Page 10 of 15

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 5:35 pm
by renmure
j2 lot wrote:
Sat Dec 08, 2018 11:26 pm
:withstupid
I keep checking in to see how things are progressing. I'm still amazed a main dealer risks its reputation rather than keep customers happy in a fairly small well informed and lucrative market.
Same here. There's not that many Lotus dealers and the product is relatively expensive so you'd expect anyone looking to buy a car to do a wee bit of background research and probably have to travel a bit to get the right car. If word-of-mouth recommendations from happy customers is the the holy grail for niche car dealers then what cost would they attribute for having a whole bunch of local(ish) owners and potential owners reading this and thinking, "yikes, that could have been me" Fair enough that you don't hear all about the happy customers but it's the bad reputation that sticks. Hope you get it sorted.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:11 pm
by rossybee
As Lancia found out the hard way with their rusting Betas in the 70s - it takes ten years to build a good reputation, but only one to lose it again :shock:

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2018 11:42 pm
by Kinger
40 years ago I got great advice from my general manager, he told me everyone screws up from time to time. It’s how you handle it that matters. Handle it correctly and it can enhance your reputation, mess it up and it can ruin you. Brilliant advice, way too easy to go defensive even when it’s your fault. I think this dealership has a lot to learn about customer care.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:26 am
by C7Steve
Kinger wrote:
Sun Dec 09, 2018 11:42 pm
40 years ago I got great advice from my general manager, he told me everyone screws up from time to time. It’s how you handle it that matters. Handle it correctly and it can enhance your reputation, mess it up and it can ruin you. Brilliant advice, way too easy to go defensive even when it’s your fault. I think this dealership has a lot to learn about customer care.
Some good advice. :thumbsup


Steve.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:40 am
by rawsco
C7Steve wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:26 am
Kinger wrote:
Sun Dec 09, 2018 11:42 pm
40 years ago I got great advice from my general manager, he told me everyone screws up from time to time. It’s how you handle it that matters. Handle it correctly and it can enhance your reputation, mess it up and it can ruin you. Brilliant advice, way too easy to go defensive even when it’s your fault. I think this dealership has a lot to learn about customer care.
Some good advice. :thumbsup


Steve.
Indeed, I ran a small business a while back that ballsed something up resulting in loss of services for over 8 hours, a day or 2 day before the contract renegotiation meeting for our largest customer. I met with the customer and after 30-40 minutes of getting my arse kicked he renewed the contract for a further 3 years without any questions, no pressure to reduce cost, no action plan to improve service nothing. His justification was that we handled the incident better than any other supplier he had worked with and dealt with, we were utterly transparent, communicated our progress regularly and took full responsibility for the problem, which consequently allowed him to better manage the impact to his team. I was stunned... I went in head down ready to lose a significant portion or revenue.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:48 am
by campbell
A great story, Ross. You should be doing motivational speaking with anecdotes like that

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:46 pm
by rawsco
campbell wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 11:48 am
A great story, Ross. You should be doing motivational speaking with anecdotes like that Image
Thanks, lol. I can be booked for about 3-4 pints of Guinness! I've investigated quite a few IT fcuk ups in my life, and the common theme with the ones that got really bad really quickly all involved people trying to cover their arses and not keeping their customers in the loop. The above mentioned incident stemmed from one of the staff covering up the failed redundancy elements in the network, I found this out before the failure and fired him but couldn't resolve in time, a switch failed and the network was a mess, it was quicker to just start from a clean sheet to recover.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 1:38 pm
by C7Steve
I was in a meeting with Mike Dreelan (A few of the guys from here will know his brother Tommy from racing in the Porsche Cup series) and they were discussing all the things that where going to be happening over the weekend for the planned relocation to their new offices and fabrication buildings, when someone mentioned BT and the phone lines/numbers etc. A heated conversation took place and then Mike said to the guy to leave the meeting and I will see you in an hours time. In that time, I want you to try and fix the mess that you have caused or exhausted all avenues before we talk again in one hours time. Later in the week when I was speaking with Mike, he turned to me and said, “I don’t mind problems, as there is always a solution, but when people try to hide them from me when I ask if everything is ok, then there is a problem”.


Steve.

Ps. 3-4 pints of Guinness is cheap. :lol:

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:10 pm
by campbell
Failed redundancy elements, you say, Ross? You may be able to help O2 and Ericsson

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:23 pm
by rawsco
campbell wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:10 pm
Failed redundancy elements, you say, Ross? You may be able to help O2 and Ericsson Image
Beyond help I expect...

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 1:06 am
by j2 lot
You would think - but I know someone who works in the local O2 shop and they had 3 times the footfall with customers looking for help and takings were up as they were upselling and catching lots of customers that were out of contract and they were able to get them re-signed on new contracts. Every cloud.....

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 10:34 am
by DDtB
Following this thread with interest (and sadness) so definitely keep the updates going.

Also not convinced I'd buy a used car from the dealer in question now... but also not convinced I'll be continuing with my plans for a 350. It may be a relatively rare issue with the clutch, but that's irrelevant if it happens to you and there's no support from dealer or manufacturer if/when it does.

Hope it works out soon!

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:49 pm
by rawsco
I think if you've got one with revised parts from the Evora 400 clutch you'll be OK (mine has half a 400 clutch now), trouble is, how do you know? I've decide that I'll not be getting in another V6 Exige unless there is a recall to resolve the clutch issues. I suspect that reliably determining if a car has the modified clutch will be next to impossible given Lotus and its approach to grabbing a random selection of parts from a wheelie bin to assemble a car. Roulette wheel stuff. I spun the wheel with the calculated risk that if I lost I had a manufacturer warranty to fall back on, silly me!

The problem with the sh*t clutch is that it doesn't release and re-engage properly which has all the symptoms I had, and the knock on effect is grossly accelerated wear on the friction components and big bills.

Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:10 pm
by BigD
Not sure they are all sh*t clutches. Mine has been fine for 13,500 miles of careful gentle driving. It’s the old type so must be a bit of bad luck in there too.


The dealer in your case has been appalling but that’s not necessarily lotus fault. I used the same dealer for my service last year in Carlisle (sounds like Havid Dayton?) and they didn’t replace many of the undertray bolts. Looked like a dealer winding down to me.

Re: Dreaded Clutch Problem (Sport350)

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:15 pm
by neil
Did they change anything clutch wise between the original V6 and the 350? I'm at 33,000 miles now with no issues (famous last words). Seems very odd that it's the newer 350's that seem to be having issues.