Beware Renault £89.00 Diagnostic charge

OoArh1

Got caught out by this one.

Renault charge £89.00 to run diagnostic check on cars while other independent garages do their diagnostic checks (visual and computer aided) for FREE. Moral of the story is to shop around, before taking your vehicle to Renault.

There are lots of good independent garages (part of the Good Garage Scheme) who offer free diagnostic checks.

In my case a 30 second visual check by any car mechanic, would have revealed the cause of my car's fault. This makes the £89.00 seem very expensive.

bclark

Having owned a Renault for 3 years and also my wife having one for 2 years we have never had to pay any fees to have our vehicles looked at. My Wife had issues with her's which were looked at and fixed under warranty only a week ago.

mluton

Was you car under warranty ? Did you phone more than 1 dealer ?

I have had to pay for scans from dealers in the past, but it depends on the dealer and you relationship with them.

Why give a free diagnostic check, for you to go away with the results to an independant garage.

Plenty of scanners in halfords and on ebay cheaper than £89.

goldspanners

most will charge a diagnostic fee, this isnt exclusive to just renault, or even manufacturers delaerships, even independants do it.

Takoda

Ford do too. But if you are with the RAC they will diagnose it for nowt. Well obviously you have to be with them in the first place but at least you get the benefit of breakdown cover too.

cyclonebri1

OoArh1 wrote: »

Got caught out by this one.

Renault charge £89.00 to run diagnostic check on cars while other independent garages do their diagnostic checks (visual and computer aided) for FREE. Moral of the story is to shop around, before taking your vehicle to Renault.

There are lots of good independent garages (part of the Good Garage Scheme) who offer free diagnostic checks.

In my case a 30 second visual check by any car mechanic, would have revealed the cause of my car's fault. This makes the £89.00 seem very expensive.

Sorry to be so blunt but I don't know why you seem so suprised?

All the big garages do this irrespective of brand. Find a trusted smaller local garage and take all your work there. They remember loyalty whereas the biggies don't

(Finding the right place in the 1st instance can be an issue though)

datostar

mluton wrote: »

Was you car under warranty ? Did you phone more than 1 dealer ?

I have had to pay for scans from dealers in the past, but it depends on the dealer and you relationship with them.

Why give a free diagnostic check, for you to go away with the results to an independant garage.

Plenty of scanners in halfords and on ebay cheaper than £89.

Older Renaults use a 12 pin diagnostic socket and those Halfords and eBay scanners with 16 pin plugs don't fit. Absolutely nothing can be used but the Renault Clip in conjunction with a laptop computer. Renault Clips seem to go for up to £700 on eBay (without laptop). In practice, you're stuck with a franchised dealer or a fairly prosperous independent!

trumpton

Nissan Altrincham charged me £50 to take the door panel off and look at the window regulator - 5 mins work. Then lied to me and said the glass was broken when I knew it wasn't. They then seemed surprised that I didn't want to pay £450 to have it fixed by them.

Once your car is out of warranty it is much better to look on the car forums and find a recommended independant garage than use a main dealer.