Mekor Suzuki Kenilworth - ******* and *****

My experience dealing with Suzuki Kenilworth: I purchased a brand new Suzuki Ertiga (1.4i GLX M/T) from Suzuki Kenilworth in 2015. The vehicle was purchased with a 3-year service plan, and I was diligent about getting the services done.

The vehicle has a low mileage (only 46000km in 5 years). The very first time I took the vehicle on a longish trip, the car started overheating. I took every precaution to get the car safely back into Cape Town, stopping every few kms to fill it with water - the water was clearly running out somewhere as the water container was emptying, although there was no obvious leaking of water. The day after my return to Cape Town, I took the vehicle in to Suzuki Kenilworth and explained about the overheating issue. The vehicle was due for its service anyway, so Suzuki Kenilworth did that, and indicated that they had done some testing on the overheating issue and had not found anything. Subsequently, I had no issues with the vehicle, although, as previously, I did not use the car for anything more than short local trips. On the very next *long trip*, the vehicle started overheating again. I attempted to get the vehicle safely to the nearest town, keeping the revs under 3000, monitoring the temperature gauge vigilantly, and pulling over and filling with water as soon as the temperature started to rise. After a few kms, the temperature gauge stopped rising, and I drove very cautiously on, again, keeping the revs under 3000 and the speed around 80km/hour. The temperature gauge remained stable, at the halfway mark, but about 20kms outside Caledon, the vehicle just stopped. I managed to get the vehicle towed into Caledon for the night, and then to Suzuki Helderberg the following day. I contacted Suzuki Kenilworth immediately on the Monday morning to explain that the overheating issue had resurfaced, again on the first long distance trip. The workshop manager at Suzuki Kenilworth said it was nothing to do with them as they had run all the tests and found nothing wrong. Suzuki Helderberg then quoted me R12,350 to strip the engine, just to get to the point of where they could tell me what was wrong. I felt that this was an outrageous sum of money to spend on a relatively new vehicle, with very low mileage, to assess an issue that I had already flagged at the previous service. Suzuki Customer care advised that Suzuki Helderberg would just check if they could see what had caused the problem. The workshop manager at Suzuki Helderberg, called me, quite incredulous, and said that “somebody had drilled two holes into the thermostat”. He asked if I had had the vehicle worked on by anyone else. I have the photographs of the “damaged” thermostat taken at Suzuki Helderberg. For clarity, the team at Suzuki Kenilworth are the only people who have ever worked on the vehicle - from its original purchase as a new vehicle, through its services, and their assessment of the overheating issue. If there are holes drilled into the thermostat, they were either drilled by the team at Suzuki Kenilworth, or I bought the vehicle with the holes already drilled. I pointed this out to the customer service manager, who stated (quite correctly) that we can't prove anything. Of course, the question of *why* anyone would have holes drilled into the thermostat of a vehicle covered under a service plan couldn't be answered either. Suzuki Kenilworth denies any wrong doing, or any culpability. Suzuki SA says they can't intervene as they don't know for sure that Suzuki Kenilworth is responsible. There are two issues here: - there was a latent issue with the vehicle, which was flagged to the dealer, but not resolved - the thermostat was clearly damaged, either by someone at Suzuki Kenilworth who worked on the vehicle, or already when it was purchased The district manager at Suzuki has effectively said "It's your car, and your responsibility." So a 5-yr old vehicle, with 46,000kms is going to cost me in excess of R20K, for a latent defect, which certainly appears to have been jimmied at the dealership. My advice from this experience - stay away from Suzuki Kenilworth, Suzuki Ertiga, and Suzuki in general. There are undoubtedly safer budget 7-seater options that won't end up costing you an arm and a leg.