Looking to buy a WAV?

[phatboyroy]

I often see on here, people requesting info as to where to buy a WAV. Well, I feel I must tell you my experience. I bought a Grand Voyager in Aug 2010, and almost immediately we had big problems with difficult starting and engine cutting out. I’d phoned Chrysler Customer (dis)-Service in Northamptonluton?? Who, ‘…this is the first time we’ve heard of this…’ (which turned out to be cobblers) routine were no help at all. Also, the airbag light kept illuminating, and the doors/ramp failed to open and deploy intermittently. There were a few other bits and bobs, which amount to niff naff really. I telephoned the dealer and as I was ‘reluctant’ to travel back to Birmingham from Cardiff they said ‘get it fixed locally, and send us the bill’. Sounds good, however, local garages were stumped and gave up, (£250 inc new glo-plugs).

At this point, the starter motor failed to rotate, so the selling dealer had it recovered to Birmingham, they had it a week and returned it. They replaced the airbag switch under the front bumper, and cured the starting problem, (dicky connection). But they couldn’t find a defect as per the uninitiated engine cutting out, (so you can’t blame the local garages). We ran it for a while but cutting out continued up to a point, (Feb this year) where it stopped in the middle of a roundabout in Cardiff late at night with a police van behind. They kindly pushed us to the side of the road. Nice people. My patience was gone, and I was all for returning the wagon to the dealer. I even contacted the guy we sold our old bus to, to enquire if he would sell it back, but his was now suffering the same defect. I telephoned the dealer again to mention my displeasure. They said we’ll come and get it and sort it. Well, they had it for 6 weeks, and couldn’t find what was wrong.

During this time, I needed to go out, so I took a taxi and kept the invoices. We had the car back, but the engine cut out again, (hope you’re all still with me), so they said take it to the Chrysler dealer in Cardiff, (£100/hour labour) and send us the bill. Luckily this is where we found the solution, there’s no fault code but the mechanic knew what it was from previous experience, (for those of you that haven’t been privy to my earlier posts, it is the fuel heater atop the filter - £220 ish) he also knew the airbag light was the clock-spring in the steering wheel, (£200 odd).

In short with all the niff naff bits, (including a valet) I’m out of pocket over £1200. But as the dealer had said to get it fixed, I forwarded the invoices to them last Monday… and got the cheque back today in full, 5 days later. Now you didn’t expect that did you?? To be honest, I DID.

Throughout my dealings with the company they have been nothing short of excellent, during my conversations with them it got to be more than just a customer thing, and they have been really friendly and helpful, (even understanding our delay in attending to things, when my mother-in-law passed away). Yes, there were problems, but they stepped up to the mark at every turn. I can’t fault them and they will be my first port of call for a WAV when the time comes. Who are they… Jubilee Auto Group, Woden Road South, Wednesbury, WS10 0NQ. tel: 0800 634 8407. Tim Jordan was my contact there, and you could do worse, much worse.

Ciao Phatboyroy

[Burgerman]

Sounds as if you were pretty unlucky.

No probs to report here.

[Lord Chatterley]

I often see on here, people requesting info as to where to buy a WAV. Well, I feel I must tell you my experience. I bought a Grand Voyager in Aug 2010, and almost immediately we had big problems with difficult starting and engine cutting out. I’d phoned Chrysler Customer (dis)-Service in Northamptonluton?? Who, ‘…this is the first time we’ve heard of this…’ (which turned out to be cobblers) routine were no help at all. Also, the airbag light kept illuminating, and the doors/ramp failed to open and deploy intermittently. There were a few other bits and bobs, which amount to niff naff really. I telephoned the dealer and as I was ‘reluctant’ to travel back to Birmingham from Cardiff they said ‘get it fixed locally, and send us the bill’. Sounds good, however, local garages were stumped and gave up, (£250 inc new glo-plugs).

At this point, the starter motor failed to rotate, so the selling dealer had it recovered to Birmingham, they had it a week and returned it. They replaced the airbag switch under the front bumper, and cured the starting problem, (dicky connection). But they couldn’t find a defect as per the uninitiated engine cutting out, (so you can’t blame the local garages). We ran it for a while but cutting out continued up to a point, (Feb this year) where it stopped in the middle of a roundabout in Cardiff late at night with a police van behind. They kindly pushed us to the side of the road. Nice people. My patience was gone, and I was all for returning the wagon to the dealer. I even contacted the guy we sold our old bus to, to enquire if he would sell it back, but his was now suffering the same defect. I telephoned the dealer again to mention my displeasure. They said we’ll come and get it and sort it. Well, they had it for 6 weeks, and couldn’t find what was wrong.

During this time, I needed to go out, so I took a taxi and kept the invoices. We had the car back, but the engine cut out again, (hope you’re all still with me), so they said take it to the Chrysler dealer in Cardiff, (£100/hour labour) and send us the bill. Luckily this is where we found the solution, there’s no fault code but the mechanic knew what it was from previous experience, (for those of you that haven’t been privy to my earlier posts, it is the fuel heater atop the filter - £220 ish) he also knew the airbag light was the clock-spring in the steering wheel, (£200 odd).

In short with all the niff naff bits, (including a valet) I’m out of pocket over £1200. But as the dealer had said to get it fixed, I forwarded the invoices to them last Monday… and got the cheque back today in full, 5 days later. Now you didn’t expect that did you?? To be honest, I DID.

Throughout my dealings with the company they have been nothing short of excellent, during my conversations with them it got to be more than just a customer thing, and they have been really friendly and helpful, (even understanding our delay in attending to things, when my mother-in-law passed away). Yes, there were problems, but they stepped up to the mark at every turn. I can’t fault them and they will be my first port of call for a WAV when the time comes. Who are they… Jubilee Auto Group, Woden Road South, Wednesbury, WS10 0NQ. tel: 0800 634 8407. Tim Jordan was my contact there, and you could do worse, much worse.

Ciao Phatboyroy

What about the ramp problems?

LC

[phatboyroy]

Hi LC as regards the ramp, they ent it to SDS in Herts, and they put a new control box on it, FOC.
we still get a glitch now and again, but it seems to be when you interupt the door's electronics by say starting the engine, or switcihng off. so we wait a second or 2 then try again. usually this works.

occasionally when it plays up, (which is not much) we sometimes need to manually close the door. then everything works fine.

on our previous Grand Voyager, we discovered that the wiring loom to the door was broken, new loom and extend the wires to suit the dropped floor sorted it.
auto elect says Chrysler uses too large a bore cable and it breaks easily because of all the opening and closing. a smaller bore sufficient to carry the load should be used so that it won't suffer as the larger cable as it flexes.

i bought a spare loom at the time just in case, but i don't think this is the same cause this tiime.

cheers ROY