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MG ZR ZS ZT Technical - Where to now?

At the beginning of April I was involved in an accident in my 6 month old ZS 180. The car has since been off the road in a repair shop, and after 3 and a half months is now waiting only on 2 parts. I was given a date last month by the MG Rover parts line which passed on the weekend, the parts still have not arrived. So far I have:

Called the Repair shop several times
Called and visited the MG Rover ealer suppling the parts to the repair shop
Wrote a letter to MG Rover customer services last month (copied to my insurers, no reply fro MGR as yet)
Called the MG Rover parts line several times,
Called the MGR 'helpdesk' about why the MG Rover parts line is either engaged, or the phone goes unanswered.

Now I am in a situation where no-one can give me any kind of date for the delivery of parts, and MG Rover either cannot be contacted, do not return calls, or can provide me with any useful information.

What do I do now? Who can I contact to see if I can get any progress? Why can a modern British company not supply parts for a car that is still in production and rolling down the assembly lines?

I think 3 and a half months waiting is more than reasonable time to expect anyone to wait, and my ownership experience of my first British car has been ruined. Is there a consumer organisation I can get to look at my case?
Richard Phillips

Our Routemaster at Northern MG Owners, Ian Walker, suffered a nasty accident within weeks of taking delivery of his TF160 which must have been March/April. He only got his car back about 3-4 weeks ago. No doubt he'll come across this post when he next checks but I'll bring it to his attention because he's very clued up on this from his own recent experience.

F
F

Richard supply me your email address and I will give you a name and an email address within MG Rover.

Do you know which parts are causing the delay?


Kelvin
Kelvin

Thanks Kelvin, I'll send you an e-mail. I didn't include it here as I get enough e-mail spam to my account and I tend not to post it on web pages.

Cheers,
Richard
Richard Phillips

Forget all the above. It's gone beyond a joke, and time to consult a solicitor. When M'learned friends get on the case, they'll capitulate pronto (they did for me!).
Ace

Richard your story is so familiar - my TF 160 was 59 day off the road and I too found 'customer services' disgraceful and unresponsive. They responded to absolutely nothing including legal threats; most days I was on the phone to the two dealers involved - superb or MGR - hopeless!

However, email me and I'll give you a senior contact name at MGR that seemed to make a difference and a copy of the letter I sent. Also depending on the bit you need avenues to try.

Good luck

Ian

PS what are you short of? Have you tried Mike Satur? Breakers?
Ian Walker

If you have your car on finance you can get in touch with them. If you explain the situation with the parts and say you're not going to pay monthly payments for a car you can't use they will get on your side and can get mgr to pay your payments for as long as you are waiting for the parts - this should speed up the process
.

Thank you all for your responses. The two parts I am waiting for are:
Airbag Control Sensor: YWJ10600
Foglight Bracket: DPL00050

UPDATE: actually managed to get through to MG Rover parts this morning AND someone answered the phone. The new date for the foglight bracket is the 1st of August, which is completely unacceptable. The part was ordered in the middle of April.

I could get the car back without the bracket, but I will need to obtain the airbag sensor and I have no date on this, I have been assured I will recieve a call back within 24 hours.

Thanks Ian, I'll send you my e-mail address.
Richard Phillips

do either of these parts prevent the car being driven ?
David

Actually no, neither of the parts prevent the car from being driven, and I would take the car back without the foglight bracket. However I consider the Airbag control sensor part of the car's safety system, and having had the airbags blow up in my face once, I don't want to be in a position where they won't be working again. This is also an insurance claim against a third party, I think I can expect my car returned to the standard it was at the time of the accident (when the car was only six months old).
Richard Phillips

Thanks for clarifying. I suppose choosing between waiting for the parts to turn up and having the vehicle now (but without functioning airbags) is a classic 'rock and a hard place' - but at least you have made your choice. If you are implying that the airbags saved you from injury in the accident, then a very wise choice in the circumstances. Hope it gets fixed soon and that there is some summer left :-)
David

Both the part numbers I put above are slightly wrong, they are YWJ101600 and DPL000050. It appears from talking to the service manager at my local MG Rover dealer that the Airbag sensor has changed for prodution vehicles. He's asked me to wait for a short while while he tries to locate one, I can only hope he is more reliable than the MG Rover parts line, which once again has failed to call me back.
Richard Phillips

Progress?
Ian Walker

I wanted to wait a bit until I had more news, but this is how it is going so far.

Primed and ready to pick up some of the contacts I had been given, I waited the 24 hours for a callback from the MG parts helpline which never materialised. I headed down to my local MGR dealer to find our how long I would have to wait to have a ZS built from the factory, and using this for comparison in letters on how long I have had to wait for parts. I was told to try the service manager at this time, and contacted him later by phone. He asked me to give him some time to locate the part, and came back to me stating he might be able to locate one by the middle of what is now, this week.

On passing this information on to the repair garage I was informed that the part had just arrived, so the prospect of two control units being available is on the cards...you know you wait for a bus and then two come along...

So I HOPE my car will be returned to me this week (after four months), minus the foglight bracket for later fitting.

Conclusions:

MG Rover customer parts line is next to useless.

Three and a half months waiting for parts on a production car is TOO LONG and ruins customer relations.
Richard Phillips

Sounds good progress!

Don't get mad get even!
Ian Walker

I managed to get a full fog lamp kit with brackets within 24hrs from my dealer nr Wakefield. So whats the problem? Granted it came in an old fashioned Rover branded bag via Unipart but so what !
rje10

There's always more than one way to skin a cat

Are Unipart back on the scene then? News to me if they are!
Wings

The BBC2 Programme Working lunch yesterday had a feature on a 1998 800 that was off the road waiting for a new rear quarter panel.
He had been told all Uk and European sources had been tried by Rover but no part available.

The car has now been sent to longbridge for repair.

The Rover excuse was currently all Uk manufacturers had parts problems.

I think/know Rover currently have the greatest problems.
Rob

currently all Uk manufacturers had parts problems.

bllx!
Ian Walker

Car was returned to me last Wednesday, 31st July, nearly 4 months after it went in, and I haven't had a chance to post the news before. Thanks to Ian and Kelvin for their helpful e-mails. I can only hope that MGR sort their parts delivery problems before it affects their sales...
Richard Phillips

My ZT was in an accident on 9 June 2002 and it has still not been repaired. They have replaced the body-shell but cannot get a new door and several seat & air-bag parts.

The insurance company states they cannot get a date from Rover for supply of the parts. If anyone can give me a contact email within MGR to someone that can help it would be appreciated!
A Gudgeon

This thread was discussed between 16/07/2002 and 05/08/2002

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