I sympathise with you - peter cooper VW recently stung my sister over £650 for the same with a cambelt change to her golf.
Myself, as an experienced DIYer I wouldn't want anyone else to work on my brakes but me. (Just like folding your own parachute....)
Adam H
Of course, labour charges usually also include:
- Building Rent
- Heat, light & electriciy
- Maintenence
- Workshop Equipment
- Training
- Service Receptionist Wages
- Service Manager Wages
- Workshop Controller Wages
- Franchise Manager Wages
- Valeters Wages
- Courtesy cars
Yes - indeed anything they can lump on, except paying people to do the basic job properly, and checking it is done afterwards.
It may be nice to visit a modern flash reception area, with smartly dressed receptionists, but perhaps I'm alone in preferring my money to be spent in having the servicing on the car done to the highest standard. And that is sadly lacking at *most* main dealers.
MB_UK ( snipped-for-privacy@aol.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Oh, bugger.
Not alone but , depressingly, probably in the minority.
My next door neighbout had a Mitsubishi Space Wagon ( I think thats the right name ) a while back. He decided to hire a caravan and took off on holiday with it in tow. He was back a few hours later having blown the engine, clutch etc. He had forgotten to release the brakes on the caravan and overheated the Space Wagon. I can't remember all what got fried, but it cost £1800 to fix at the dealer. Ouch !!!!!
As a follow up to this - I phoned a couple of other dealers - all who quoted the same price - then a final one quoted 50 quid less - 260 - not 311.
I treble checked that they were correct and they were adamant that they were - so phoned the first garage back (where the car came from) and talked to the workshop manager.
It turns out that they quote Mitsubishi book price - which is 311 quid.
However, that's now not what I will be charged. He reckons 120 inc vat for labour (just slightly under this actually) and about 100 quid for materials/parst etc inc vat.
220 ish then.311 down to 220 is a substantial drop.
Mitsubishi are cheeky buggers thinking they can get away with this.
Cheers Dan.
Our local VW is the same.
We phoned up for a 10k (or 1 year?) service for my wife's Polo. We were tol= d=20 it would be =A369 (IIRC).
When we got there, it was actually less than this.
The reason is that their pricing board (and phone prices) are standard - th= e=20 most expensive service for the car.
This is why the service for all Polos is the same, as is the service for al= l=20 the Golfs.
When they actually got the car, it's only a 1.2, so cheaper to insure, so= =20 the final bill is less.
They then tried to bullshit us saying that they'd noticed a problem, but=20 fixed it FOC. I eventually wheedled out of them the fact that there'd been= =20 an in-service recall for the crankshaft oil seals on the 1.2 3 pot VW=20 engine, and that had been done.
They also said they'd done a valet (as agreed) as part of the service, but= =20 hadn't actually done it, so we stood there while the service manager=20 hoovered it herself.
Pete.
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