Awful company.
We took our Mini Countryman to PMW for a turbo replacement, Daniel told me it was an engine out job and I asked him to give the car a thorough check. He rang to say that there was a glow plug module fault and that we should replace it and the plugs, I agreed to the extra work.
I asked Daniel if we should replace the timing chain while the engine was out. He told me that it was absolutely not necessary as the timing chains “almost never” fail on these engines and if there was an issue we would hear a rattle. I asked him if he was sure about this as I was happy to pay for a new chain rather than risk it but he insisted it was not necessary.
The work was completed and we paid the bill of £3,312.84.
Six months later the car broke down and had to be recovered, the mobile mechanic told me that the timing chain had failed. He said this was a common problem with N47 engines and he was very surprised that PMW hadn’t suggested replacing the chain whilst replacing the turbo. Since the turbo was under warranty we had the car taken to PMW and I asked Daniel to find out what damage had been done by the failed chain. I looked into the issue and found that the N47 engine is notorious for chain failure. So much so that there are multiple companies that solely rebuild that engine. There are dozens of articles about it and in fact, if you Google N47 engine it suggests timing chain issues immediately.
PMW rang me to say that they had spent an hour investigating and the chain that had failed. I reminded them that I already knew this and I wanted to know what damage had been done. They told me that this would cost another two hours of labour. They then rang to tell me that they had made a mistake and would charge me for two hours instead of three.
The next day Daniel called to say that the chain had failed and damaged the top part of the engine and that in his experience, this always resulted in the bottom part of the engine being wrecked. He also told me that to fix this it would cost “anywhere from £6,500 to £10,000”.
I reminded him that he had told me explicitly not to replace the chain. He became very defensive and argued that it almost never happened and that he had been “trying to save me money”.
He also said that replacing the turbo didn’t involve removing the engine, completely contradicting what he had quoted me for originally.
He was rude, arrogant and talked over the top of me, dismissing my point that the N47 engine was prone to these problems as “something you found on the internet”.
I asked him to get the rocker cover put back on to which he replied that he’d have to charge me before laughing about it and saying that it was a joke. He rang me the next day and told me that he had rung around and spoken to three garages between Chelmsford and Colchester that specialised in repairing N47 timing chain failures and the average price was about £4,500. As I pointed out, if it’s such a rare occurrence, how did he find these companies so easily and why was their price so much less than he had quoted me? He couldn’t explain that.
We paid the bill of £216.00 and booked the car in with a proper workshop. PMW made our recovery driver wait for around 40 minutes for the key, and I had to ring and tell them to stop wasting the driver’s time.
We had the engine rebuilt with a full 2 year warranty for £3,200. The workshop were brilliant and as they had predicted, there was no damage to the bottom of the engine.
PMW’s bad advice cost us well over £4500 in rebuilding the engine, recovery and car rental, not to mention all the stress and inconvenience. Not only did they give bad advice, they profited from it.
I take no pleasure in leaving a negative review; I believe that it’s far better to let a company try to put things right or at the very least, apologise when they should have done better.
PMW are without doubt, the worst company I have ever dealt with and it’s very clear that despite their claims of expertise; when things go wrong they refuse to take any responsibility. I would advise anyone reading this to avoid PMW at all costs.
29 januari 2025
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