Just a positive mention of Westaway Motors who yet again have come through for me with a free fix of an annoying problem on my Charade.
Back in November I think it was, I had, one of the the other, my front brakes get very sticky. I had my local indy free them up but I still wasnt happy as I felt there was noticable drag somewhere.
I then booked it into my local Daihatsu dealer ( who supplied both my Charade and the misses Sirion aswell as several other cars over the years ) who checked it over and found that the handbrake linkage was seized. The duly freed this off and charged me an hours labour, which at £60 isnt bad these days from a main dealer.
A few weeks later I detected drag again ( same roads everyday you notice if things change ). I booked it in, loan car provided and they stripped all the brakes, went through the motions and when I got the car back, it felt it had its verve back again.
Best thing was, no charge Sir, we should have done it the first time round - only they spent two hours on it this time, so my £60 had stretched to 3 hours worth now.
Now I had this knocking noise that id isolated to the front OS brake caliper after a close inspection which had been going on for what must be 3-4 months but id previously thought it to be a noisey suspension bush.
Booked it in yesterday, 8am today I was in, loan car available if they couldnt get it done in an hour. Fella comes in from workshop, takes me out there, shows me that two bolts are ever so slightly loose causing excess play and thus making a clonking noise over high frequency bumps.
He cleans and lubricated the caliper and re-tightened the bolts, then ran me down the road and all is fixed.
Best part, yet again, no charge as despite it being 5 months since it was last in, they took responsibility for the issue.
Its been a refreshing experience after having read so much about peoples negative experiences of the rip-off merchant main dealers.
As such, Im now willing to pay that bit more and have them do the oil/fliter and its first gearbox oil change due in July as I feel I will be looked after - I could walk away and not use them, theres no obligation, but its businesses like this that need support.
They also do Ford, so its not like they are only used to japanese oddities.
Sales team is just as good.
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Its great from your perspective but you've got to wonder how they manage to stay in business 'giving away' all of those workshop hours that they should and need to be selling by rights. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth whilst it is in front of you.
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Well I can only assume it doesnt happen everyday and their philosphy is to retain customers long term rather than advertise heavily for new ones which possibly costs alot more than £100 or so every now and again as goodwill.
It is a family run place with same staff for years and best of all, its not a big glass palace, so I would imagine that the overheads are somewhat smaller than other outfits.
There is also the factor that they will definately get my servicing for my car and also the misses car which is due in a few months ( shes racking up the the miles on the Sirion ). Then my MOT in Sept will also go their way.
Ive found as a small business that giving a little goodwill can get you loyalty that translates into £££s way beyond the goodwill cost.
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Stu, Sorry to hijack but have been thinking of getting a Sirion Auto for SWMBO...have 3 lady friends with manuals and they all swear by them. Any thoughts from a motoring involved man ?
Ted
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Well have a search for my reporting thread on it, there arent many threads under my name for a Daihatsu Sirion.
In brief, my misses swears by hers, loves it to bits, as do many owners, even if the press slate it somewhat as old hat, that is perhaps its best quality - it has the feel of the 2003 Yaris 1.3 my mum used to have ( engine is the same as it happens ) and that sense that everything will still be working in ten years time just the same as the day it rolled out the factory.
Now ours is approaching 7000 miles the engine has loosened up well and economy is consistantly 42-46 mpg which is bang on official figures ( 44.1 ) and on a long run we have seen 50+ mpg.
Autobox is smooth, change points are just right and it always makes me appreciate the positives of a good torque-converter auto.
We did an hour long journey with 4 adults and a wheelchair in the boot and it coped very well, even with air con on full blast. Legroom in the back with average sized adults is excellent, far better than some supposedly superior small cars and we feel quite happy it will last us atleast through having one child spacewise.
Handling isnt go-kart like, but its predictable and grippy, ride is pretty good and steering feels alot better than some of the electric set-ups we experienced before settling on it.
Nothing whatsoever has gone wrong so far and by all accounts, we arent expecting anything either.
A very underrated small car and having sampled them back-to-back, a better car overall than the i10 which we found to be a hard-riding, less practical and somewhat overrated unless you value ultimate handling prowess at the expense of ride comfort.
Infact we found the Getz a better proposition despite its aging design and it really came down to the wire between that and the Sirion, only a rating card for each feature gave the Sirion the win in the end, mainly on account of its practicality/space.
Wouldnt hesitate to recommend.
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I seems as though Daihatsu produce a decent product. This site has a lot of good things to say about the cars and the dealers. I notice that problems mentioned with Toyota transmissions don't seem to be mentioned about Daihatsu. One thing that I find irritating is when you pick up a review of a car such as a VW and you read about the "rock solid build" yet many surveys seem to totally contradict this (could be Saab, Mercedes etc we know the truth on this site).
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Im not sure about current transmissions, but the autobox in our Sirion, which is as far as I can tell the same as that found in the MK1 Yaris auto, is descrived by HJ as 'robust' in CBC.
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Terios - Brand new at Motorpoint for £9,000 +admin charge- seems a bargain!
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If its that or a Jimny, I know what I would buy!
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Thanks, Stu.
Backs up what the girls say about their cars, although they're all manuals.
Erin Dors has a C3 sensodrive and neither of us like it...in fact I won't drive it unless I have to, always get the Vitara Auto out.
Will change C3 in Sept....Sirion 1st in the frame now. Saw a metallic plum coloured one on Fish4cars.com. Looked good but not quite ready to change yet .
Ted
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