Never buying Suzuki again

I'm starting to think that buying a Suzuki Swift was the worst decision I could've made. Before and during the sale, the Menlyn dealership was incredible... and to be honest, I've never had any issues with them; even when I took my car to them for a service or two.

The problems started when I went to Bryanston. The services were okay and then one day, out of the blue, I was asked to Uber to work because they had no drivers available to drive me to work. Then I took my car in to get my gearbox issues sorted and my car stayed in the workshop for about a month, with them telling me that they are struggling to source the part... and the most annoying part about that was that I was given a turnaround time of about a week - a week turned into a month, without even being given a courtesy car. I logged a complaint with Head Office and within a few days, I got a courtesy car while my car stayed at the workshop for the month. A few months after my gearbox was repaired, my car started disengaging 5th gear while driving. 5th gear kept slipping into neutral, resulting in the car revving, forcing me to downshift to 4th. I raised this with Bryanston and they fixed whatever they fixed, talking about a "spring" that needed to be replaced or reset or whatever the case may be. Now, I'm dealing with the same thing again... and I don't know if I should raise it with Bryanston again, because my 5th gear only started slipping after they worked on my gearbox, or if I should raise it with Centurion, where my car last went for work - but then again, Centurion only worked on my wheels and wipers. I've had this car since 2016 - Jan 2020, 5th gear slips - July 2021, 5th gear slips.

Talking about Centurion, my goodness! Firstly, they don't wash cars - what nonsense is that?! Telling me they can outsource the service and I could pay just over R100. I've never had to pay to have my car washed after some work was done on it. To be quite honest, however, that was the least of my worries. My irritation was that they got my details completely wrong. I've been e-mailing them for a week, discussing things, but they somehow still got my details wrong. My surname was butchered! Together with that, they got my number wrong; which means that I didn't get the booking SMS and I didn't get a call to discuss the cost of my wipers, and I didn't get a call to come pick up my car. It was only when I looked at the job card that I got to see that my number is wrong. I had to call them at 16:15, to ask if I could go pick up my car - which was a significant inconvenience because I had to request an Uber, and I am 30 minutes away. The saddest thing about the Centurion thing is that I only went there because Hatfield completely ignored my requests for a quote. First, I logged an online query; no response. Then I logged another one and somebody sent me an e-mail requesting some information; I supp**** that information but still, I was ignored.

My perception of Suzuki is that their aftersales care is appalling. Here I am, struggling to find another dealership close enough to me because the ones that are close have horrible service; but also cringing in the face of the thought that I may have to spend money to sort out a gearbox issue that I only started having after my gearbox was "fixed" - I hate Suzuki. Never again.