Can a change of fuel make that much of a difference ?
Posted: July 2, 2010 Filed under: Business, car business, Do something Now is good, Funny, Interesting, vRS | Tags: bp, derv, diesel, fuel moira, fuel ni, glenavy road bp, moira maxol, northern ireland fuel, petrol 1 Comment
You might remember at the beginning of the year I had all that trouble with my trusty vRS.
Well it is all beginning to worry me slightly, not about the car but about the fuel I was putting into it (and the car a bit too). You see around 3 weeks before Skodagate, my company changed my fuel suppliers from Maxol Ireland to Direct Fuels UK. Direct Fuels do not have any actual stations however are more of a network of affiliated garages.
I had been using Maxol in Moira ever since I bought the vRS but as Maxol was not on the Direct Fuels approved list, I switched to the BP garage on the Glenavy Road, just off the Moira road roundabout. 3 weeks later my car was getting pulled into the garage for a major overhaul of broken parts. At the time I was asked had I put any dodgy fuel into the car, I told them I used BP and they (Skoda) seemed to accept that and rulled a fuel issue out of the equation. Read the rest of this entry »
24 hours as a Porsche driver
Posted: April 27, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, car business, Do something Now is good, Interesting, Network Scouts, Northern Ireland, OpenCoffee, Personal posts, vRS | Tags: 911, 914, 924, 944, 977, Belfast, boxster, cars, fun, Hannah, Lyndsey McQuillan, personal, Porsche, Porsche belfast, vRS Leave a comment
I had the great pleasure over Friday and Saturday of driving and owning (for 24 hours) the new 2010 Porsche Boxster, kindly lend to me by the good people of Porsche Centre Belfast. I have been a fan of Porsche since a boy and whilst all my pals had dreams of winning the lottery and buying up Ferrari’s, Lambos and Astons, my eye was always on a Porsche, and not as a lottery winners car either, I wanted one for an every day car.
I have driven a few other the years and been taken out in others, every week I look at 924s and 944’s in the paper and think, wouldn’t that be a great weekender………… alas I never end up buying one. Read the rest of this entry »
Skoda – We manufacture happy drivers, but do your dealers ?
Posted: January 18, 2010 Filed under: Belfast, Business, car business, Interesting, vRS | Tags: axa, Belfast, car industry, cars, dealerships, fault, fuel injector vrs, happy drivers, lumley, manufacturers warrenty, mervyn stewart, mervyn stewart skoda, octavia, PD engine, richard skoda, scam, skoda, skoda belfast, skoda uk, tendem pump vRS, vRS, warrenty 36 Comments
Maybe so but the main issue is that Skoda after building the car, then go and put their trust in their dealer network to stay true to the brand.
In April of 2009 I purchased a November registered 2006 Octavia vRS from Mervyn Stewart (MS) / Skoda in Belfast. I love(ed) it, I had been searching for a car for work, parenting and scouting for some time and it ticked all the boxes, whilst not being too common and still a bit cool. One of my biggest concerns with buying a used or ‘pre enjoyed’ car (in particular a Skoda), was the warranty as my father had had serious problems a number of years ago with the computer on his Octavia.
The dealer ‘ Richard’, in fact the ‘Manager’ said, “The warranty is up on that car in Nov 2009 and we will extend it by 2 further years” . Happy days ! Or so I thought until Saturday 9th January. When I was driving down the motorway, all power was lost and the car came to a stop and would not re start.
The following timeline then occured
Sat 9th Jan :
Car looses all power on the motorway. I call Skoda assist who tell me, ‘this car is out of warranty, call someone else’ After some explaining to them that the dealer extended the warranty they sent out the RAC who pulled in the computer which showed there was a fuel injector fault. He could not fix it so he suggested he would tow me into Skoda Belfast (Mervyn Stewart or MS as we will now call them). Read the rest of this entry »
Russell McQuillan 