Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[white exec]

Gosh, Simon. Am staggered at that.
I have had several deliveries from Mister Auto Spain in the last month (including one last week), all delivered swiftly. I have one item in my basket at the moment, and that doesn't throw up any message en route to payment.
So, another casualty of Brexit. Well done, UK.

Interesting what you say about similar websites, Simon. Have noticed several seem to have the same layout, shop window, and options. Autodoc is one of them. Maybe PSA's arm reaches further than we thought.

[myglaren]

I am also very puzzled because I ordered parts from carparts4less.co.uk - which AFAIK is just a pseudonym for the well known eurocarparts (since the website and available listings are identical) which is based in Europe and had the parts in two days with no hassles at all.

They are indeed.
I bought a load of LDS from them - it was delivered (quickly) from Germany.

[Zelandeth]

Shipping things into the UK at the moment is a mess.

COVID is playing a bit of a part, but mostly is just slowing things down rather than actually getting in the way - unless you're talking about stuff coming from the areas currently struggling the most to which travel may have been significantly locked down.

Biggest issue here is the changes the UK government implemented post Brexit regarding payment of taxes and tarriffs. In a nutshell they've basically made this the responsibility of the sender. This generates a huge amount of additional paperwork that they have to deal with. An ever-increasing number of sellers for whom the UK is a relatively small market are just deciding that the red tape is more hassle than the sales are worth.

In the last six months I've lost three suppliers in Europe and the US. Currently I'm in limbo with a fourth in Austria who have just discovered the situation and are deciding whether to send my goods or not...

I've a friend back up north who runs a sonar equipment manufacturing company and they've been having exactly the same issues. Suppliers overseas just don't want to do business with them any more - and this isn't the odd £50 or so for a car part, we're talking tens of grand apiece orders here. The parts they need are there in stock, but they're really struggling to find places that will actually sell to them.

So the situation you've been seeing isn't unique by any means I'm afraid.

Sadly unless the government realises that this hasn't worked, admits it and changes things the situation is isn't likely to improve. You'll have to forgive me for not getting my hopes up for that happening in my lifetime...

[white exec]

Both ways, it seems.
EU suppliers who don't want the hassle and cost of sending goods to the UK.
UK suppliers giving up on export (to EU).
Reason, as you rightly say, is added costs, tax/tariff collection, and copious paperwork - disproportionate for small orders. All part of agreed deal.

[Mandrake]

Not sure if its Brexit or Covid related, but I got a letter from Robins and Day Citroen Glasgow (the big, main Citroen dealer in the area) a couple of weeks ago to say that they were closing for good (a couple of days before I received the letter no less, so it was fait accompli by the time the letter arrived) and directed me to the Citroen website to find my "next nearest dealer" !!

Not good. It's unclear whether Robins and Day Peugeot are still open or whether they are also gone now. Does anyone in the area who used to use them (Richard, David, lexi?) know what the alternatives are now for dealer only parts?

Is PSA starting a partial post Brexit withdrawal from the UK market or is this just an isolated case of a dealer that wasn't profitable and had to be cut? Seems odd for a high profile main dealer to close without warning.

Also spotted this about the DS brand faltering in the UK:

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish ... ace/221490

[white exec]

DS not over much in evidence, numbers-wise, in Spain either.
Some of us did think the creation of DS was an odd decision, especially given the runaway success of the Citroen (and Peugeot) brands.
If you're a dealer committed to having DS on your limited floor space, you've got a problem!

Just because Toyota created Lexus, there was no compelling reason for PSA to follow suit, and into a seriously-expensive market.

It's the dealerships that are at the sharp end when it comes to slow-moving stock.

[bobins]

Citroen have been closing some of their main dealer sites for quite a few years now. We lost the one down here 3 ? 4 ? years ago. They also mucked about with their spare parts service to make it worse for the punter and a bit of a PITA for the main dealers.

[RichardW]

Looks like the whole lot has gone - nothing on their website about it anymore. I imagine they got made an offer for the real estate they couldn't refuse!

Next nearest is Arnold Clarke at Armadale...

[Mandrake]

Looks like the whole lot has gone - nothing on their website about it anymore. I imagine they got made an offer for the real estate they couldn't refuse!

Next nearest is Arnold Clarke at Armadale...

Pity. Although I'm no fan of main dealers it was handy being able to walk to them from work in my lunch break to pick up dealer only parts orders - which I've done many times for the Xantia and Ion... I'm tempted to drive past some time to see what has happened to the buildings.

I should have guessed they were in trouble a couple of years ago when they moved the fully self standing Citroen building (sales, repairs, parts) from the adjacent street to just a sales show room beside Peugeot, making the Peugeot building do the service/parts for both Citroen/Peugeot. Seemed like an understandable rationalisation at the time, but apparently it wasn't enough.

I wonder if Arnold Clarke Armadale is certified for Citroen/Peugeot EV's ? As far as I know the Glasgow dealer was the only PSA dealer for a long distance that could service Ion/C-Zero's, and now that PSA are launching a few proper EV's of their own manufacture who is going to be doing the servicing in the central Scotland area?

Seems I moved the Ion on just at the right time.... (and incidentally, 9 months later the Ion is still listed as no MOT, no Tax, no insurance, so either the dealer I traded it in to is still hanging on to it for some reason or it is off the road for good now...)

I can see hard times coming for a lot of main car dealers as their need to exist (in such numbers) comes into question. Large scale sales of BEV's in a few years time will really put a lot of dealers to the wall as the gravy train of easy money for jam servicing (oil/filter changes etc) is going to dry up. We all know that main dealers price gouge on regular servicing but you can't gouge on items that don't even exist in a car anymore! They are going to have to down scale and re-invent themselves to survive.

[Mandrake]

DS not over much in evidence, numbers-wise, in Spain either.
Some of us did think the creation of DS was an odd decision, especially given the runaway success of the Citroen (and Peugeot) brands.
If you're a dealer committed to having DS on your limited floor space, you've got a problem!

Just because Toyota created Lexus, there was no compelling reason for PSA to follow suit, and into a seriously-expensive market.

It's the dealerships that are at the sharp end when it comes to slow-moving stock.

I totally agree - from what I've seen in reviews the DS cars are good cars and well liked, (and I see a lot on the roads despite the sales figures claimed in that article!) but they did not in my opinion merit the creation of a sub brand with separate dealers, and in hindsight this has probably been a big strategic mistake on PSA's part, especially in light of taking on the responsibility for the at the time, ailing Vauxhall.

They should have stayed firmly a part of the Citroen stable and helped to raise the profile of Citroen. Maybe that decision will be reversed in time.

[Mandrake]

Another attempt at ordering a lower suspension arm for the Xantia. Mr Auto are still AWOL in the UK so I've given up on them now, and I thought I'd try Autodoc. I haven't used them before as far as I can remember but I saw them recommended and they have quite a large selection that is suspiciously similar to Mr Auto's listings.....

This time I've gone for a TRW arm for £47. Fingers crossed it comes in a timely fashion and well packed!!!

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/trw/2202548

I made sure they also stock the TRW arm for the left hand side so that if I replace the left arm in future I have a matched pair on the car as the plan is to replace the left hand side as well at some point if the right hand side goes smoothly and fixes the clunk.

[white exec]

I couldn't find any reference to PSA on Autodoc's website, or on wikipedia.
The two sites do have very similar online appearances, but web-shop design is usually just put out to tender to specialist companies, and the results might just be similar. The similarity is striking - layout, colours, listings...
My son is in the web-shop design/management business; I'll ask him next time we chat.

[Mandrake]

It's not so much the website itself being similar that I'm referring to - as you say, ecommerce stores are commodities these days and many look very similar.

It's the very similar, long list of available suppliers for the suspension arm which track very closely with what Mr Auto list. Most other sellers I've checked have a fairly short list of available suppliers (2 or 3) for this part apart from Mr Auto and Autodoc. So maybe they are linked somehow.

I also ordered some new wiper blades for the Leaf in the same order so if all the parts arrive in good condition in a reasonable time I might have found a replacement for Mr Auto! They seem to have a similarly large selection of parts available.

[NewcastleFalcon]

There have been a few threads on the FCF about AutoDoc recently and its a case of speak as you find. Citrojim has used them with positive experience but fair to say the first thread started by David Hallworth was not so positive.

David's thread
viewtopic.php?t=66384

CitroJims order of heavy parts...with free delivery (much to my surprise) from Germany (October 2020) viewtopic.php?p=658891#p658891

and a Thread Started by Jim in February this year wondering if things remained the same with Autodoc deliveries in 2021.
viewtopic.php?p=675984#p675984

My own experience of Autodoc is that they have a youtube channel with over 2000 useful and clear videos of typical maintenance and repair jobs on cars. Never used them for parts.

Regards Neil

[Mandrake]

That's a shame to hear about David's experience with them, hopefully I'll have better luck and I will report back here!

It's always really irked me when suppliers try to get you to pay return postage when they send you a faulty or incorrect part. The fault is theirs, why should I pay for that, so I fully agree with David's position.

With Mr Auto seemingly out of action in the UK for the foreseeable future that cuts down our options a lot as they were one of the biggest suppliers of obscure Citroen parts. Others like carparts4less while quick and sometimes cheaper for certain items just don't have the same wide selection of parts.