Car repairs - rip off?

h_m_boro

h_m_boro

Well-known member
So, it's been a great week for cars in our household. First daughter finds out she has been driving with no insurance for a month. Gets sorted, eventually , then horrible grinding noise starts coming from the brakes.

Pads? Discs? Dunno, so booked it online with the local Halfords to sort. Pads £130, pads and discs £279. Paid for the pads, kept fingers crossed 🤞🤞

Called a couple of hours ago to say it needed new discs - we can fit them for £198. Told them to crack on, needed doing, I'll pay when I get there. But not happy at the price jump.

So phoned head office, they didn't have a clue why there was a discrepancy but agreed I should only pay for the quoted price (which I had email confirmation).

Garage called to say car was ready, explained the situation and was met with an "errrr.....well ....quote may have been for different discs" Okay, are the premium top quality discs £60 more expensive than the good one "errrr.....no. But it's .....errrrr......the online quote......errrrr". Told them I'd contacted head office and they quickly agreed to meet the quoted price.

What a load of bollox. Lucky I'd done a bit of homework beforehand and knew what I should be paying, otherwise would have been ripped off best part of £60. Not a huge amount by rip off garage prices, but the principal.

Robbing b*stards.
 
h_m_boro said:
So, it's been a great week for cars in our household. First daughter finds out she has been driving with no insurance for a month. Gets sorted, eventually , then horrible grinding noise starts coming from the brakes.

Pads? Discs? Dunno, so booked it online with the local Halfords to sort. Pads £130, pads and discs £279. Paid for the pads, kept fingers crossed 🤞🤞

Called a couple of hours ago to say it needed new discs - we can fit them for £198. Told them to crack on, needed doing, I'll pay when I get there. But not happy at the price jump.

So phoned head office, they didn't have a clue why there was a discrepancy but agreed I should only pay for the quoted price (which I had email confirmation).

Garage called to say car was ready, explained the situation and was met with an "errrr.....well ....quote may have been for different discs" Okay, are the premium top quality discs £60 more expensive than the good one "errrr.....no. But it's .....errrrr......the online quote......errrrr". Told them I'd contacted head office and they quickly agreed to meet the quoted price.

What a load of bollox. Lucky I'd done a bit of homework beforehand and knew what I should be paying, otherwise would have been ripped off best part of £60. Not a huge amount by rip off garage prices, but the principal.

Robbing b*stards.
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Good for you to challenge this - they get away with this stuff because too many people just say ‘ahhh ok then’
 
Brakes are easy to change at home as long as you have the right tools and are reasonably handy.
Basic car mechanics is a useful skill to learn and it can save you a fortune.
Obviously you'll still need to use the garage for a lot of stuff, particularly the electrical and electronic stuff.
 
Firms like that do it to the guillable , smarten up people, plenty of local garages would laugh at what you have been quoted & paid .......................same parts you can get from europarts at half the price ....so image what halfrauds are [paying for em !!!
 
Never go to a big name garage for brakes. It is honestly cheaper to buy the tools and parts and do it yourself, even cheaper next time round too.

Best not to get an MOT there either as they work to quotas
 
Would never go to a national company for car stuff. Used to go to in n out on portrack, needed a topup of oil when i had my MOT (my fault for not checking) charged me £40 as it had to be premium oil (according to them)
 
westlaner said:
Firms like that do it to the guillable , smarten up people, plenty of local garages would laugh at what you have been quoted & paid .......................same parts you can get from europarts at half the price ....so image what halfrauds are [paying for em !!!
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Not everyone knows someone that they trust who can recommend a local garage though. That's why people go to chains as they think they are less likely to have a total horror experience.
 
I only use halfords or kwik fit for tyres. I guess some maybe cheaper yet I've never had any issues. I know what tyres I need so do it all online. Plenty of fitting slots etc. So won't knock them for that service.

I'd never get actual repairs done. I've read plenty of negative comments. That said many dealerships will charge the earth.

I usually purchase brakes/batteries or bulbs etc from euro car parts. They also have a fitting option that brings up 10+ local garages who will fit them. The difference in fitting charges in stunning.

I recently had some new spark plugs fitted. I chose a local garage from the options who charged £20. The prices ranged from £20 - £100. So they at least do the ground work of shopping around for quotes. The garages also have reviews so you can look at them.
 
I worked with a girl who had an exhaust fitted by Kwik-Fit and was getting a knocking. She took it back to them and they quoted her over £150 for another part they said she needed. Later in the week, we were out on home visits and I took her round to a mate who fitted exhausts off Park Road and he had a look at it. Kwik-Fit had missed a rubber off one of the mounts, he fitted it within minutes. When she asked him how much he said that I could get him a pint.
 
Teesside87 said:
Would never go to a national company for car stuff. Used to go to in n out on portrack, needed a topup of oil when i had my MOT (my fault for not checking) charged me £40 as it had to be premium oil (according to them)
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I tried In & Out they put the wrong oil in.. took took it then to a local'ish one in Ormesby & they cross threaded my sump plug & didn't tell me.. Main dealer wanted to charge me £125 for hooking it up to their computer to diagnose a problem, before they'd even look at it ( turned out they'd used 2 gaskets on my fuel filter last time they did it & that was the reason it was cutting out on acceleration )

Find a decent one & try & stick to it, when I had my VW I used to go to Volkswerk for years & certainly a better experience..
 
westlaner said:
Firms like that do it to the guillable , smarten up people, plenty of local garages would laugh at what you have been quoted & paid .......................same parts you can get from europarts at half the price ....so image what halfrauds are [paying for em !!!
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Halfords actually get all their parts from Eurocarparts ,the company I work for used to almost always deal with Euro for parts ,but they became very uncompetitive ,we now get the majority of non Ford parts from MotorPartsDirect ,and Ford parts from Parts Plus .
 
What mechanic you use will largely depend on what vehicle you have. Some types are more suited to a specialist and others can be worked on by a general mechanic.

If you want to save a bit of money, you're generally better shopping around and getting the parts yourself. That's unless it's a major part that costs a bit because you'll want the work guaranteeing.

You're probably best searching out an independent mechanic. But with these EVs and many of the newer cars - repairs can be a nightmare. I was talking to somebody not long ago who had to pay £950 for a handbrake fix. It was electronic. A similar problem in their previous car had cost £80.
 
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