Most brands have had supply issues since Covid, just now getting back on track and the Red Sea issue will cause more delays as so many components are made in Asiaand then shipped to Europe.
There are still supply problems affecting car parts, and not just the latest ones requiring ships to be routed via South Africa. When did you last require body parts.?
With so many new models being released, there's a significant increase in the numbers of new parts that may need to be supplied as spares. Couple this the the number of new brands operating in the UK who are still setting up their operations here, and I'm not surprised some newer cars ( not just electric one) are taking longer to repair.
The problem of parts availability on new model cars is exacerbated by the fact that the non-OEM parts industry will not have pattern parts available given that there may not be that many of that car model in use yet.
In the present climate I feel that the garage did an excellent job of getting the parts for my car, providing a replacement vehicle when needed and prompt service when the parts came in. No complaints from me
The fault codes should be read first using an appropriate code reader, but if under warranty let the dealer worry about it. My Ford Kuga was throwing up all sorts of errors on the dash, battery was goosed, new one fixed everything
We had a Nissan Note diesel and its OEM battery lasted 9 years before caution got the better of me and I replaced it. Our Kia Rio is coming up to 7 years now with no discernible problens although I do switch Stop Start off when in traffic or coming up to a busy A road island.
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Our experiences mirror those sort of "lives". Generally the "end" comes with spells of very cold weather where the demands and a reduced amount of driving about become just too much for the reduced storage ability of the battery to cope with.
We can "limp" through those times by putting the battery on charge and waiting for the warmer times. However, finally at least in our case the reality of what has happened becomes increasingly evident and we buy a replacement, simply to have confidence in the ability to start when we want to.
Inevitably these batteries' ability to hold much energy declines, fact of life, the balancing trick is judging if it is still enough to do what we ask of it, if that task is not much, then we get a long life.
Those that situations place greater storage asks on their batteries, will not.
I recall that starter battery failure is by some margin the primary reason the AA, RAC etc report they get call outs; rather proves we don't all accept what becomes to us as the obvious, and keep on pushing their luck.
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The AGM battery in the Jeep has lasted just over 6 years. The strange thing is that when it gets low all sorts of weird things happen like the seat heating staying on no matter what you try. You need to stop the car, switch off altogether and then restart. Ask me how I know. I am getting a new battery today from Halfords.
Nominally 5 years - my VW battery was 8+ years old when it was replaced but the State Of Health (SOH) was still 80% suggesting it might have lasted twice as long, or more!
I think the Stop Start technology kills batteries a lot quicker. Our previous 2012 Jeep which did not have Stop Start still had its original battery at 9 years.
Unless of course If a previous owner was foolish enough to buy a battery from the dealer as battery would have cost well over £400. It is a "rebranded" battery with a Mopar sticker on it! However it did not look as if the terminals had been touched. Battery is inside the cab under the passenger seat.
I can't comment on Stop-Start as I rarely use it.
Mopar is the parts division for Chrysler which owns Jeep - all batteries are made by a handful of manufacturers, not by car makers.
They did a diagnostic check first and found the faults and then the parts were ordered
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