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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Bonnet is stuck closed... how to open it ?

Not me... this was on the car talk radio a few minutes ago

This woman had a stuck closed bonnet latch and has actually removed the front grill and been at this for several weeks .. a mechanics shop wanted $150 to fix the problem

So what was the radio car guys solution... haha

Put the car back togather, and take it to a quick oil change place, they always drain the oil 1st, then pop open the bonnet ... so there stuck with the problem so it cost you the $30 to get the latch freed up and you get a free oil change

I just thought that was a great idea. Just remember to lube the crap out of the cable.and latch as soon as you get home.

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

Thanks for my daily Prop-generated laugh. I like it!!
Greybeard

Love those "quick oil change" places. Like a modern version of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.

I went there only once. The fellow showed me the most disgusting air filter I had ever seen and wanted me to have a new one put in. I had never ever let a filter get that bad but I am off topic here.

I looked at it, saw it was made by the same manufacturer as the truck and told him to just bang it on the wall and stuff it back in, it's good for at least another 100,000 miles as is and went back to reading my newspaper. He left looking puzzled after giving me the fuel economy spiel, service recommendations etc.

The fellow across from me said that the filter really should be changed and I agreed with him and under normal circumstances I would do that. I told him that it could not ever have come from my truck because it was fitted with a permanent oil bath mesh air filter not a paper element one like I was shown. The fellow pushing the filter didn't know that fact.

When I was paying for the work, he again tried to push the air filter on me and it was in front of 2 other customers I told him to his face he was a thief because of the filter my truck had and if he didn't believe me he could take a look under the hood for himself. I wonder how many other people they had scammed that way?

Oh, obviously I never went back again.

Cheers,
Clare
C Ravenwood

I had a similar experience with the FAST FREDDIE of service joints.
They changed the oil and filter but on their check sheet they said that my shocks were leaking and the brake pads were badly worn.
They did not like my exposure in front of other clients. My shocks/Calipers and pads were less the one wek old.
The good thing was that they gave me a free oil and filter change.
I have not gone back.
Sandy
Sandy

Not restricted to 'quick oil change places' - for its last service, I took my Passat to the local VW main dealer, rather than the supplying dealer, which was about one hour's drive away.

They recommended that I had new wiper blades, as they were smearing. This was despite them having only recently being replaced, at great expense, with genuine VW items.

Needless to say, I declined their kind offer.

Another VW main dealer once recommended that I had my rear brake pads replaced, as there was only 3mm left. They told me that 1mm = 1000 miles. As the pads were the originals and had covered 75.000 miles, they must have been 75mm thick (3 inches) when new.
Dave O'Neill 2

Kwik-Fit in the UK advertise a free front wheel alignment check when you buy new tyres. You only then pay for adjusting the tracking if it is found to be out. Needless to say when I went to collect my car they had added the fee for adjustment. As I arrived for the car the mechanic was just tightening the wheel nuts so I commented that they hadn't checked the tracking but they said they had done it before changing the tyres (? !)
I drove home, 3 miles, and then checked underneath. Neither locking nut on the TREs had been moved and the dirt/surface rust showed no spanner marks. I took photos and went back, but the foreman insisted the tracking had been adjusted and refused to look under the car with me. Having given him every opportunity to admit an "error" (e.g. sorry sir, we had muddled your car with another we were working on at the same time) I wrote to head office and sent the photos. I got back a £50 voucher and later heard that both the foreman and the individual mechanic had "ceased to be employed" shortly after. That was quite a few years ago. I never did decide whether it was a good outcome or not!
Guy W

The problem with the large sheds is that they make little money from tyres as the market is so compeditive. I know someone who used to work for one and he told me that they got no bonus from tyres however many they sold, but they got it for everything else so the temptation and pressure is there to sell you something you dont need to get your bonus and hit the depot profit target. A great recipe to rip off the motorist. It took the lease companies a while to realise this as when you took your company car in it was an easy target to say it needed this and that.

Of course its easy for the company to sack the people involved, but in reality its the company at fault for pressurising the staff into doing this sort of thing, because if you dont hit your targets you will probably be out anyway.

Trev
Trevor Mason

<<"in reality its the company at fault for pressurising the staff into doing this sort of thing">>

Trevor, That is exactly why my concluding sentence about the outcome. I still feel some guilt about 2 people loosing their jobs, especially in a small town and at a time when even jobs like these were not easy to come by. It seemed to me an excessive reaction by the company although there may have been other "history" involved. In reality it was an action more to save face by the company than a proportionate punishment for the individuals.
Guy W

Unfortunately most big companies work this way. I used to work for a distribution company supplying a large well known supermarket and the back door guys would be told by the store managers to short the delivery to make up a shortfall. If we had a serious problem with certain stores we would notify the security department who would go in unannounced. If they caught the back door guy fiddling he would be out. Very rarely did any manager get the chop at the same time. I suspect that is exactly what will will see with the VW saga. Everybody knows what goes on but denies all knowledge of it and the guy at the bottom suffers.

Trev
Trevor Mason

Guy, I wouldn't necessarily believe that the two members of staff were sacked for this misdemeanour as it does seem a disproportonate sanction for what they did - unless of course it was the final straw after a string of complaints, in which case fair enough.
Jeremy Tickle

Jeremy, from a company point of view I doubt they would see it as disproportionate, because it is defrauding a customer and that could be deemed gross misconduct which invariably means instant dismissal.

Trev
Trevor Mason

It could be that the gen manager if the store was faced with ither passing the buck or face being fired himself esp if he was the one that lead the fraud

Trev,

At VW that is already happening, the CEO and staff claimed they were idiot and imcompetant fools and knew nothing and got a full golden pharachute ... the ceo got $68 million dollars and carries no blame

The new CEO said there will be alot of pain, and expects massive lay offs, to cover the cost and losses

I think he meant massive lay offs at the bottom of the pack, not the management or the executive level of the vw company

Prop
Prop and the Blackhole Midget

This thread was discussed between 10/10/2015 and 15/10/2015

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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