Michael McAleer answers your queries
From Ann O'Connor:
I would like to endorse David Labanyi's article in the June 22nd edition 100 per cent. Some years ago, when the car business was doing poorly due to lack of sales, I visited seven garages before buying a new car.
I was interested in trading in a car that had been well maintained, and was in good condition both as regards engine and interior.
The ONLY car salesman who treated me with courtesy and respect and seemed interested in making a sale was Larry Sutton of Linders in Smithfield. Sometimes I would be ignored in a salesroom by staff in favour of men both young and old.
Sometimes salesmen didn't appear interested in making a sale. Once, when I called to a garage by appointment for a test drive, the owner was on duty. Despite being reminded twice by the receptionist that I was waiting, he continued to do paperwork at his desk. After another delay I left in anger. As I drove out he appeared with apologies. I told him that it was unacceptable to have been kept waiting so long in view of the fact that I had made an appointment. Having purchased cars from him, before I told him I would not do so again and that if I had been a man I would not have been treated in that fashion. In another garage I was ignored by staff although there were no other customers in the showroom.
In recent weeks I have been researching the market again. Garage one was a Ford dealer, and I was attended to most satisfactorily by a salesman. At garage two I was looked after by a woman who was polite. But she retired upstairs to make enquiries and eventually I left because she failed to reappear. I asked the receptionist to tell her to contact me by phone, but this didn't happen.
Service is another problem area today. Both my husband and myself find that service departments are either being contracted out to another company other than the company who sells the car or being located to suburban industrial estates. In our family, one experience has been that the contracted company didn't do the job properly, with another company it has been almost impossible to arrange service because the contract company doesn't answer the phone and doesn't return voicemail messages. Again there is the problem of trying to access these companies when they take the car for service because they are in areas not readily accessible by public transport.
It might be interesting to have a survey done regarding service. I am not surprised the TSI in Britain found this area so poor. It is something that badly needs to be improved in Ireland. As you can see, David Labanyi's article struck a chord.
Your experiences are no doubt replicated by many female motorists. It's the sort of attitude that drives car companies crazy, after all the efforts they are putting into winning over the female market with more attractive models that serve their needs. As David mentioned, General Motors, the world's largest car company, estimates female buyers in Europe will increase by up to 40 per cent over the next 15 years.
If not out of common courtesy, then at least out of business sense, the chauvinist salesmen must change their ways. The best advice is to shop around and don't be afraid to complain to the dealer principal or the car companies in question.
From John White:
I have a company car, a Peugeot 406 diesel. The fuel tank takes up to 74 litres of diesel according to the print-out from the filling station. The manual states that the fuel tank capacity is only 70 litres. How does one know the accuracy of the diesel pump showing 74 litres purchased, against the tank capacity level of 70 litres (or 15.418 gallons)?
The difference of 0.881 litres begs the question: is this pump calibrated to overcharge 94 cents per fill?
Who checks the fuel retailers? It used to be the weights and measures division of the Garda.
It would seem that the filling station is making a tidy sum from its pumps. You are one of the few who fill up from empty. Most of us top up on a weekly basis, and thus never really spot the discrepancy.
The Garda no longer look after this area. Since 1996 an organisation Legal Metrology Service is responsible - they have regional offices, or check www.nsai.ie or call 01 807 3807.
• Send your queries to Motors Help Desk, The Irish Times, Fleet Street, Dublin 2 - or e-mail them to motorshelp@irish-times.ie