Warning against using Ferret Motors

WARNING: I won’t recommend anyone to use Ferret Motors Tertius Haywoodfor any car related issues, be it mechanical, services or spray painting. I know this is going to be a long post but it is necessary to reflect the lack of professionalism and pride in one’s work.

Almost every time we've sent cars in it always came back with more problems, which seems to me they are making work for themselves to get extra business. Ie, you send the car in for one problem and we get it back with more other items not working anymore.

1974 beetle Car was sent in for the suspension. When we got the car back from them, it had to stand for about a week for us to fix the door in order to drive it (the door was no fault of Ferret Motors. When we drove on Saturday, we heard a funny noise in the front right, we luckily pulled over and it turned out the wheel nuts had not been tightened properly (ie we could turn the nuts with our fingers it was so loose). We know cars, having worked on them since our teenage years, and sorted it out ourselves. This is a serious safety concern as we could have been in an accident. When reported to Ferret Motors, it was said it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to check whether the wheel nuts are tightened (NOT SURE IF THIS IS ON THE K53).

No mechanic has ever said that to me and I never had issues before with wheel nuts coming loose after being at a mechanic. It should be standard procedure for any mechanic to ensure wheel nuts are properly tightened. Checking tire pressures are for the responsibly of the owner, understandably, but NOT wheel nuts. Being told that ONE wheel could be a problem on the car causing the wheel nuts to come loose on the car??? Why were the other 3 wheels fine? I just have to shake my head at this as I have never heard of a problem relating to wheel nuts coming loose on their own. Perfect example of people who can’t take responsibility for their poor workmanship. On top of that we got the car back with almost no brakes, sent it back to them (no additional cost) and the brakes are still not right. They informed me that beetles always have problems with brakes setting out… I have never had this in all the years I drove a beetle. The brakes were fine before we sent it in the first time, they were strong. Now we have to gear down to stop, which is an accident waiting to happen. The dash, including brake lights, indicators and headlights worked when we sent it to Ferret Motors. When we got the car back these items were no longer working. The ignition also worked prior to sending it to Ferret Motors. I am still planning to sort these items out as I am not planning on sending any cars back to them again. I asked Ferret Motors to fix this as well, however this was not within their capabilities.

In addition to the above, with the same car, we bought grease caps, which were not cheap, and when we tightened the wheel nuts, we noticed the grease caps were missing. The explanation from Ferret Motors was that it was not their fault as they can’t control whether the grease caps come off while driving. Seriously, on 1 trip, miraculously, all grease caps came off in a distance of about 5km? Our family had a beetle for +30 years and at no point did the grease caps ever come off, nor the brakes “set out”. We had problems with the carburetor, yes, but never on the other issues. Total cost for beetle is R9,741 (this excludes the parts as we bought them separately) and at the end of the day we now have more items to fix than before.

1986 Mazda Bakkie We were stopped at a roadblock and the bakkie was failed because of the brakes (we had to put it through the test again), which should not happen if the mechanic did their job right. I would also not recommend them for spray job, I sent my bakkie there and it cost approximately R13.5k and it is already rusting which we will have to sort out. The spray job idea came from the mechanic, we were coerced into it – I assume he wanted more money. He also used the pictures from this spray job to advertise his work on Facebook WITHOUT OUR CONSENT. There was a dent which should have been attended prior to spraying (Their knowledge in cars is so bad that I had to point it out to them), they didn't fix it as it was too much work to strip the car to the fender again. The paint job also does not feel smooth. It depresses me every time I wash her. The mudguards, window rubbers and door handles have spray on them, you name it there is spray paint where it shouldn't be. Over spray even got onto the interior! You name it, it had paint on it (Ferret Motors mostly cleaned it). Inside of the doors weren’t even sprayed. The lack of ethics is also apparent, I gave the owner a spray gun with great sentimental value. The spray gun was of the highest of quality and very expensive. He gave this spray gun to his apprentice (appy) in front of me. Now that is a true slap in the face. At one stage, whilst the engine removed, he sprayed underneath the engine in black. I appreciated the initiative, but it even went into the front fender, which is white. Just another thing I have to sort out on top of the re-appearing rust. Lastly, I would not park my cars there. He sprays with cars around which results in possible over spray getting on the other cars in the yard. When we sprayed in the yard, we always made sure we either put the cars outside or covered the cars that are not movable. The house windows did not fare that well, lol.

Now, the part where I can only laugh, in 1 year we have gone through 2 starter motors and eventually landed up with the same starter motor that my dad installed (ie the original starter motor that was in the bakkie before the 2 we bought). We had the engine redone and a few months later the head gasket blew, showing that the engineering on the head was not done properly. Upon checking the bakkie engine after redoing the head again, we noticed that an air pipe wasn’t even connected, we had to hook and fasten it property. I now wonder if checking all the bolts/pipes/nuts on the engine, and body, is also the customer’s responsibility (K53, is this needed)? At the end of the day, it cost us to get another mechanic to sort the bakkie out. This mechanic also us that even the gearbox oil was overfilled, and with old oil none the less. This could have had serious repercussions if we hadn’t attended to it. We have spent R88,565 on the bakkie!!! We sit in the same situation where we have to fix more items than what it went in for.

People always underestimate woman, these particular women know cars and can tell when something is not right. Do not try to think of us as stupid, you will always be caught out.

Ferret Motors did to a couple of favours for us to help us out, but at the end of the day the amount of items faulty now outweigh the good they did.

I believe, in business, work must be done to perfection which ensures the customer gets value for the money. If you can’t do it right the first time, don’t do it at all.