Earlier this week I took our Fiat Ducato based motorhome for its second service. This requires getting from home to the far reaches of West Auckland to collect it, a 30-minute drive. Before driving to East Auckland to the service agents. Given the madness of the traffic usually around in Auckland, it’s not a prospect I welcome.

This time, unlike the last, people where still their Christmas, New Year holidays. This meant that traffic was severely reduced. I checked Google maps for an estimated drive time to discover instead of 90+ minutes, it should be 45. Oh, what a difference this time of the year makes to Auckland.

For those that don’t know Andrew Simms in Botany are the only authorised Fiat agents in Auckland that are equipped to service a 9-metre motorhome. This was something I didn’t think about when we brought it. While they are only due for service every 40,000 km’s or every year. I never considered the driving that might be involved just to get it serviced.

Arriving at the service centre, this time I found a park and wandered into the reception to get the process started. The very friendly staff welcomed me and we talked about how long the service would take, as they knew I wanted to wait for it. They then informed me that it would be another 30 minutes over what we had discussed on the phone. This was due to a recall from Fiat that needed to be completed. What recall I asked?

To my surprise they told me about a recall on the brake system. It turns out that some Ducato vans manufactured between 2016 and 2019 night have a faulty brake line clip. This clip, if it gives way will cause the brake line to rub on the chassis wall potentially rupturing. If that was to happen brake failure would result, not something anyone wants. Naturally I was happy to wait the additional 30 minutes while they completed the recall.

What surprised me about all of this is that Fiat announced this recall in back in October and I have heard nothing about it. There has been no letter or email from Fiat NZ and I have seen nothing on the various motorhome Facebook groups. I had an issue with the last recall because my motorhome wasn’t registered with Fiat NZ, but I know that it is now. I will need to investigate why there was no notice this time. So if I hadn’t taken my motorhome for service I would never have learnt about the recall.

So I urge you if you have a Fiat based motorhome between 2016 and 2019 check with your local service agent or Fiat themselves to find out if your vehicle is part of the recall. I don’t think anyone wants their brakes to fail on them. Although I am sure the chances of it actually happening are quite small why take the chance.

They have a really good waiting area at Andrew Simms, in the vehicle showroom, with good coffee. Just over 3 hours later the service and the recall where finished, my wallet was $660 lighter and I could start the 90 odd minute journey to return the motorhome to storage and head home.

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