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Meet Poppy, Dave's 1st gen MINI Cooper S Convertible


Dave
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yeah really is the worst customer service and the worst car repair (or should that be NON-repair) that we've ever had. ATS Galashiels are shockingingly bad, worst Garage ever! 

Deffo going to take the f*ckers to court, stupid little boys that they are! 

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Just remembered about the ombudsman for garages - might be worth looking into

 

https://www.themotorombudsman.org/knowledge-base/what-should-i-do-if-im-unhappy-with-the-garages-work-on-my-car

 

All about reasonable due skill and care - which should be easy to prove they haven't done that 

 

Don't know what would be more hassle - this or going to court. 

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Yeah, either will be a hassle but we're deffo going ahead with it. Not letting them get away with it. Happy to say though since East Coast did the job correctly she's been driving sweet as a nut! Handling the daily duties while DD hides in the garage awaiting her ABS fault to be fixed and get her MOT ready. Poppy's actually a decent car in winter, traction control, LSD and the must have item (taht all uk cars should come with imo.....heated front and rear screens! 

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  • 5 months later...

Not updated for a while. Poppy been doing daily duties well, not had any issues so well happy. MOT was going to run out while Gayles away on holiday in May so decided to put her in early so I don't end up with no car! lol

Knew there was a wheel bearing on it's way out as could hear the droaning noise. Jacked her up and checked all 4 wheels.......front pass side had slight play, all the rest were fine. Thought I'd put her in anyways, see if she passed with the wheel bearing then I could just change it once i got paid.

Well, that didn't go to plan! She passe the 1st mot we put her through a year ago fine. This year she failed on:

  • N/S/F wheel bearing (which we expected anyways but chanced our mit)
  • Front left to right brake pipe corroded to excess
  • Front to rear Brake pipe corroded to excess and weeping.

I too was weeping when i saw the bill! lol😆 To be fair, they were still the oem pipes so no shame to it really, and deffo not nthe worst MOT I've ever had. Quite pleased as everything else was fine and I hadn't seen the pipe weeping so glad they spotted that and fixed it. Got the garage to just do all the work as I don't have it in me at the moment, so was £350 plus the mot fee. And they got it all done that day for me (even staying past their closing time to complete it for me) so very happy. What a difference driving her now without that awful wheel bearing noise!!

Poppy now back to daily duties and driving ace! 

Next job to do is on the interior as quite a few creaks/rattles/squeaks for the dash plastics now so going to remove all the trims and line the back of them with felt which will get rid of any unwanted noises. Got the big pack of felt (self adhesive so will make it easier to fit) here ready for the job. Just need to get my head in a better place so I can start it!

Castle.jpg

 

 

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Good that you've found a garage that you're happy with mate... Did you ever get any joy after that last bit of bother you had? 

 

Nice pic at the end there 8-)

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On 5/9/2023 at 7:20 PM, dr_broon said:

Good that you've found a garage that you're happy with mate... Did you ever get any joy after that last bit of bother you had? 

 

Nice pic at the end there 8-)

Cheers man! Yeah, the Nisan dealership in the town along the road from here are ace, have a really really good rep. Feel we can actually trust them, although still early doors yet i guess. But deffo been great with what they've done, and price wise for a dealership they're not too bad.

The wrangle with ATS we didn't go any further (except some really nasty reviews left on all the review sites 😉 )as it was going to cost us even more money for a lawyer/start a case against them and they've already cost us enough as it is. Plus my mental health aint in a good place at the moment with stress/depression so didn't need the extra stress going to court would bring. However, have been slating them to everyone we know (and even foilk we don't know!) because one thing we've learned living in a wee village the Scottish borders is that word of mouth (aka jungle drums) spreads like wild fire here! So hoping to save other folk the same hassle and hopefully loose them a lot of business. Any luck, ATS will pull out of Gala.

Oh, one wee update on Poppy........the chrome mirrors are gone! I decided I preferred the oem piano black ones so have swapped them about. It was also to get rid of this annoying little blue tit bird that kept landing on the car all day everyday because it's facinated by it's own reflection! It was funny to begin with, but after washing the car, the door was covered in bird shit within 20 mins! And that was a constant......go out and hose it off....20 mins later, covered again! Wee dafty! lol

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Don't blame you to be fair mate, it's like that place that first had a bodge at welding Tubs up.. Was foaming, but knew that trying to take it further with them would just cause grief and wind me up more. Sometimes it's best to just move on. 

 

Lol about the bird! Has it stopped it's crapping with the other mirrors on? 

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Gayle suggested hanging cd's on the hedge next to car.......etc voila, wee birds doesn't go hear the car now. They still poop on them when flying tho! Lol

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  • 10 months later...

Sooo, with DD being off the road for over a year, Poppy took up the daily duties. She'd been doing well tbh, have put a fair few miles on her in that time, mostly trouble free. 

Gayles Nissan Juke (aka "Effy") failed its recent mot and landed us with a bit of a big bill (just under £500) and was off the road until garage got her fixed. So Poppy was our only car on the road, so Gayle had been using her for around a week for work. The day before we were due to get Effy back, Gayle went to go to work in the morning and put the clutch down in Poppy. Heard this really horrible noise so thought that's not good! Gears were stiff to engage, so I drove her to the end of our drive to see if she would be safe to go to work in. Sadly not! Clutch has totally failed! Press the clutch down and she sounds like a bag of spanners! 🫣 Can't get any gears with the engine running so looks like clutch has finally let go. Called our Independent MINI specialist and got a quote....£1200! Gutted, but tbf, have seen the amount of work involved in replacing it so most of the cost is labour. So Poppy's off the road for a while now till I can get the money saved up. Good job Effy is now passed her MOT (and now sold! Gayle traded her in for a newish Nissan Micra 2020 as she needs something cheaper on fuel for all the driving she does at work). Also good that DD has also passed her mot and is back on the road! So Poppy can take a breather for a while. Will update once new clutch has been fitted.

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Aw man, that's a big bill for a clutch! Everything I hear about minis is that they're a massive ball ache to work on / get the right parts for. 

At least DD is back in action 😎

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