a problem forking out for labour charges here, doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Can live with that, but...
Coming from European cars, where the servicing schedule was based on mileage, certain items would be due for change at a particular point (Say spark plugs at 10,000 km, timing belt at 50,000 km as an example). By having a 20,000 km service booked as a 30,000 service would this mean that certain mileage based items would either not be changed (by jumping the interval) or would subsequently further down the line be assumed that it would have been changed though in actual fact it had not been done at all?
Right.
Rant over.
I guess that much depends on the quality of the service that you are being offered.
I can give two differing examples from personal experience.
In 2001, we bought a Honda Civic VTi - brand new from Honda in Petchaburi. (The Hua Hin Dealership had not opened at that time). The car has now done approx 200,000km and has been religiously serviced according to the book - i.e. every 6 months or so many km (whatever has come sooner). When Honda opened in Hua Hin we continued to service the car there.
They have kept very accurate records of the vehicle and all parts that should have been replaced have been replaced. I'm always offered the old parts that have been replaced after the service.
We have never had any untoward problems at all, and the car still performs well. I DO expect to start replacing some major items on it - after all, despite being in top condition, it is still now an OLD car.
My next NEW car will be another Honda.
We also bought a Chevrolet Colorado LTI 3l turbo, 4WD, 4 door truck about 4 years ago, primarily to tow a boat and pick up customers. This was bought second hand from a good friend who had the thing from new. It had only done 38,000km. The truck itself is brilliant, I love it. It will go anywhere and has generally been faultless.
HOWEVER - the service at Chevrolet in Hua Hin is absolute shite. I am a mechanical engineer by profession and many years ago thought nothing of servicing and rebuilding cars in England. I just don't have the time or inclination to do it any more. I can always tell when the thing has not been properly serviced and have caught the dealer out twice as having claimed to have changed oil when they have been nowhere near the dipstick, let alone the sump drainage plug.
I like Chevies, but I won't be getting another one - at least NOT from the Hua Hin dealers.
prcscct wrote:Re: Timing belts. Do they still replace those? I thought manufacturers/technology have progressed now to a permanent chain type belt. Pete
A lot of modern engines use belts. In fact, the development has been away from chains, especially with overhead cam engines. Chains are not free of drawbacks in several ways. There is much more inertia with a chain and its associated heavy toothed gears or sprockets, which leads to more power to drive it, and more noise.
Most also require a heavy tensioning device to maintain accurate valve timing.
Synthetic belts will also stretch, which is one reason they have a limited service life, but not to the extent of a metal chain.
It is important to follow the engine manufactures recommended change interval with belts, as a breakage will lead to very expensive damage if they break.
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
The Vigo has a timing belt. As did my old Ford Escort. My Saab had a timing chain and a balance shaft chain. X-trail similar to the Saab.
Incidentally, the service for the X-trail is warrantied for 20,000 km or one year even though the service interval itself is 10,000 km between services.
I've had a Vigo for about seven years and as I'm away working a lot, it only does about 8-10,000 km a year so I've always just put it into Toyota for a service once a year. I use Toyota Cha Am as that's where I bought it from (it was the nearest dealer then,) and have never had a problem. I always wait whilst it's being serviced as they have a comfortable area with internet and tea and coffee and you can watch them at work through a window into the service area.
Okay, maybe it's me just nitpicking. I guess what started me off was that they didn't call it as it was. To me, A 20,000 km service is done at the actual mileage and recorded as such, not a perceived mileage based on time (in this case an interval of 6 months), which is then recorded as that perceived mileage (i.e. 30,000 km instead of 20,000 km).
As I have said before, labour does not cost an arm and a leg. If the time clause for the free labour has expired, I am not bothered, I'll fork out. Just don't confuse the issue with a higher perceived mileage (which is also entered into their computer system).
