Garage Charges

Jablesdactyl

Just a quick one because I don't know where else to ask.

The clutch has gone on my car and I had it towed to a nearby garage. They confirmed it was the clutch and have quoted me £475.

In the spirit of saving money, I've phoned around a number of other garages and the cheapest I've found locally is £365.

My question is, the first garage want to charge me for finding out it was the clutch in the first place. Are they allowed to do this?

I mean, I wouldn't be so bothered if it was an hours labour to look at the car, but they're asking for quite a lot of money. Enough so going elsewhere is hardly worth the saving.

I paid for a third party tow company to take my car from where it was to their garage.

Anihilator

So basically garage who spent labour diagnosing your car charged £465, the other £375. A Difference of £90.

What is the approximate labour rate for a garage these days. hmmmmm. so basically the difference isnt much more than the diagnosis.

You asked the garage to look at the car. You cant expect this to be free because you didnt like their price.

puddy

we paid £50 once for a mobile diagnostic, who didnt really do much diagnosing to be honest becuase the car was on the road rather than at a garage.

in addition, you also have to factor in the cost of taking it to the cheaper garage, you might come away having only saving 30 - 50 quid or so, a saving, but is it worth the hassle of organising the tow truck and risking the second garage saying, we had to charge another £50 because we found x,y and z wrong when we looked at it???

did the quote from the second garage include diagnosis too, as they would be stupid to rely on your diagnosis, they will obvioiusly investigate themselves, or was it just for the repair?