Don't trust the "specialists"!!

Oh dear.

Do you really think ATS could be considered 'specialists' in any field?

Well, I use the term loosely. But it was either them or Kwik-Fit!

They're 'specialists' in taking the proverbial! ;-)

"CK" wrote

It is the business philosophy of both of these companies to sell you as much as possible, and their fitters, who are on commission, view virtually the whole of the underside of every car they see as being in need of total replacement.

Use a friendly local garage for this sort of thing.

Depends. I knew of a good one shoved out the back of a pissy little industrial estate. It wasn't much more than a shed, but the bloke running it knew his stuff.

Needless to say it's been closed down as there's another in town, full of couldn't know less pristine overall wearing airgun moneys and immaculately clean advertising bumf scattered on the polished tables.

I have a little blow in my exhaust that has been there since I got the car 2 months ago. Not too bad, but it is on the list of minor niggles that I plan to get sorted out.

Took the car to my local ATS yesterday for them to have a look and get a price for the replacement part- after 3 of them had a look at the car, they informed me that the leak was coming from the flange between the downpipe and the Cat.

As they didn't carry the part, I would have to go to the dealer (Renault) for it. Went and priced this up and was about to be relieved of £93 for the privilege, when I thought about possibly getting the pipe welded. Took the car to my regular garage who had a look and pointed out that there was no hole in the exhaust system- the blow was caused by a failed gasket between the Downpipe and the Cat!!

This should cost me the princely sum of £10 to fix!!!

Armed with this info, went back to ATS and all they had to say was , "Sorry".

So much for "specialists" in the exhaust world!!

Obviously the ATS fitter was not following his training. He will get a serious reprimand from his manager fro telling you that a part that they do not stock was faulty, what he should have said is that you need new discs and pads and 6 new shock absorbers.

I do hope so, a member of my family is one of the regional directors.

Then again, he's also someone who spent £19k on a Renault Espace...

And you're happy to admit that in public!

To be fair, it's probably company money..... I'd be tempted to buy something silly if I were spending someone else's cash.

(think Vel Satis or Avantime, though)

Yeah, he's trying to make them better.

Nope, it was his own money. His company motor is a Merc E280 CDi.

I parked the Safrane near a Vel Satis and a Citroen C6 the other day, it was like a meeting of the obscure French car club.

Yes, you are almost spot on. I experienced it first hand from Kwik-Fit in Ruislip, South Harrow. Laughable. No,despicable!

The seats in the Vel Satis are fantastic - i`d love to retro-fit them into my lowly Hyundai :-}

as possible, and their fitters, who are on commission, view virtually the whole of the underside of every car they see as being in need of total replacement.

I'm not doubting their (in)ability to diagnose faults, but thankfully, on this occassion they couldn't supply the part they said I required!

No-one was able to supply part,other than Renault themselves.

I wonder what Renault would have snagged if I had gone to them first....................................

I read this sort of thing on a regular basis.

But, you know what's really odd? This hasn't been my experience.

The exhaust rotted through on my car recently. They replaced just the exhaust, commented on the state of the tyres and that was it. The price of the exhaust was about 40 quid more than I could have got it from Euro Car Parts but it was fitted so I was happy enough with that.

Personally I'm happy with kwik-fit; I know they will be a little expensive but apart from that I've not had any complaints.

To be fair, you're pretty clued up on all the oily bits. I don't know if they can detect that when you take your car in, but it's not uncommon for 'soft targets' to be shafted by fast fit establishments.

-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

Don't get me wrong, on the whole I've had good experiences with these sort of places. But it only takes one crap visit to make me doubt their abilities. Most of the guys I've seen working in such places don't look old enough to drive a pedal car never mind fix a real one.

Oh, I'm sure soft targets get shafted at fast-fit establishments; I'm also sure they get shafted by small garages. I don't think kwik-fit/ATS/whoever are whiter than white- I just don't think they are worse (in this respect) than a back-street garage.

CK ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Indeed.

But that's somewhat akin to asking whether the piss in this overflowing urinal tastes better than the piss in that overflowing urinal.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@bogoffwithzepressedmeatblueyonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

A C6? Really? A C6 in the wild up near you? UK plates?

There's been a _few_ sightings, but primarily near CitUK in Slough.