New 420

[aerobod - near CYYC]

I think Ariel is the largest functioning British owned car company at the moment, with about 100 cars produced a year.

[Geoff Brown]

Purchased my 2012 R400D through Jon at Millwood before the chop from CCs approved dealer list.

I all went swimmingly well & Jon even convinced them to fit RBTBs before delivery unlike the normal retro fit path. That saved me about £300 ! I paid for the car in three spaced periods.

After delivery of the kit the normal CC let down proceeded apace. Carp build manual, some of the photographs of the cooling system were upside down, excess of not required parts & of course short of those parts required for the build. The pre built front uprights were very suspect so dismantling proved that the tin of grease had been waived at the bearings from a great distance. Rivets not finished correctly requiring replacement. I could go on.

To top it all the ECU was not programmed for the RBTBs which became clear when trying to start the car. When it did it sounded like marbles in a bag of spanners inside a tin can. I shut down the engine within a few seconds. It took a few phone calls to convince CC Dartford that they had c*cked up & when they did all that was said was 'lucky you even got it to run' !

When completed the car was trailered FoC to Dartford for ECU reprogramming  & PBC.

Since IVA in 2013 the car has been a 'good un' except for the TITAN which again is another CC problem. I do not wish to avail myself of any services from CC or dealers going out of my way to find alternate outlets for parts unless forced otherwise.

Since the Nearn years it has been all down hill, lack of QA batch checking of spares & completed factory cars, poor sales & customer service & yes all they want is your money above all else.

 

[edo]

depressing reading.

First service was looking at Williams, are they ok?

[Grant_7]

@Geoff Brown,

No I bought a new (unlocked) MBE ECU for mine.

New ECU and 6hrs roller time (I had 4 custom maps created) came in around £1300. Sounds a lot, but in terms of difference has made a helluva upgrade!

[Geoff Brown]

aero #53 - So far I have received good feed back from area members who have used Williams. Having to please Lotus & Morgan customers will probably put them head & shoulders above single marque dealers.

You could save £££s & carry out the first service yourself ? Only oil & filter change, check & adjust gear box & diff oil level. Hopefully after such a short time on the road all should be OK though best to take advantage of the measly warranty if things are 'dropping off'.

[ScottR400D]

#55 seconded! Nothing too complicated first time and a great way to get to know your 7. 

[edo]

I'll be sticking with dealer to make sure everything is right, CC are also paying for headlight alignment and a tank of fuel....

[420R]

I do hope my new car has few faults...

[edo]

fingers crossed!

[colindavies56]

I bought my car new in 2010,what a rogue it was, it slipped the net completely, no faults, yes you read that right, no faults. Starts, stops and ticks over just as it should, nothing fell off, no clunking nothing. I just want to whisper quietly nice one caterham. 

[PeterM]

CC have always served me well. The odd minor criticism yes, but overall both Crawley and Dartford have been OK......mind you, now that 'Derek of Dartford' has left any plans for a 3rd build would need careful consideration

[GulfSeven]

Replying to #53:

First service was looking at Williams, are they ok?

I ordered my 310R through Williams. It's needed a few issues rectifying under warranty, and Williams has been pretty good at sorting that. They did its running in service and first service for me too, and I attended their charity track day early in the year where one of their mechanics diagnosed and replaced a faulty expansion bottle cap for me.

Millwood are close by and get good reviews, but they're not a Caterham main dealer of course, so perhaps not as useful for warranty stuff? I think they're both similarly priced though.

My car will be having it's second (and end of warranty) service at Williams in February. When is yours due?

[edo]

I think running in service is 1k or 3 months, so will be end of Jan or thereabouts. 

[Handwheels]

Don't want to tempt fate but CC have been pretty good with me since I got my 420R kit last Summer and it's run well for 1800 miles. Got the common stalling issue when cold (unless I adjust the tickover too high) but pretty confident I can get it sorted with a bit of assistance from my local club expert (you know who you are!) - I just haven't had time yet.

I found a slight leak from one of my rear brake calipers after a short while so I took it back to Gatwick and they swapped it out for a new one - while it was there I also got them to check/adjust a couple of other things. As it was a kit build I had wondered if they would just give me a replacement to fit, which in theory I think they could have done according to the warrenty conditions.

My frustrations are more around the relatively straightforward things they could/should do. When I took it to Gatwick for the PBC the expansion cap was touching the nose cone (which I knew was a common S3 issue). I was told it could be resolved for a fee - obviously I challenged why I should pay for a design fault & they immediately accepted that, & then modified the bracket. But why aren't all new S3 420s supplied with this modified bracket? Also, I ordered the interchangable aeroscreen which I haven't used yet - sure I'll figure out how to fit it, but surely someone at CC could find a few hours to take a few pictures and produce an installation guide.

Think the main issue is that they don't need to sell Sevens, they sell themselves.

 

[7Up]

2nd for Williams being good 

[theOC]

Caterham have an ECU modification to cure this - ask your local dealer

Mine was the same originally, I cured some of it with a bit of tuning of the TPS etc during build but Caterham Williams actually said that Caterham are pushing out an ECU mod that adjusts the mapping until the engine is warm - Since I had this done on the car it fires up and holds idle as solid as a rock everytime.

[Nigel B]

You'd think if Caterham now have an ECU modification to cure the problem, they'd be making use of it on new, factory built cars... 

[Mrp]

When mine had the accident repair in 2020 by Caterham Gatwick and the RBTB were fitted as an extra it ran a lot better at cold. Ii'm guessing the updated map was installed reading back on this thread.

[edo]

It's pathetic. They just don't give a ****.

 

[Edited by moderator to remove bad language]

[John Vine]

#32: CC ditched the best Dealership they had with the best person to buy a car from Jon Vicker @ Millwood

I have to agree.  Jon described to me how he was treated.  I won't expand on a public forum, but let's just say the word "shabby" pretty well covers it.

I bought my R400D kit from Jon, and Eric does my annual service.  Impeccable company.

JV

 

[Dave Hardcastle]

I'm on my second, second-hand Caterham. Both came from the same dealer, and both had issues. The second one far worse than the first. Is this a general 'Caterham World' attitude?

It is troubling reading how worried people are when waiting for delivery of a brand new Caterham! It's not like they're cheap, even when you build them yourself. Consider the number of production cars out there that you can buy for far less than the cheapest Caterham, and they would be the rogue car IF they HAD a fault.

As had been said in another thread, the recent documentary on the marque didn't show the company in a good light.

[edo]

Agreed.

The state of the factory and outside was an embarrassment and shows there is a lack of pride and attention to detail. They knew they had a camera crew going there but didn't feel the need to pick out the weeds growing round the building. I'm not expecting it to look like the McLaren factory but get a grip people. 

[7Up]

I have visited factories all over the world in developed and less developed countries for nearly 30 years. In my experience the outside of a factory nearly always reflects the inside!  

 

 

 

 

[edo]

agreed!