Conor ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
You live in the pikey arse end of nowhere, don't forget. My local indie Cit specialist is over £40/hr plus vat.
Tell you what, with that sort of difference in pricing it won't be long before haulage/recovery companies start utilising empty return runs to take vehicles up and down the country for servicing!
- yes you can imagine that I thought a lot worse than that.... It is a north london dealers... and perhaps thats the "know-nothing females" rate...
Why aren't they all the same...I hardly think that that particular area of north london is particularly less pikey than anywhere else- and they hardly going to use diamond encrusted spanners...!
loony ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Because the costs of doing business in Norf Lahndun are considerably higher than those of doing similar business in the arse end of nowhere ooop north.
Do you think they pay the mechanics the same? Do you think their property costs are the same? Do you think their insurance costs are the same?
Now there's an idea...
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If it makes changing a cambelt uneconomic then the manufacturers need to eliminate this cost for the consumer. At any rate, the consumer/customer of cars in these areas need to be aware of the costs and be prepared to go on a booze cruise to France and get their service carried out at a lower rate while enjoying an effectively 'free' outing. Alternatively the car owner could well have a few days away in a nice hotel while they get the job done substantially cheaper and still have money in their pocket compared to London service cost.
Huw
My local indy Citroen specialist is £40/hr. His brother who runs one of the leading dealerships 5 miles up the road is now at over £50+VAT/hr.
They pretty much have done with the 80,000/100,000 mile intervals. Chances are pretty high that the original purchaser won't ever get to the point of needing to change the cambelt and they couldn't give a stuff about the second hand market.
It must be really bad over the channel. Local indie Citroen Specialist has people bringing their Citroens from France for him to service/repair.
In message , loony writes
Four hours labour for a cambelt change on a Zetec SE engine? That's a laugh. Its two hours max!!!
Go on... name and shame the dealership that's trying to fleece you.
and at 90 +VAt / hr!
Ah, but the used car customer is more sensitive to the cost of ownership. The answer is to buy a Nissan or other car without elastic bands and with a high reliability record. £500 is not acceptable to change a damned belt, especially not on an eight year or older 'economy' car.
Huw
The message from "Huw" contains these words:
Assuming 50,000 miles per belt it's a penny a mile just for beltage. That means for every tenner you put in the tank you need to put a quid aside for cam belts.
I expect my usual garage will have it done by lunchtime for less than half the price -but they're still off for Christmas so I haven't asked them yet...
I thought four hours would probably be excessive but I don't really know what's involved. Perhaps they just heard a female voice and decided to up the time by an hour or two!! It would be interesting to know if a bloke asked the same question what they'd say!! (it was Dagenham motors on the hyde in Hendon...)
Or perhaps it takes them two hours to crawl over the car to give you a checklist of what else needs doing for huge sums of money.- they always seemed to do that when i used to take it to fords before I realised how stupid that was. I got my first service done at a different fords and they refused to stamp my service book because I didn't get the cooling system flushed out by them (for probably =A350+) and did it myself for =A311 worth of antifreeze - so now it looks like it's missed a service. That was when I decided to never go back!
It would cost not much more to keep a Fiesta or similar in tyres.
Huw
It's not that I was against them checking the car over- as yes that's perfectly fine and they do that at my local non-chain garage too (as they should) it's just the way that they seemed to try to force me to do every remedial work there and then at Fords prices and make me feel like a careless owner if I refused to let them do it all!! Even things like changing the rear wiper blade....
The car was five years old when I got it serviced the first time (it was serviced before I got it to schedule). It did have orange stuff in the coolant but I hadn't heard that it was supposed to last that long. Anyway I left it a couple of years before I did it, as there were no leaks and seemed to be no problems with the system... And I may be a "lady" but I'm not completely hopeless (and I had help from by bf) so I did do it properly when I eventually did it!
Heh - the trick would be to not go there in the first place - certainly not on something out of warranty! :-)
Aye - it always pays to check these things in the handbook - that way you're in a position to tell the muppets at the Ford dealer that they're wrong.
Well the idea is to get it done as recommended, which is loosely based on changing it before any problems will occur - it's to do with the rust inhibitors in the antifreeze losing their effectiveness, and shit.
You are a "laaaadyyy" !
Did you ask in the shop where you bought the antifreeze "Excuse me, I am a laaady - is this antifreeze suitable for a laaady" ? :-)
Yes, I did but they looked rather suspiciously at my moustache......!
Phone them up and tell them "The book time is 2.5 hrs". Don't mention what book it is.
Happens to my missus alot. Worst one was when she went to a local branch of ATS to get a tyre fitted on one of my old cars once. Came back rather upset because they'd been rather patronising to her and giving her some waffle about it not being solid enough to jack up. She was so upset she left the car there.
So being the diplomat I am, I stormed off to the ATS depot with my trusty lump hammer and my City and Guilds certificate. I got there, walked up to the car and bashed seven bells of hell out the sills with the lump hammer making comments like "Is this solid enough?". Then got a jack, jacked the car up, used one of their windy guns to take the wheel off they claimed they couldn't and threw it at the Manager who had now decided to make an appearance. Made some statement along the lines of "Would he like me to fit the tyre myself" followed by shoving my City and Guilds in his face and making loud comments about thick shit fast fit monkeys not being fit to wield a spanner.
I got the tyre for free...I honestly think the poor bloke was so embarrassed at a customer showing his lot up that he dare not do anything else.
My missus knows a reasonable bit about cars - enough to know when they're taking the mick. Nowadays though, she's not afraid to tell them she thinks they're ripping her off.
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