Re: Garage labour rates as high as £153/hour

Blimey, if I were you I'd try for more :-)

Peter

believe, that's the edited highlights, much like bb version of events :)

so basically you got screwed for something that you didn't really need to be screwed over? but they said they would take it all apart and then see if the problem was with the clutch or not? why didn't you just say "well then lads, if you want me to pay for a new clutch I won't get it done" and have them put it all back together again for you :)

Yeah, basically :-(

Yep, should have told them I'm absoloutely certain there's f*ck all wrong with the clutch mechanism (no stiffness there) and it's a simple case of the spot welded bit on the clutch pedal coming apart, and that it should take them less than 5 minutes to look at it, and then if SEAT don't agree to paying for it as a goodwill gesture then I'll go elsewhere to get it done.

I mean, how fiddly is it to remove a pedal box? Presumably I'd need to remove all sensors/connectors involved with the other pedals first, and then remove the other pedals first, or would it be the case of removing the whole lot with the all the pedals in situ (i.e. still pivoting in the pedal box)? Anyway, it's not a job I fancied doing to be honest, even though if I had it would have only cost me about £20 to get the welding done (if that - tiny patch about 1cm^2). Add to that the fact that I don't like working with my head tipped back in the position required to work under the dash like that as I tend to feel a bit queezy (sp??) for some reason being upside down like that! Still, I'm a bit annoyed as I could have got it done by a local guy for probably something like around £80 all in. But at the end of the day, they could do it then and there - well it was booked in for Monday but they said if they could do it sooner they would (did it on the Friday after dropping it in Thursday morning), and a local guy may well have been fully booked up, plus I've got loads of things I need to be doing, so at least it's done and out of the way now, all fixed and going again.

But out of interest - any idea if I might have some sort of recourse via the RAC legal team or similar? On the receipt they wrote "welded - will be stronger than original part", basically saying that they'd be better off welding it rather than just replacing the clutch pedal as it's a weak design, admitting there's a design fault there. Now surely there's gotta be some sort of comeback on that? After all, I can accept general wear and tear, and even the occasional thing going wrong on a well maintained vehicle that's out of warranty, but a clutch pedal shouldn't just come apart like that, ever. Could it be worth my while trying?

Peter

I used to work at a tech college, the motor vehicle course usually had at least one girl on it each year. If there was a girl on the course she would be apprentice of the year, the boys would all be a long way short of making the grade on all counts. I doubt if any of them work at the hands on end of the trade. One woman near here runs an independent MOT test station, has 3 blokes working for her.

If you think that women are unable to undertake technically demanding jobs I suggest you never fly again. About 30% of the stress engineers working in turbines at Derby are women. A lot more work in other engineering roles around the firm. A very high proportion are working in HP turbine blade production.

Merlin's and aircraft were rebuilt and maintained by women during WWII. A very patronising news report.

Queen did motor vehicle maintenance during her wartime ATSservice.

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A lot of those midlands CNC shops have shut, the machines loaded on HGV's and shipped out to East Europe. All that's left is final assembly, installation and service.

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My niece, petite and very pretty, is a metallurgist. And so successful she's gone freelance. Often the only female on a North Sea oil rig.;-)

No, she only fixes her own Land Rover while all the flunkies and police escort run round in circles.

-- 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 know about that, but apparently at one point, the King (her father=20 obviously) was doing a tour of the facility. He'd sneaked in (or got a=20 lackey to do it) earlier, and removed the distributor from a vehicle she wa= s=20 working on.

She then spend ages trying to get this thing working, and he turned up and= =20 said something like "not got it started yet?"

She may be a keen spanner monkey, but she knew SFA about electrics :-)

Pete.

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I was away on business in Spain for a week, so my wife drove my car around. She managed to get a puncture - car is 6 years old, had it for ~100k miles, and she gets a puncture (not her fault!) 2 days into driving it.

She took it to ATS, and they said they _could_ repair it, but...

1) There was wear on the inner shoulder of the tyre, plus wear on the outer shoulder, so they've been run while flat. They were also so bald, they were illegal.

2) The wear pattern meant the tracking was out as well.

3) The tyres were "Dangerously split"

4) They could get new tyres for 66 a corner.

Answers

1) Yes, there was slight wear on the inner shoulder, and the pressures were a little low

2) The tracking was within manufacturers tolerance from the factory

3) The "splits" were part of the pattern of the tyre. The little "islands" of rubber that make the pattern have slits in them (for some reason).

4) I went to the local independent and got them for 43ukp a corner. They checked the tracking, and it was fine. The tyres were OK. They weren't dangerous, but on the balance of "do I get them now or in a month or so", I just got them to stick new ones on.

I _never_ trust anywhere like ATS, Kwik Fit etc. I may be putting my trust in Ford Rapid Fit though, because they can do an oil change for less than I can buy the bits from. How badly can someone mess up an oil change[0].

Pete.

[0] Yes. I know how badly they can mess it up!

Mind you renault want £80 + VAT to put my 1997 Megane onto the computer just to read the fault codes.

However this means one thing I am just about to buy a new car and it will NOT be a Renault

HTH Phil

I'm sure she'd be delighted. And share the job with her husband who's also a metallurgist. But neither petite or pretty...

Sounds very similar to my experiences on my '98 Megane. My first cambelt change (I just asked for that rather than an N-miles service) cost £260 from Renault dealer. The second one cost £90 from my independent garage. Ever since that first cambelt change the only time I've been to a dealer is to buy a hubnut and ignition coil (if yours haven't died yet, be ready for it!).

I've also suffered a rear wheel bearing failure too (about 60-70k miles, still far too small). Did think about doing it DIY, but getting it out of the hub was impossible so my local independent did it for about £60. If it happened again, I'll remove the hub myself (which was dead easy) and just take that to somewhere with a press to change the bearing - a 5 minute job.

I've changed pads and discs a couple of times now and got the parts from GSF which were pretty cheap (as they are common pads used on some Pugs too). As you say an easy DIY job.

It all proves that you can save yourself a fortune by avoiding these dealers, who more often that not don't seem to have a clue (unless you are lucky and get the token knowledgable person).

A few days after my mighty servicing bill, I got a call from a marketing data mugger to collect some information on my 'experience' of having my Renault serviced. Was I satisfied with the servicing (I think so - they made the funny noise go away, anyway), was I satisfied with the staff in the dealer (yes - if I'm going to have to pay a huge wad of cash, there had better be some top totty to look at whilst doing so!), cleanliness of the car (yes - they did wash it before I collected it, and gave me a freebie first-aid kit! No nice smelly thing, though). Then they got onto the good bits...

Was I satisfied with the cost? Good Lord, you've surely got to be kidding! A £700 bill and I had to do some of the work myself just to get it down to that??? Then they asked what I thought would have been a reasonable bill. I guestimated a couple of hundred for the service, plus another 80 quid or so for the wheel bearings, and another 80 perhaps for the discs. Finally, they asked whether I'd be buying another Renault. At the moment, I think, not bloody likely - I can't afford too many more routine servicing bills like that, and the new shape Megane is just too ugly for words. And yes, they can pass that information onto Renault UK if they want!

Brian.

The message from Brian Ruth contains these words:

That's about double what I've ever paid for a car!

it might be worth writing to seat themselves and asking why, if the weld is better than th eoriginal, wasn't it covered by a warranty thing or a recall? if it's a known falut? might get your money back off em no?

I'm an RAC member, and I think I get some sort of legal cover through them, so I might write to them and do it that way - I've gone the SEAT route and they were f*ck all help. Hopefully with the backup of RAC's legal team I might just possibly, maybe, get some sort of recourse.

We'll see.....

Peter

they are overpriced and a bit of a joke I have to rig the cooling fan on myself because they can't find the fault it's been over a year things that make you go hmmmm? no, things that make you go "%$&^&£&&^££^£&^£^%^£&£^&*^£&£^"^^! wanker !"