Our Cars : MG6 rolling on

Faith restored

Bought: July 2012
Mileage:  7856
Actual economy:  37.1mpg

From my last blog regular readers will know that I was having problems with some persistent issues that were starting to spoil the enjoyment of my ‘6.  The main gripe was misaligned steering plus a vibration at motorway speeds.  The car had been returned to Morrisons Garage in Stirling on four separate occasions, and each time I’d taken the car back with the issues unresolved.

My patience was wearing thin to say the least, so I left a message on the MG Motor UK Facebook site, and I now very much believe in the power of social media!  I was contacted by Keith Harris, MG’s Customer Relationships Manager, who asked for more details about the faults, and within a couple of days I was given a commitment that the issues would be looked at and sorted.

Keith liaised with Morrisons and it was arranged for my ‘6 to be returned to the dealership on 5 October.  I was advised by Keith that it was likely that the car would be with them for a week, so in recognition of the inconvenience I had encountered, MG paid for a hire car to ensure I had transportation (no MG6s were available, so I had a new Ford Focus 1.6 105 Zetec to play with – nice enough motor but I found the interior overstyled and the engine gutless).

MG sent a senior technician up from Longbridge to supervise and complete the work on my car, and I collected my sorted (and valeted) ‘6 precisely one week later.  I’m delighted to report that the steering blight is now gone, as is the vibration and I can now fully enjoy the excellent handling via the properly aligned helm.

I’m now in possession of the summary report giving information on the work done to resolve the issues, and I have to say I’m impressed with the thoroughness of the work undertaken.  Factory equipment was used to adjust the front alignment along with the rear camber, and the vibration was rectified under warranty through the replacement of two drive shafts, along with the precautionary replacement of front brake discs and pads.

My other gripe in relation to the driver’s window seal was sorted with a replacement seal, again under warranty.  The tyre pressure warning light problem was identified as an issue with the earthing points.  These were cleaned and refitted, again under warranty.  Finally, the smelly aircon was deodorised, and a new coolant bottle fitted to prevent reoccurrences of the coolant warning light coming on in error.

From the moment MG got involved, I gained a real sense that the issues were being taken seriously, and that my ‘6 would be sorted.  All-in-all, I’m very pleased indeed with their response & actions, and my faith in the MG brand (and confidence in the car) has been restored.

Keith Adams

32 Comments

  1. I’m surprised by this though. At Jaguar I remember working in a block called the PVT or PSVT or something along those lines, and this was the place that cars, under warranty, would come to if the dealers couldn’t sort the problems at the franchise.. I’m surprised they sent out a Longbridge tech as this would never normally happen with many of the other volume producers.

    Anyway, what was it that caused the vibration in the end?

  2. I love the irony of getting a Focus hire car. Nice move giving you a 105 brake one since it was bound to be underpowered with cars getting heavier. My 105ps Astra was the same which would explain why they upped the performance of the engine with their 2006 (minor) facelift.

    It’s a shame that MG Motor UK don’t warrant 2005 Rover 25s! We also have a problem with a window seal causing a leaky driver’s window if the window is lowered then not manually shoehorned into the mid-shapen seal on the way back up

  3. Good to hear that MG UK pulled their finger out to make you satisfied again… It’s only right.

    Re: the Focus hire car. A 105ps version is bound to be less lively than your 1.8 160ps MG. A Focus 125ps or 150ps would be better, but for a run of the mill hire car I suppose the lesser powered one’s suffice.

  4. Good to hear that MG Motors are so responsive. It is pretty much a new brand with much to prove, and it’s customers are effectively ‘beta testers’ to some extent. It would be pretty surprising had they hit the ground running with 1990’s Toyota levels of near perfection.

  5. Good news. Particularly good to hear that the main MG organisation has the skills to fix tricky problems like these and is willing to let their technicians work on customer cars

  6. Good news,at least they sorted it whatever the timescale and you didnt have doors closed in your face,imagigine the pissing about you would have had to do if it was Ford,Peugeot or some others.
    Perhaps the driveshafts was from outside suppliers as is the shock absorbers,faults develop it is how it goes.

  7. When we were Rover dealers, Rover would send up engineers to resolve persistant customer issues on our premises. They would stay at the B&B next door. Failing that, a covered truck would take away the offending vehicle and a lie-for-like replacement would be exchanged, even if that meant a Sterling.

  8. A bouquet to MG for sending someone up to sort the issues.
    A brickbat for having to address them on such a young car in the first place.

    A nice trip up to Stirling for one of the factory techies then. Probably better than waiting around to see if anyone had ordered a new car that week…

  9. This is how it should be done – it’s true you shouldn’t really be having such serious problems on a new car, but it’s good to see they made the effort to fix it. Hopefully all customers will get the same treatment.

  10. @15 it was a long while ago, when Browns Lane was still running.. we were doing tests up on Track 7 and got moved to the Vehicle Emissions Validation block one week, then got moved onto this place…I’m sure it mean Post Vehicle or Post Sales Vehicle something….

    What I do remember was how clean and spotless the large workshop was and those hydraulic funky ramps that raised the car directly from the floor. Amazing bunch of lads used to strip out the offending parts and do some really rigorous testing.. I remember being amazed with their electrical circuits test-bed.

  11. Nice photo, a good looking motor from that angle. I’m still waiting for them to turn up here so I can take a proper look.

  12. Still, I don’t understand why the dealer gave the car back four times without curing the faults. The problems were quite clear, and the dealer was one of them, I think.

  13. From a comment I remember from a GKN staff member, parts such as driveshafts should only have a defect measured in parts per million.. ie, x number of parts defective per 1 million produced.. and that number usually in the ‘teens.

  14. Wow – all it took was a competent tech looking at it to fix all the problems. Too bad the garage doesn’t employ one.

  15. @ Mike Humble, it does make you laugh. Surely the dealer had a demo car they could have lent him whilst his was being fixed, or was that shonky too perhaps? Makes you wonder doesn’t it? Glad the problems are fixed, BUT, and it is a huge one here, the dealer should have had them all sorted on the first visit. If it had been me, the car would have been dumped on the forecourt with large signs on listing all the faults.

  16. @ Mike Humble, it does make you laugh. Surely the dealer had a demo car they could have lent him whilst his was being fixed, or was that shonky too perhaps? Makes you wonder doesn’t it? Glad the problems are fixed, BUT, and it is a huge one here, the dealer should have had them all sorted on the first visit. If it had been me, the car would have been dumped on the forecourt with large signs on listing all the faults.

  17. Glad the car is sorted and impressed by MG UK’s standard of service but couldn’t they have arranged another 6 while they sorted yours?!

  18. I have taken the plunge. Will be collecting my MG6 GT TSE on Thursday as a replacement for my ZR160. The ZR has done me well for the past seven years. I feel that the 6 will do even better.
    I will probably have increased the native Scotish population of 6’s by a considerable extent (apart from during BTCC weekends at Knockhill)
    Time will tell whether I have made the right decision.
    Iain

      • Seems to me there were quite a few instances like this where someone would announce they had just bought a 6, and were requested to keep in touch re. their experience with the car. Some said they would but I can’t recall many doing so. Except Ant McGowan and the other chap who’s wife bought one. Wonder why? And whatever happened to Mark Mastro’s car? Did they all turn out to be lemons?

  19. I still see a 15 plate MG6 in Cleator Moor, probably not too hard to get serviced and repaired as the nearest dealer is only 45 miles away, compared with 100 miles when the 6 was first launched. Perhaps the owner wanted a cheap family car and as values are on the floor now, won’t care about the depreciation. Also a black and yellow MG 3 is still seen near me.

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