3.0 CSL - starting problem

Horsetan wrote: Oh dear, Munich Legends about to issue a legendary bill for more work, then?

Bit like the legal profession eh?

By "replacing a panel" I assume you mean at least wings. As they're welded on it's more of a job than on a Six but if they're left to rot it will spread to the inner wings & further.

Early prevention is better than a late cure.

See Jaymic in Norfolk who are specialists with the E9 coupes.

I bought the car after about 5 years of looking aroun d and looking at forums, reading books and I know where the bad points of the car are etc and the fact that it will inevitably cost money to maintain the vehicle as it does for any classic car where the parts are either generally in short supply or produced by thrid party manufacturers for niche markets. The only thing I resented from the comments by ML was one talking to my fiance in a patronising manner about cars (she is one of the country's very few female owner/drivers of a TVR Tuscan - so thought that was a bit rich); the fact that they may have frightened the previous owner of the car into selling the car by convincing him that the car was basically a lemon and needed £10,000 of work doing which it blatantly does not and also I took the car to get an intermittant starting problem sorted out which they said they had fixed which then reoccurred the next morning - when called on Monday morning the owner basically told me that they had done an inspection 2 service on the car and they said that had sorted the problem which including getiing the door adjusted cots nearly £585. Now I used to own an M Roadster and paid £666 for an inspection 2 service which involved arsing about with a piece of kit that is a little bit more sophisticated and as you read in the magazines more of a bugger to do anything with - I cant see the point in taking my car 80 miles to East Sussex to have my eyes taken out when I took the car to Snows BMW dealership in Portsmouth . Here I met a salesman with an M6 and I am sure that the labour charge was not £50 an hour and he said he would have no problem giving me a hand to source parts.

Herein lies the issue - are the independants having a laugh? I think so it would have been cheaper to get it serviced at the dealership as it would not have cost the travel expenses in petrol and train tickets and I would have got a courtesy car and also the car would not have stood around at ML for a week when they blatantly did the work on Friday morning after I harrassed them for 3 days to do the work when they were meant to and to add insult to injury the lock was no t fitted to the door properly and the key would not fit the lock because they couldnt even be ****d to put wd40 into the mechanism and I didnt appreaciate some NED mechanic looking at me like I had stood on his sandwiches because they had not done the job correctly in the first place.

I dont think this is a reflection specifically on ML - it seems to be endemic within the culture of garages up and down the land

Well I have just had a similar issue with TVR - it is like banging your head off a brick wall sometimes - it isn't an issue of not being able to afford to maintain the car - it is the principle of allowing cheeky fookahs the licence to rip you off - to your face even. Even the BMW dealership in Portsmouth were laughing their **** off when I was told I needed new panels. I keep getting told 'wathc out for the dealer they will rip you off'. After talking to the used salesman about the CSL and his M6 for half an hour got his email address (sent him a web address of the place in Germany as he wanted 17 Alpina wheels for his car) he said he would help find parts etc.
ML even told me they thought that £40K was expensive for a kit car sic TVR Tuscan, my other half thought that she thought it wasn't bad for a hand made car with stats that beat other cars that woudl cost in excessof £100K and certainly looked better on paper than paying £45K for an M3 which correct me if I am wrong is a production line car last time I looked on the BMW website.

I tell you something - everytime I visit garages these days it make me laugh - the latest chuckle being the £70 an hour labour charge for the Mercedes garage to service a colleagues SMART car. It is amazong how complex things have got with the internal combustion engine which in reality really has not changed that much in the last 50 years. As I explained the the head of one of the production departments at TVR when he told me the best TVR to buy was a Chimera because you can get a god 150,000 miles out of the engine no problem - I said that certainly be the case for an engine that had been in production in one form or another for 43 years.

Garages - dont you just love 'em - just goes to show it doesn't matter if its a dealer or Freds backstreet dodgy garage the attitude is the same throughout

I don't car how mucky and knackered I get trying to do some jobs properly, at least I will knowI have done them to my satisfaction instead of having my time and money utterly wasted by people who don't have the same interest in doing the job properly as I do.....

I absolutely agree with this but at the moment I do not have the space to do the work but I dont mind paying if the job is done properly and the bottom line here is if you dont like working in a garage and has a face like a slapped **** I'm sure the local employment service can find you something else to do. Otherwise when paying £50-70 an hour to do a job I expect some degree of customer service. After spending time in other countries I am convinced that this is simply something endemic within the UK