|
Stories
Philip Crompton’s
Wedge Story
At the time the car was launched
in the mid 1970's I was the warranty manager at Lookers Manchester, the
city's main Morris, MG and Wolseley distributor. I remember first hand the
reliability problems of this model along with the other Longbridge/Cowley
products of the time (Marina,Maxi,MGB).
The two specific 18-22/Princess issues that stick in my mind are:
I remember a customer
returning with his car within a matter of days if not hours of collection.
The heated rear window had completely shattered and working only a short distance
from the dealership he had managed to get the
car back to us with the window in more or less intact. Having not come across
this problem before we suggested that something had hit the screen causing it
to shatter and the repair, a new windscreen, would be chargeable.
The customer was absolutely adamant that nothing had touched the car as it
was parked in a secure indoor garage during the day and would not pay. The
dispute escalated with the Customer Services Department at Cowley becoming
involved. They initially backed our decision but a few days later reversed
this as more and more reports came in from different parts of the country of
the same fault. I remember this story mainly because of the strange request
that Cowley then made. They asked if we could copy manufacturer names/serial
numbers from the screen then remove it as carefully as possible preserving as
many large pieces of glass and forward it to them to analyse.
A large box was duly
dispatched to Cowley containing many thousands of glass pieces and a few
larger sections held together with tape. I often wonder what happened to the
contents of that box, I had visions of someone piecing it all together again.
It later came out that one of the manufacturers of the screen had made a
batch slightly to big and that coupled with use of the heated rear window
lead to an expansion problem.
The second issue, which you touch on in the web site, is that of rear
suspension mountings collapsing. The mounting, which was a large piece of
flat rubber about the size of a packet of butter and half the depth with a
metal
plate bracket bonded on each side, just used to shear. This rendered the car
unsafe to drive and we had quite a collection of cars on site awaiting parts
for repair. The problem was further exasperated at the time by the Parts
Division going on strike which was quite a common occurrence. One of the
vehicles we had of the road belonged to a senior BBC executive in Manchester.
He was far from amused at situation and threatened to use his position to
expose the factories and models shortcomings. So seriously did the factory
take this threat that one of our After Sales representatives smuggled a pair
of mountings out the factory and past the pickets in his brief case after
attending a meeting there.
I went on a warranty course at Cowley post Ryder Report and have never seen a
more despondent unmotivated workforce. The reality of there no longer being a
"jobs for life culture" had come. I recall at lunchtime our
instructors escorting us to the canteen and taking a short cut through part
of the factory. Before we went in it was made clear that we had to stick
together, not talk to anyone on the line and pass through without stopping.
Any breach
of these requirements where grounds for the line to be stopped and an
official stoppage to take place.
Added 4th
January 2007.
Tell us
your Princess story. Email it to me and I’ll put
it on the site, and don’t forget the pictures!
|