Have you been ripped off by a garage and caught them out?

TrickyWicky

Alias_Omega wrote: »

One that really annoyed me was a supposed failed "Track Rod End" on a 3 yr old car. Should of got them to show me, though i assumed they were fishing for work. I needed the car, so just say "Yes" and accepted the extra £130 bill.

The easiest of parts to replace, for alot of £££.

I dunno about that, I had to replace one myself in the summer and the damned thing simply wouldn't come off. It took two of us three days of constant abuse to it before it finally broke free.

Even now I need to take it in to get it tracked up (£30 average cost) so the 3 days it took (average wage of £50-60 per day being £150 min) plus the £30 for tracking plus cost of the part.. £200 worth there really.

Sure, if you can get the part off easily there are savings to be had but sometimes its better to let the pro's deal with it.

Flyboy152

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Ooer.. thats a good 4 odd years ago pal, no possible way I can remember that now!

It is possible that the first test was just above the limit and the second one was just below.

See I see that as a bad thing because then I'm likely to fiddle with it when driving.

Well, don't fiddle with it. If you are that easily distracted by a satellite navigation screen, maybe you shouldn't have one.

I prefer to put it on the lower middle part so that the passenger can adjust the settings if needed. I put it low enough though that I can actually see but I'm still not convinced that is right either.

How is that any safer than having the thing blocking your view? There is a reason why it fails the MOT if it is in the middle of the windscreen.

property.advert

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Let that be a lesson to everyone else, to remove such things from their windscreens.

Also, a point to note, there is a reason why such a thing is an MOT failure and all drivers should take note of the dangers they put themselves and others in, when they attach them to the middle of their windscreens.

I have 4 acres of windscreen and this suction cup is about 3cm diameter. Aside from in my line of sight, it is largely immaterial where I put it, but way down the bottom in the centre where it obscures only the bonnet seems reasonable to me.

Flyboy152

property.advert wrote: »

I have 4 acres of windscreen and this suction cup is about 3cm diameter. Aside from in my line of sight, it is largely immaterial where I put it, but way down the bottom in the centre where it obscures only the bonnet seems reasonable to me.

You could have a windscreen the size of Wales and it wouldn't make the slightest difference. If you put the screen in your eye-line, it is still obscuring your view; that is why it fails the MOT.

TrickyWicky

Replies in blue!

Flyboy152 wrote: »

It is possible that the first test was just above the limit and the second one was just below.

No, there was a massive difference between the two hence the spat with VOSA. Their attitude was "Write in, send copies of everything in triplicate, provide a statement, blah, blah, blah..". Needless to say I didn't bother!

Well, don't fiddle with it. If you are that easily distracted by a satellite navigation screen, maybe you shouldn't have one.

It's things like volume that end up getting fiddled with thats why I prefer the passenger to have control of it so i can just say "Can you adjust that?". Job done.

Flyboy152

TrickyWicky wrote: »

No, there was a massive difference between the two hence the spat with VOSA. Their attitude was "Write in, send copies of everything in triplicate, provide a statement, blah, blah, blah..". Needless to say I didn't bother!

It was just a thought.

It's things like volume that end up getting fiddled with thats why I prefer the passenger to have control of it so i can just say "Can you adjust that?". Job done.

Why on Earth would you need to adjust the volume more than once?

Trying to explain to a passenger how to adjust the volume, enter a destination, change the map perspective, routing options etc., is impractical and potentialy more dangerous than just leaning over and doing it yourself.

If it was at your finger tips, all you would need to do is adjust anything the next time you come to a junction, traffic lights, or even just pull over.