What To Beware Of When Adding Options To Your New Car
Friday, 24. June 2016
Now here is an interesting story for those that like the idea of taking a standard car and ‘blinging’ the car up with a pile of electronic gadgets. Hanne Lambley of Cheltenham bought a Ford B-MAX but wasn’t happy with the standard spec. so ordered a pile of optional factory fit extras to be added.
The dealer, Bristol Street Motors, described the car as a Christmas tree and wasn’t particularly surprised when the car’s battery started to go flat very quickly after just a few months. The dealer added that because the driver was only covering a few miles the journeys were insufficient to fully recharge the battery.
But none of this was explained to the customer who was obviously very dissatisfied. Whilst Ford stepped in and replaced the battery to a heavy duty model, free of charge, it begs the question as to why this wasn’t taken into account when the car was spec’d. Some software should have alerted the dealer to the fact that the battery would not be fit for purpose when so many battery draining extras were added.
So if you are ordering a new car with a pile of extras on check to see if there is a battery upgrade or get in writing from the dealer that the standard battery would be able to handle all the electronic gadgetry. Also I should mention that I have heard of, and reported on, many situations where CO2 saving stop/start systems have been fitted that seriously drain batteries requiring a heavy duty battery to be fitted.
But when drivers have taken the car to a battery centre for a replacement they have fitted an inadequate battery, as it was cheaper, only to find that it rapidly discharges. Make sure that if it is a first time battery replacement that the correct capacity battery is fitted and replace like with like. If a heavy duty battery has been fitted from new it has probably been done for a reason. By Graham Hill
