In the 1970’s a local customer drove onto our petrol forecourt to show off his brand new bright white Triumph 2000 Mk2, which he had just purchased from the local Triumph dealer, just 5 miles away. He came to show us because we ran the same model Triumph for our personal use.
After only a few months the same customer arrived on our forecourt with the same car, and expecting to serve him with petrol, we went out to him, but that wasn’t the reason for his visit. He asked us to take his car for a road test, because it had developed a vibration. Returning from the road test, we agreed there was a vibration, so we drove it onto the lift and gave it a good underneath inspection, checking engine mountings, rear driveshafts and centre propshaft etc, which as expected with it being brand new, did not show up anything loose or worn. We suspected it to be an out of balance centre propshaft, and recommended we could fit a large hose clip to the shaft, then keep moving it’s position until the vibration was reduced or completely fixed.
The customer commented he would have nothing like that done to his nearly new pride and joy, and promptly said he was taking it back to the local main dealer to “get the job done properly”.
A couple of days later he arrived back with his car, and asked us to road test it again, which we did. The vibration had gone, and the owner proudly commented that he knew the main dealer would fix it properly.
My father and I felt a little peeved by the way customer was implying that the main dealer would do a better job than us. While the customer was talking to my father in the office, I slid underneath the Triumph, and saw a bright and shiny new hose clip on the propshaft. Of course I was feeling much better after I saw the hose clip, and couldn’t get to the customer fast enough to tell him what I had found. He came out the office and looked underneath his car, because he didn’t believe me, but when he saw the clip, he quietly got into his car and drove off, and we never heard about that issue ever again!
Submitted by: Alan Kirby
