Absolutely fab video. Balanced, honest and a great advertisement for owning one. Less so for McLaren itself who need to step up on the issues raised. Thank you John.
i guess Im asking randomly but does anybody know of a way to get back into an instagram account?? I was dumb forgot the login password. I love any help you can offer me!
@Rex Bowie I really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im in the hacking process atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I wish! Well, actually I dont, we love our independence and frankly Mclaren have very little (zero) interest what we do and that seems to suit us both really.
Great video John. I'm in the process of buying a used 570s and will be heading up to you guys for all things with it. You chaps did a great job serving my CSL a few years back.
Own a McLaren 570GT , had no problems or issues with the car , McLaren aren’t the only performance car manufacturer to have issues. However it’s good to see there’s an independent that can look after your car when required.
They aren't at all. BUT, other marques, have communities (thinking about Porsche) that aren't bloody deniers and just are very vocal about the problems and solutions are found and shared. Another reason that Porsche is very highly regarded as reliable is because there are hundreds of Thorneys spread in every country that know what will go wrong and just fix what there is to fix before it goes wrong. 997.2 gt3 rs was a mess on reliability (major ones were coolant pipes, cam bolts, the center lock that would fail and just lock a wheel doing eau rouge or any equivalent speed anywhere else, lsd was made of butter, and some other problems, all figured and with publicly available aftermarket solutions to them all. Anyone who buys one today, can spend 4k-8k and have that car last the duration of their lives without any major problem. Another thing with Porsches is that they are very binary in problems, things either work or they don't. Mclaren on other hand has the common niggles that after a while take a toll and start to add up in the owner mind, so when something fails on top of the niggles (IRIS, battery going to shit, key fob, bad grounds, etc) it creates an illusion that the car always has something going wrong, and it will only get worse, when in fact it probably won't.
Great video, stumbled over thanks to the YT algorithm but will be subscribing and watching more. Not yet being in a position to buy the 57o that I’d really want buy hope to one day I’ve always wondered what living with a car was actually like. I think like most people I’ve seen 3 UK YTers who’ve bought McLarens had them for less than six months and then made numerous vids about all their problems. Great to see sensible advice from someone who sees a lot of cars rather than car flippers who like to rev their cars from cold starts and then drive round upmarket squares in London.....
Really a great video. I have learned a number of interesting things about McLaren from you. Please keep up the great work. McLaren, really should help. You are the best PR they can get. If anyone lived near you who bought a McLaren the would be crazy not to have you take care of their car. You would save them a great deal of money and headaches. Again, thank you for your video, Ted
@@ThorneyMotorsport I think the underlying issue that McLaren has to manage is the question of how a small company wrestles the 800 pound gorilla - in this case Ferrari. Specifically as to parts and service: how does a service network make enough money to want to support the brand? They need margin - ie number of cars multiplied by the number of Dollars/Sterling etc that the service network can make off each car. So they need to pump out cars as fast as possible (which they have done - "channel stuffing") and try to force business through the dealer's service bays, not through independents (which they are clearly doing too). As the number of McLarens on the roads increases, this balance can be adjusted. Whether it should have been as harsh as it was . . . I kinda doubt. The business model adopted by McLaren should have allowed a better balance ab initio.
Some suggestions. You should do tutorials on fluid changes, oil changes etc. kind of like how to’s and May be a walk through when you have to repair/conduct a remedy for the oil issue for the heads of the engine? Those would be cool.
Always enjoy hearing your perspective on these cars. I recently purchased a 2016 650S and curious to know your thoughts on reliability, especially after hearing what you mentioned regarding gearbox issues.
Fascinating stuff. Incredible they're using such crappy materials as those 1p clamps. I suppose the super-hyper car market has become incredibly fierce over the last 5 years of so, and so they have to keep up with production and introducing new models etc, but, then again, they're probably to blame for setting the pace. Now Ferrari are unveiling 4 or 5 models this year, and that seems to be me to be because of McLaren, who have created a basic formula (engine, monocell, suspension) which they can (and do!) express in a variety of models and tiers. It must be awesome for the industry (and RU-vid gawker), but for the owner...well. We shall see!
A lot of these internet issues reported are because the service network dealers combined with dubious management approaches from Woking at times has exasperated and made a poor situation into a really bad one. A good Indi has a great opportunity to clean up on McLarens management mistakes. The car itself is not that bad...."pragmatism" springs to mind... resilience will come with time...
It’s awesome that reputable engineering companies such as your own are making ownership a less daunting experience,the bumper to bumper warranty you offer seems particularly reassuring and affordable I find it so disappointing that McLaren are prepared to invest so heavily producing world beating cars yet happy to send a car out with pennies worth of parts they know will require replacement under warranty ,worst of all lead to a tainted reputation.surely lotus have proven this business model to be unsustainable. I’m really surprised that Ron Dennis allowed this penny pinching,lackadaisical culture to thrive.
I thought am the only one who had trouble understanding what he's saying no the microphone is fine but his spoken english is bad the pronunciation is terrible
Very interesting and informative video. I'm building an Audi Sport quattro replica and have old Lancia's and Mazdas from the 70's. Reverse engineering is something I'm constantly thinking about. What are your thoughts on the rumors of a potential McLaren bankruptcy and how that would effect parts availability?
I get asked this a lot, just how secure is McLaren financially and the answer is, 'very secure' and 'very insecure' at the same time. Bottom line McLaren does not make money, never has and at the moment it doesn't even make cars (only car you can order at the moment is the GT) so you'd need to be a bit delusional to consider them even a going concern. However they have very affluent equity holders who are in effect the country of Bahrain who have been content to just throw money at McLaren whenever they need it, in the absence of any evidence that they are becoming less willing to do so I see McLaren carrying on as before. It does mean the whole business is based on the whim of a single group of people so you're confidence in the business is wholly reliant on your confidence of them.
@@johnthorne2920 Thank you for that concise yet detailed comment Mr. Thorne! Having spent some time during the boom years in Abu Dhabi and seeing how passionate that region is for super and hypercars as well as many other weathly individuals internationally who feel the same way I think McLaren will continue to exist. Their racing heritage is just too mythic to go to the wayside like that. Growing up I still have vivid memories of the Senna/Mansell/Prost battles and more recently the brilliant campaigns of Robert Bell and Alvaro Parente in the Blancpain endurance series. I was also at the grand opening of McLaren Palo Alto in 2011 with the unveiling of the 12C. All of this has completely enamored me with the brand despite all their faults- which makes your work and meticulous attention to detail and customer service even more relevant as time goes on.
@@jdmimportlogistics Yeah I agree, I look at it a little more hard nosed (I have to) and I used to be an equities analyst and equities trader so I'm financially qualified to assess these sorts of things and financially its a basket case, but then so is Twitter so there is more to a business than fundamentals. As for the Bahrain connection, well any simple search will detail that the $700m+ they have put into McLaren in recent years is a tiny, tiny investment for them so I'm fully confident that they wont let it die, so we can sleep at night :)
Lol, it's the sad fact that from now they will plummet, but don't worry about supply, McLaren seem to care little for the concept of supply and demand so will churn them out like Ford Fiestas
Let's hear how much money this guy has left after 4 years of pumping an abusive amount of cash out for maintaining this thing. Ridiculous how much it cost to keep this car running.
I can tell you exactly how much its cost in parts over 5 years now, £4200. That includes all fluids, bushes, arms and wear and tear parts. Includes mot costs but not fuel, insurance or depreciation or labour. If you add labour it works out to around £1500 per year in all servicing costs.
Great video, excellent content, very informative I know where to go for all my repairs and servicing now. Let’s hope Mclaren pay some attention to those valid points and address
1st 😀😀😀 A great video guys. Not making parts available is pretty poor, hopefully that changes with time. I wonder if they're just over stretching production to get the number of cars out there. I go past ascot McLaren very regularly and the workshop is full of car at night. If I'm ever in the position to afford a McLaren I'd definitely buy the best warranty available too
Thanks, a very clear explanation of what's what with these cars. It's a pity that the main factory has such a negative attitude to you, okay I have watched the clickbait/oooh it's me videos on RU-vid about Mclarens and I'm sure they satisfy people who maybe want to fantasize about the cars and what colour key-fob would best suit their dreams. Has it put me off a Mclaren well not yet, but like you can see what a bargain late low mileage cars are.
Great Vid. Just another English manufacturer who seems to care less about reliability and more about penny pinching - gotta cost more to them in the medium to long term, surely???
I watched this because Ive been really thinking abt going to McLaren from my Turbo Porsche which doesnt really give me any problems, but I dont drive it alot in NY..I would think if I didt beat the car up & check oil seems tho would be OK..I AM really worried abt the gear box tho..I hear keep away from 2012 MC12 but id been thinking 13 or 14, Maybe even 2015 650s, is the 650s much better tho? Hard to figure but I think the cars probaby pretty good But I am afraid of possibilities of big repair bills especially over the reliable Porsche, A Tuff One😉🐾
I've had a 650 Spider for 5+ years. The only failure I've had is the motor that controls the passenger seat back. Nominal expense. I used to have a 911 Carrera S but the McLaren is miles ahead. I'm in the Albany area.
Iv owned mainstream cars like Mercedes , BMW’s & Audi I very nearly bought my first hypercar 720S from a friend of a friend but when I delved further into my concern McLaren don’t care about their customers I also started seeing people posting info how unreliable these cars are in general , now I don’t have money falling off trees to fix cars but to buy into a company that sells cars at a very high premium one doesn’t want the added troubles of reliability on top of that as already . I currently drive a R8 v10 plus (2017) love the car but I’m bored of it I want to see more problem solving Indy’s out there so that I can re-establish my fascination with McLaren one day and hope to own 720S spyder at some point , mr Thorney please keep bringing the idea of ownership closer 🙏
Great video and the most informative 12c video on RU-vid. Its great that in essence your time, money, work and commitment has given many people an opportunity of ownership, that possibly otherwise wouldn't. I would dearly love one to own one, maybe one day? 🙂
