Took my Fiesta for an oil and filter change at the local National Tyres depot near work the other day Having been shafted previously by Kwik Fit I told the Manager not to phone me with the old "we found you need X Y and Z while the car was on the ramp Sir" as I was pennyless broke. Yep within an hour of leaving the car the manager phones me up to tell me I need new front discs and pads and the good news is they can fix it that day for £450. I used the excuse I've got no money and picked the car up later. Took the car for a second opinion to my local garage who are members of some Good Garage Scheme and he replaced the discs, pads and also unbunged my washer bottle and replaced my driver seat tilt and lift cable for £125 all in. Won't be using National Tyres ever again.
Generally those sort of garages are used to dealing with lease car firms and drivers of newer/valuable cars, so they are used to charging that sort of money. Smaller garages tend to recognise which side their bread is buttered. I tipped mine a bottle of red for xmas last year as he always looks after me when things go wrong.
My mechanic does me a not too bad return on fixing the vehicles, not too costly and I never needed to bribe him with booze to get the best rates either! Only need to pay for parts and labour is no more than lunch n possibly dinner depending on what's getting done to my 20yr old civic coupe.................Oh balls wait up no wonder I'm skint I'm the mechanic that works on all my vehicles!
You will always get the calls from garages saying they found more stuff wrong with the vehicles that are in for whatever, well as long as the garage your in sells and fits the parts! It's an easy way to get more cash flow coming in! Not saying they always make the flaws up but they defo at times exaggerate how bad the issues actually are, ie brake pads are more worn and underestimate how long they will last and that your disks are also badly scored or pitted normally on the inside. You will never get an exhaust/brakes/tyre place saying oh by the way we found your gear box is shagged and needs reconditioned as they don't do that particular service!
I Fitted new front discs and pads to my 2009 Vauxhall Corsa. All in it came to £90.89 and that was Bosch discs and pads and a tin of brake cleaner. £450 is outrageous
I once got tipped a bottle of home made alcohol from an Irish lad it literally could strip paint im sure it was 140 ron
They were round the corner from the hospital where I work and as mentioned I'd been done over by Kwik Fit and I needed the oil etc changing.
go to bloke you should have gone in first place is what i really meant, and don't trust the quick fit kind of places
Agree why go else where if you already trust your 'local Garage' ? £450 for discs & pads is cheap if you run an Audi RS6, bout £1500 would cover it, but get ya point in this case.
My local garage (2 doors away) did my Range Rover Vogue brakes all round the other year. A rear seized caliper was £80 exchange, front discs and pads were around £60 similar for the rear and labour was about £100 all in!!!!
