How long is it acceptable to wait for a car part?

Following on from my “Great service from KIA thread“, questions marks are now starting to appear.

Long story short, car needs a new brake caliper, but it’s a relatively rare model and the part isn’t in the UK (I’m wondering if the part actually exists at all..) and so said car is still not fixed. It’s 2 months since the part was ordered.

In fairness to the dealership, they’ve kept me up to date as best they can, have showed me the order status on their system and I still have a brand new hire car to use whilst mine is sat in their car pack waiting to be fixed. They say (and I believe them) that they cant do anything, they just have to wait for the part.

But, I’d rather like me own car back.

And I’m not really sure what I can do, or indeed what the dealership can do either. I’ve phoned KIA UK and they’ve said the same as the dealership, “we’re waiting for the part” and that all work will be done (free, under warranty) when it arrives.

So, bar just waiting it out, is there much I can do? I want to escalate it but am not sure what good will come of it? And I’m not sure what I can ask for short of asking for a new car to keep that’s the same model as mine which feels like a long shot.

Thoughts?

Keeps the mileage down a tad.

Have you a loan car? In which case just put the miles on that and not your own car.

In the current post-pandemic stooshie of manufacturing and parts there is not a lot you can do other than wait.

The only other option would be to go to an independent and find a scrap donor part?

If it takes that long to get a consumable part like a brake caliper I’d be swapping the car asap when it’s fixed. Imagine if anything really serious went wrong with it.

Hyundai and Kia are notorious for huge lead times and difficult to source parts.

Brexit benefit right there! Everything is taking significantly longer, partner has been waiting 2months for a windscreen from volvo to turn up…

When a drive shaft went on our second hand car while driving back from the garage a new one was going to take so long that I accepted a used part that they sourced. We have two old Mercedes trucks at work that have been unavailable for months, with no sign of that changing because the parts are so hard to get hold of.

Just how it is unfortunately.

Per your other thread, you have a newer, nicer, higher spec car to use while you wait? And no miles going on your own car in the meantime?

Just enjoy it and don’t stress. It’s costing them money, and saving you. Let them worry about it.

While I totally agree with those saying to chill and enjoy the courtesy car, I’d certainly be looking to offload the thing as soon as the warranty cover (which provided the courtesy car) was expired.

Vehicle could become a liability in future.

If it’s out of warranty there’s loads of options from pattern parts to breakers yards all of which probably have stock of the part in question (which is not a “consumable” in any sense of the word), but Kia have to stick to OEM parts from the proper source so don’t have that option. If it was a part that commonly failed there’d be a big stock of them (so they weren’t running out of courtesy cars) so I don’t think it’s an issue at all

It’s a Kia, 7 years or 100k warranty.

The fact Kia are paying for a hire car, and still can’t supply the part, really does mean they can’t get one.

Usually as soon as a hire vehicle is added to the equation, manufacturers will move mountains to get the part, as hire cars cost them money. It’s cheaper for them to express courier a part halfway around the world, than it is to pay for a hire vehicle. Some manufacturers have even been known to send somebody out in to the car park to strip the part of an already built vehicle to avoid hire costs.

what car is it?

encourage others to look at Kia’s when considering their next option

I’m sure there’s a reddit for these. That being said, yeah, you’ve got a batter car to live with, when I dropped my Golf in to get the wheels refurbihsed this week I got a 12 year old Toyota yaris as a replacement, I prefer my golf!

The only other option would be to go to an independent and find a scrap donor part?

I’d look at getting a scrap part and then replacing it when the new replacement is available.

Could you find the part from a breakers,then get the garage to check/refurb and fit it?
Edit> Bloody 10 seconds ^^😉🤣 <<Edit

inthebordersFree Member
It’s a Kia, 7 years or 100k warranty.

Lol. Even if you do 100k in the hire car over 4 years, you’ll still have the warranty on your own.

I’d look at getting a scrap part and then replacing it when the new replacement is available.

That sounds like a lot of grief just to get the garage off the hook for a hire car.

Not a new thing unfortunately Hyundai have been terrible for it for years. We lived this pain when we needed a front hub assembly and alloy on a brand new car that had an eccentricity somewhere in the hub/wheel interface that took 5 months back in 2000.

P

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That sounds like a lot of grief just to get the garage off the hook for a hire car.

The OP wants his car back.

Brexit benefit right there!

Nope. UK suppliers didn’t even stock air filters before Brexit.

It’s actually improved since then, again nothing to do with Brexit.

The OP wants his car back.

Maybe so but why at their inconvenience.  Ace in their hand at the moment doing as suggested above takes away any impetus for the dealer to do the right thing and push on the part

Can I add my tale of woe.

Last October the truckman tail gate on my works pick up fell off.

Booked through the works system to take it to a garage.

They can’t do it suggest taking it to a body shop so another booking required. They can’t source a like for like replacement and ask me to go back to the van management company.

They then send me to a local Toyota garage because they’ll be really good. They ordered a new top start of December. Apparently it has arrived and is being fitted, this was in the second week of March.

Last week I had a call from the management company to say my loan vehicle is going to be with me for an extended period. Just hoping I get the pick up back for towing the caravan in June!

I ordered a part for my 11 year old Merc.

“Ah sorry sir it has to be ordered from Germany. 4-5 days.”

I feel your “pain” / inconvenience… I’m currently waiting for a front spring for a Honda civic, it’s only been 7 weeks.

From talking to the guys at the garage this seems to be more common than it should be at the moment.

Although I get you want your car back, enjoy the courtesy car as much as you can.

I’m also in this position, realising how lucky I’ve been over the last 20 odd years to never have had a car off the road longer than a few days.

2017 Volvo needs a fully electric steering rack.  Various garages state main dealer job as it needs to be a brand new rack and coded to the car. (One quoted more than Volvo with the coding done remotely by another company and still needed to source the out of stock part from them) Second hand can’t be coded and can’t refurb as it’s the (coded) motor that’s gone.

After some false hope it’s been sitting at the dealer for two months waiting for the rack. They won’t provide a courtesy car (not even for a couple of days a week as and when they can)

Recently told it’ll be another 2 months (4 total) so spent £1500 plus insurance/tax on a banger. Days later… Hello sir, yes the rack is here, cars on the ramp, every thing is seized, we need another £500 in labour…

So I’m £2k down on the repair, £2k down on a banger I didn’t need to buy) and we are planning to get rid of the Volvo as soon as it’s back, lost the love for it. Probably leave it with them another month to give the credit card a breather though 🙄

We thought that at least going main dealer we’d get decent customer service and no unforeseen extra costs but it seems it’s the opposite. Funny how quickly you can turn against a brand.

Is it financed? If it is have you considered contacting them? It might be their own finance, but it’s still a separate entity and they may take it up on your behalf.

what’s up with the calliper? No chance of it being rebuilt in the meantime? Seals, pistons, sliders, dust shields are generally available for everything.

Genuine question; Can’t they just fit different callipers?

So I’m £2k down on the repair, £2k down on a banger I didn’t need to buy)

If it’s a banger then leave it with them and don’t spend anything. Unless of course your idea of a banger is more than I’ve ever spent on a car in my life?

If it’s a banger then leave it with them

No, the Volvo is worth about £7500/£9000 trade/retail.

The banger is what we bought last week, an 18 year old Ford for £1500. That seems to be the bottom of the market at the moment for anything with 4 wheels that goes and stops and doesn’t immediately need more £££ or the next 2 weekends lying underneath it spannering.

And I’m not sure what I can ask for short of asking for a new car to keep that’s the same model as mine which feels like a long shot.

Parts will be just as unobtainable on an identical car – so its a fairly short term solution

There isnt anywhere in the world where a part could be that it couldn’t get to the uk in a few days. A shipment of parts – a container-load of stock heading for the UK could take a long time if it’s having to be diverted around various droughts and conflict zones. But ‘a part’, if its obtainable somewhere could get here in a few days, if someone used their initiative. So the question is how much initiative are the dealership using – looking at the order screen and seeing ‘not in stock’ or actually making some calls.

Various models have their parts-availability achilles heals. In the before times, before Brexit, Covid and WW3 my sister in laws Subaru had to be be written off after the after an attempted theft becuase the lead time for a replacement ignition barrel so long it meant the cost of a courtesy car exceeded the value of the car

If the part is one with a known problem them it could be years. Our old Corolla had a Takata-made airbag, you know, the one that fired shrapnel during deployment.

Although it was a worldwide recall, the problem was in high humidity/high temperature climates which affected the propellant. The factory had to keep making airbags for current vehicle production lines, plus recall items…two year wait in the UK

Many manufacturers have long waits for specific parts; body parts for some have been a problem, presumably because they need them for production

Front coil springs for my van, delivered within an hour, hopeless 😉

My beef is that in a world of ‘just in time’ parts supply and barcodes/RFID codes and potentially even airtag style tracking devices, a major car manufacturer thinks there is a £1000 component in stock, then it turns out it isn’t and is on a container ship due in a month, that doesn’t turn up (or maybe it did and Europe didn’t want to let the UK have it) and the the next response is maybe we’ll have one in another two months.

Can’t they just reserved a rack s/n in the supply chain and give me a estimated date subject to shipping delays?!

For those telling the OP to “chill and wait it out” that’s fine assuming:

1) the replacement car is at least as good as what’s stranded

2) he doesn’t tow/use a roof rack/any other car specific accessory that isn’t on the courtesy car

3) he’s not having to carry a higher excess or additional insurance for it

4) that he’s not unfortunate enough to muddy up/scrape the interior with bikes and get slapped with a charge on return.

If our main/large car was sidelined for two months it’d cause us a real headache.  Tow bar bike racks and/or trailer are in use pretty much weekly plus large hairy dog to contend with.  Some of that could be done with a roof rack but not all, which is still a vehicle specific part in many cases.

I think I would be asking Kia to buy the car back into stock at retail value to stop the clock running on the hire car and buying something else. They can sit with it on the stock sheet until it’s done and stop paying out on the rental

Or 5) the hire car is significantly more expensive to run, because he could be out several hundred quid.

Or 5) the hire car is significantly more expensive to run, because he could be out several hundred quid.

slightly off topic, but in the mid 90’s I was at a campsite near the Kyle of Lochalsh where I met an Australian couple who had arrived at Heathrow to find that the small automatic saloon they had booked wasn’t available. After a bit of arguing the manager lent them his car at the same hire rate, a V8 Range Rover as it was the only auto on site. They were delighted with the upgrade until they filled it up the first time and realised how expensive uk fuel was compared with at home. They reckoned that it was going to triple their fuel cost for their extensive uk road trip.

For those telling the OP to “chill and wait it out” that’s fine assuming:

We didn’t make up a whole bunch of hypothetical situations and answered based on the information presented in the original post.

I ordered a part for my 11 year old Merc.

“Ah sorry sir it has to be ordered from Germany. 4-5 days.”

Same for the Merc trucks I mentioned above. Been 6 months which isn’t ideal considering they are emergency service vehicles!

Has the OP done numerous beer runs to Calais in his courtesy car yet?

Try ordering camber bolts or indeed any copy part (that isn’t dubious Chinese stuff on Amazon or eBay) for a 17 year old Mondeo, all roads lead to Autodoc.

I ordered a part for my 11 year old Merc.

Another sunglasses holder? That delay probably worked out to make sure the sun arrived in time as well! 😉