To enter Rambo, named because he is an impressive lifelike model of Rambo, a stud ram from the local property Bullamallita (meaning, appropriately enough for this column, place of a lot of bull), you walk up stairs meandering through his bladder, kidneys, neck and then you enjoy the vista through his squint little eyes, which are actually slits with plastic inlaid into Rambo’s concrete skin.
Readers, can I recommend you visit Rambo on your way to watch The Weekend Australian Racing Team (WART) in action at this weekend’s Sean Herbert-organised 24 Hours of LeMons. Can I also say the metaphorical road to Wakefield Park has been rocky. This week we lost the car on the way from the Michael McMichael Motors Global HQ in Stepney, Adelaide, to the NSW raceway. While we are talking about Michael McMichael (so good they named him twice), many readers — well one, who I have a sneaking suspicion is one of Michael’s many daughters — asked why do I think he is the greatest BMW mechanic in the world? Easy answer. Because he told me he is.
Anyway, on Wednesday, the truck and the car had gone missing. Upon receiving this worrying news, I had a huge attack of Catholic guilt. As I mentioned last week, we weren’t sure we had got Brownie the brown snake out of the car. Brown snakes have the second most toxic venom in the world. Not only does it cause progressive paralysis, brown snakes are bad-tempered. Apart from that, they make a wonderful pet for the kiddies.
Talking of kiddies, a number of parents (two) wrote complaining about my reminiscing of my school days when a few of us lads and lassies would go out in the playground in electrical storms and get a penny off the softie kids every time we got struck by lightning. I am sorry. It was irresponsible. Younger readers, ignore my advice. These days, if you are going to go out in the schoolyard and wait for a lightning strike, ask for ten bucks.
Naturally I thought Brownie had escaped the confines of the mighty 1990 BMW 318is and had worked his way into the driver’s cabin, raised its body off the ground, wound into an “S” shape, opened its mouth and struck, injecting its deadly venom into the driver’s exposed leg, causing progressive paralysis.
Luckily, late Wednesday, the truck, driver and car turned up alive. Then, at practice on Thursday, the exhaust fell off, oil dripped from unknown parts of the car, and the four different tyres meant the car and driver gave a better dance performance than Aric Yegudkin and Emma Freedman on Dancing With The Stars last year. I managed to pirouette the Beemer into the tyre wall with minimal damage to the tyre wall.
Talking of broken stuff: in August, the metal lover’s champion, Roddie Sims, launched the results of a preliminary study into the new car retailing industry. Basically it showed that the big car companies run the risk of becoming the new banks. More than 10,000 complaints over the past two years: manufacturers’ complaint-handling policies are preventing consumers from obtaining the remedies to which they are entitled under the Australian Consumer Law; car manufacturers’ focus on warranty obligations to the exclusion of their consumer guarantee obligations; the widespread use of nondisclosure agreements by car manufacturers when resolving complaints and “new car buyers are losing out as a result”.
No news to you. As long as manufacturers like Mazda treat customers, dealers and the media with the arrogance they do, the more chance the industry will get the same sort of political interference as banks and power companies. It would be good to see at least one politician have the courage to back Roddie and pressure the companies to behave.
Ray’s daughter bought a brand new Mazda CX-7 diesel eight years ago. In the last few years the car had major issues related to the diesel additive AD Blue, used by Mazda to reduce emissions. Recently the car started flashing more engine lights/limp home mode. Mazda told Ray’s daughter, “nothing wrong with it”.
Finally, with 90,000km on the clock, the engine died on the freeway, in peak hour, in a CX-7 full of kids. After a week, the dealer said “it’s not our fault, but you’ll need a new engine for only $20,000”. If you Google the problem you will see it’s very common. After a threat of going public, Mazda Australia reluctantly said it would fix it. That was two months ago. The CX-7 is still sitting somewhere in the bowels of the workshop. Ray’s daughter has bought a new car, but certainly not a Mazda.
Ernie bought a new diesel Mazda 6 from West End Mazda in Parramatta in 2007. After a range of oil problems which Ernie was blamed for, in 2010 he was driving up a hill, overtaking a truck on the freeway at 110km/h. The engine cut out to limp home mode. Ernie bought another car. Not a Mazda.
We’ve also got a lot of emails about the Ford Territory but this Ford Ranger story takes the prize. Canberra citizen Bob Dunn’s brand new Ranger with just 11,000km on the dial broke down on the Nullarbor on September 10 and Bob and his caravan have been stranded in Kalgoorlie ever since. Local Ford dealer said the flex plate had broken but didn’t have a replacement. After a month, he picked up the Ranger and three days later the transmission failed. Ford dealer ordered another one, expected next week. Bob has asked Ford for his money back so he can buy a Toyota to tow the caravan back.
Of course, we asked Mazda’s Sonia Singh about the issues but as usual we got the “Mazda doesn’t comment”, and Ford’s Jasmine Mobarek said she would get back on a Territory problem but didn’t.
Can I make the point that most of the problems we are seeing are not just about money or consumer rights. They are life threatening.
