Renault massively overcharging for a car battery

nikki2804

wxmlad wrote: »

My brother used to work at a Vauxhall dealership as a mechanic, if you heard some of the stories he told me about the other monkeys working there, you would never take your car there again!!

Dont get me started on Vauxhall, a load of !!!!in cowboys at my local garage. Charged me £300 for a service because they changed my breaks WITHOUT permission!!! They thought cos I was "a silly lil girl" i'd let them away with it. Well I'm not, I do know a fair wee bit about cars, actually wanted to do a mechanics course but the college told me id struggle cos of my structure??? They werent to happy when I read the riot act. Same when I went back about my wipers blowing up (car under warrenty - only reason I went back) They gave me this big speil, told them where to go, they fixed it under warrenty then couldn't figure out why they still wouldn't work - yeah once they wipers blew id changed the fuse to find out if this was the cause, blew again so I just removed. The dipshits never thought to check this.

Sorry for venting but this certain vauxhall dealership are the bain of my life!!!

malkie76

Volcano wrote: »

You are joking aren't you? How many people check whether the car they are about to buy has been maintained with genuine parts? Then try and knock a few quid off because (after crawling under the car) the oil filter hasn't got "Ford" printed on it?

You have to work for a Main Dealer surely?

You don't have to crawl under the car - simply investigate the receipts that come with a second hand car. If all the receipts for work are third party then you have your answer. If none are available then walk away from the sale.

It might not bother everyone, but you'd be a fool not to check if you are about to spend £20-30k on something. I'll only part with my cash if I know something has been maintained to the highest standard.

before_hollywood

i'm confused


my car is a fiat, our dealer is on the outskirts of town, there are no dolly birds, the parts bit is just a metal door out of the way at the back.

my battery came from griffin battery centres, there was no phoning fiat, my car wouldnt start and i needed the battery on 26th december or maybe the 27th, fiat wouldnt have been open then

Volcano

malkie76 wrote: »

I'll only part with my cash if I know something has been maintained to the highest standard.

I think it's pretty well established (especially if you have a read through this board) that that's something you're never going to know!

Blanket acceptance that "main dealer= good, independent= bad" is a myth that keeps the main dealers in profit. If you believe it, then it's likely that this board will be of negligable money saving benefit to you.

oldone_2

Last year Renault quoted me £600+ for 36,000 mile service. My local garage, who got the job, quoted £150.

Now here's the thing, the mechanic at the local garage who worked on my car, worked for a Renault main dealer for 25 years.

To date I have not regretted my decision.

qetu1357

Relative was charged by dealership £37 to fit a headlight blub (inc part).

Halfords charged me £8 (inc part).

We have the same car.

Next time (as I watched the chap do it) I will do it myself, £5 (for part)!

pullenuk

I got overcharged before by vauxhall, long story i'm not even going to bother with the lot. But I was standing there asking about the charges.

I managed to catch them out by asking what prices they were charging for labour, then what price there were charging for the parts and got the parts number.

Once I got the number I quickly excused myself to "answer the phone", typed in the number on google. Here it is.....

Timing Chain Researched at around £80 or £98 with the tools
Vauxhall £200
Labour £400.
(it was over £600 in the end once VAT etc etc was added)


What......? The guy was stood on his point when I challenged the charge. Didn't know what to say. They even wanted £146 for track rods as well! (without vat!)

Got the whole lot done for £465 at a local garge, HUGE different than over £800 at vuaxhall.

Stupid. Never go to dealer again!

They even had the cheeky to charge £400 for back brakes "were gone", yeah right..... got them checked and even looked myself, they were fine about 30k miles left to go!!!!

Davey2009

I replaced the battery on my car about 3 years ago cost about £20 but to be fair overheads of the dealership must be massive which probably is the reason for such high charges, as you have shown you do have a choice but I expect many people would just pay up for the convieniance.

deanos

Of course a main dealer is more expensive, dealers usually seem to have alot of staff usually bimbling around doing not alot, then there is the big showroom to maintain with the nice tiles and large windows to clean every week.

Sometimes however the main dealers can be cheaper, but 95% of the time they are not

cocktail

brakes and shocks+labour rake in a lot of money for dealers. labour charges --exorbitant. of course they have to maintain their showroom and staff, but £40 to replace a headlight(cost--£5) thats taking the P***.