Quote for full service, front brake pads and new cambelt quote

Paulalfc

I have a 2002 VW Polo TDI.

Today i received a quote from an independent garage offering to do the service, change the front break pads and fit a new cambelt kit for £350.

Do you think this quote is reasonable?

I bought my car from new so have never changed the cambelt or the break pads yet on the car. The car has 38,500 miles on the clock.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

roddydogs

Grab it!, but get a proper recipt detailing work done

TiTheRev

Use whatever inferior products you like! It's your car, your life and your bill if anything goes wrong people know the difference in quality and warrenty that buying genuine makes, so it's up to them whether they pay the extra for more peace of mind, or take the risk with cheaper product. Pads for £10??? Made from cardboard?! Even when I was working at a factor, polo pads were £25-30 at trade prices.

Just for the record, we do a price match scheme where we can, so i'd get that quote in writing and take it to your local dealer to see if they do too, and then you get the best of both!

Conor_3

TiTheRev wrote: »

Even when I was working at a factor, polo pads were £25-30 at trade prices.

How many years ago was that? You can get EBC performance pads for very little more at retail. A front set of decent brand pads should be around £15 or less.

Must've been a Harrods branded motor factors.

TiTheRev

It was a good 7/8 years ago now, and they were top Mintex brand. They may well have come down in price since then, but if they are that cheap i'd be dubious about quality

anewman

Apparently ferodo pads can be had from Halfrauds for £15 with the trade card discount. That's the same brand OE pads for mine would be at probably £25-£35 at dealers - and I imagine all you'd get extra is a leaflet and a sachet of grease.

TiTheRev

In the genuine article you will get the pads, grease, caliper bolts, shims and of course wear indicators if applicable! They are £35 inc vat and a cambelt and tensioner a further £80.

Conor_3

TiTheRev wrote: »

In the genuine article you will get the pads, grease, caliper bolts, shims and of course wear indicators if applicable!

Boy, it was a long time ago that you worked at a motor factors...:D:D In the genuine article, even from the dealership, you get the pads and that's it nowadays. I guess that's how they've reduced the price. TBH, pins and shims don't usually need replacing and wear indicators are built into the pads, even for the non electronic variety.

TiTheRev

My reference to genuine article is the current VW pad sets. The old mintex/masterpart versions didnt even used to have wear indicators necessarily! Masterpart, particularly, were sold on the basis thatfor every 2/3 you sold you'd get 1 back within the month...they were shockingly poorly manufactured, and they squeeled like pigs from day1!

TiTheRev

Paulalfc wrote: »

I have a 2002 VW Polo TDI.

Today i received a quote from an independent garage offering to do the service, change the front break pads and fit a new cambelt kit for £350.

...just going back to the OP, technically a FULL service is not due at theat age/milage, so they may be mis-selling you the extra there. The cambelt is long overdue if you've not had one done since new, but the service should only be an Oil and Pollen filter change...if you want to stick to the original VW service regime?! That may reduce the bill further?

goldspanners

forget the VW main dealer scare mongering here,lets face it here,you have a 2002 vw polo,its hardly cutting edge technology.
make sure the independant garage you use fits a gates,or as we use on our vw engines dayco timing belt and tensioner pulley kit.(the pulley is just as important as the belt.)
and also make sure they fit half decent pads and discs,i got a full set of mintex pads discs and shoes for a focus for £80 (fitted myself) and are very hard wearing.
as for vw service regime,it will only cost an extra few quid to change the fuel filter so just get it done while its getting serviced. using after market filters on this car will be fine,just make sure they use the correct viscocity of oil for your engine,will probably be 5w 30 semi synthetic turbo diesel oil.
if the garage is using good parts like i mentioned then that is a good price for the work you want done.