Should I tow him off your property?

When you buy a new car, fortunately it comes with a warranty. And that's only right, if you're spending a few thousand euros.

However, it does sometimes happen that a new car breaks down.

Unfortunately, this happened with a new car from one of our renters.

The car stopped in the middle of the Noorderbrug in Maastricht. That is not a nice place to have a breakdown.

When the tenant called, one of our employees quickly drove to the unlucky person. Together they towed the car to our office in Maastricht, where the tenant got another car.

The car was not even a year old, and still had a warranty. It even had a mobility guarantee. So the renter could have called the brand's emergency service instead of us.

Anyway, we were happy that the tenant was on his way again quickly.

We towed the broken-down car to the dealer in question.

By the way: I am not a big fan of car dealers. You will notice that often - I can't help it. Sorry if you work at a dealership, or even are one.

The name alone says it all: dealer.

In Belgium they have solved this better. There they call such a company a car distributor. I see a kind of Santa Claus before me, who hands out all kinds of cars to people with poor mobility.

In the Netherlands, such a company is called a car dealer. That reminds me more of another kind of dealer who delivers pills or grass. And keeps you addicted to his product. Maybe car dealers should do that too, but to me most car dealers give the impression: nice that you buy a car from me, but then stay away as long as possible.

We tow the unlucky person to the car dealer. 

I walk in, through the showroom with all the beautiful, shiny, new smelling cars. Hey, not even a salesman approaches me.

Past the sales counter to the service counter.

"Can I help you?" asks a (still) friendly mechanic.

Sure! I say. 'I've got a bad guy with me. I bought five cars here six months ago. One of those cars broke down, so I had it towed here. It's outside.'

“Out here?” asks the mechanic.

'No, on the Vrijthof. So I said: I dragged him here.'

The mechanic gets involved. 'Then I can't help you,' he says. 'You are only entitled to a mobility guarantee if you have a breakdown on the road.'

'There was also a breakdown on the way,' I say. 'The car broke down on the Noorderbrug, but we rent cars. So I gave the renter another car, and towed the broken-down car here.'

"Then I really can't help you," the mechanic says seriously. "If there is no breakdown on the road, we can't accept the car."

I still think: that mechanic is joking. I ask him: 'you are a service employee, aren't you?'

'Yes,' he says, 'but I can't provide service in this case.' A smart service employee!

“And does it matter that the car is still under warranty?” I try. 

That didn't matter either.

We should never have been so nice as to tow the car to the dealer. It would have been better to let our renter wait at the Noorderbrug. Then hopefully the dealer would have come…

I slowly got a little angry. You leave ten thousand euros a few times in exchange for a few cars. Then you can expect those cars to last 1 or 2 years, right?

Or is it normal for a car that has been parked for six months to stand still on the Noorderbrug?

"Shall I tow the car off your property to the road and then call the mobility service?" I ask, more or less jokingly.

"Then you could get help," says the service technician. He meant it too.

“Don't you think that's a ridiculous idea?” I asked him. 

Yes, that may have been true, but those were the rules.

And that is exactly what I have against most car dealers. They appeal to rules, regardless of whether they are idiotic rules or not. They (often) do not think about how the customer is best helped.

Do you have similar experiences with car dealers? Or really good ones? I'd love to hear from you!

And are you looking for a car, but would you rather not buy it from a dealer? I'm going to help you find a good one car in the Heerlen region to be found. New or used, classic or sporty, anything goes. Then leave your details here.