09 Astra discs and pad cost

benham3160

Reminds me something that happened to me in a 'nationally represented fast-fit tyres and exhaust specialist' about six years ago in a university town in Leicestershire spelled with 11 letters.

I took my battered but full-of-character Peugeot 306 in for an MOT whilst I was studying at a nearby university;

Handed the keys over, spent 20p on a foul tasting cup of coffee, thought about sticking 20p in for a handful of Minstrels (which had turned a shade of off-white in container, sited in full sunlight) and thumbed through a sixteen year old copy of Autocar wondering what became of all the unleaded petrol conversion specialists.

A gentleman in his corporate overalls called me from across the counter.

"Your Peugeot is done mate, just needs a set of new pads on the back as you're braking on metal."
I chocked on the foul tasting sludge at the bottom of my polystyrene cup and walked over to him.
"Oh, that's not good."
"Yeah, we've got the pads in stock as it happens, fit them for you now and get it passed, I'll give you a price" said my new helpful friend as he pulled out a battered Unipart brake friction catalogue and speedily found the car and started typing numbers in to his keyboard.

"About £80 with the VAT"
"Oh, that's not good."

The look on his face changed, do I tell him that I'm spent a few years doing MOTs myself and that more importantly I changed the rear brake pads on the car the week before, they don't have a lot of friction material because, due to the light braking that the calipers do on these vehicles the pads only start life with a few mm of lining, or do I play with him a bit?

"I really can't afford that, but if you've got them in stock ready to go it'd save me going somewhere else."
"Exactly sir, and you don't want to be driving with no brakes(!) and no MOT"
"Well, when you put it like that."

The gentleman stared at me, as a confirmed southener that happened quite a bit in the town in Leicestershire with eleven letters,

"Did it fail on anything else?"
"No, just the pads mate" said the gentleman, obviously getting a bit frustrated with me.
Now, my mind went blank at this point, in retrospect I could have played with him for a bit longer.

"How do you decide that they need doing out of interest by the way?"
"We look at them for the MOT" said my now anxious and slightly irritated 'mate'.

"You can't really see the friction layer remaining on those calipers"
Now, matey twigs.
"What are you..."
"If you've got them in stock, lets have a look at them, you'll see there there is only a few mm of lining on new pads anyway."

With that, a set of keys were launched across the desk at me, having cost him an MOT credit. The gentleman's face turning to an odd shade of green to match his corporate overalls,
"Take ya car, mate" he growled making it clear I was to leave rather quickly.

And off I drove, with a story to tell and the same knocking balljoint I expected the car to fail on anyway.

***

Fast-Fit places have a place, don't get me wrong I know of a few really good depots across the various franchises and have had some great customer service, and some good workmanship carried out.

But, (and I think it's getting less regular) there seems to be corporate targeting to replace £x components per day (or by technican) which gave the whole industry a shocking reputation.

I got unlucky on that occasion (or was I lucky, after all I wasn't scammed) the gentleman may have been having a really bad day, he might have been relaying some crap from another technician.

Moral of the story, if you can't see it, and you don't have symptoms, rely on a decent "garage."

wazza99

Have to agree with one post, not all Kwik Fits are bad ! They in general offer a specific type of garage service and in general charge a premium for it. For example i recently needed an air con re-charge after a repair, yes my local garage can do it and mayby i trust them more but i can't like KF drive in, unannounced and get it done same day. Nor can i at my dealer. Same with an exhaust or anything really. Guess its about convienice and cost.

As for the ops issue, if the parts are indeed £130 and KF offer to do it for £200....is £70 really too bad for labour ? not everyone has the skills or knowledge or interest in doing such things. Ofc the main issue the op has is does he trust the KF opinion ? thats the question. You would hope what they say is correct but in general discs and pads are never measured its usually just the fitters opinion.

Again as an example my local trusted garage recently failed my car on "thin" front pads on its MOT, now they know they will get no work from this as they know i will take it away and do it myself, so for £24 i changed them, but on removing the old ones they we're actually above the MOT standard by a good few mm's (think the limit is 1.5 but they were about 6mm).

I think the old days of KF just ripping everyone off are gone same with Halfords etc, they just can't afford to it now we have social media etc, yes i would agree some of their judgements can be 50/50 but then again so can a local garage but unless your mechanically minded you just have to find someone you trust be it KF, Halford or Indie

robotrobo

silkyuk9 wrote: »

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I know. My bad but im off work at momment sick and her lives in another county. sorry i know but i would rather 'trust' them than someone i didnt know such as back street garage. I always get our cars done in my town with my very good mech but this is quite important to get done asap.

I take our 12 year old renault & our 9 year old alfa 147 to a back street garage!, i have actually found one that does a right good job & does not rip me off, i only sussed the garage out when i moved to the area, i admit i used to tackle a lot of the jobs when i was younger myself, now needs must , But yes there are a lot of rip off merchants , especially at the main dealers, my renault as not been in a main renault garage for 10 years or so & the service manual as been filled in by me & all invoices i have kept for the next buyer, i have had it from new , it cost £13,300 new & now its worth no more than £1500 ,

wazza99

Again in balance even dealers these days can offer some competative work. You just need to check the market.

Example. Peugeot 3008 1.6 hdi (mine)

Front discs and pads £200, silly price, parts (Pagid) are £70 ish, dead easy to change, even local indie would do them for £100-120

Rear discs and pads £229, good price imo, parts are £160 ish, as discs have bearing built in, plus wind back calipers and electronic handbrake, so £70 for a dealer to change the lot isn't OTT far from it.

BeenThroughItAll

wazza99 wrote: »

I think the old days of KF just ripping everyone off are gone same with Halfords etc, they just can't afford to it now we have social media etc, yes i would agree some of their judgements can be 50/50 but then again so can a local garage but unless your mechanically minded you just have to find someone you trust be it KF, Halford or Indie

And yet, time and time again, people pop up here on the forums with a tale of woe; and again and again I hear from people who've been given a list of MOT fail points as long as your arm only to have the list disputed by their trusted repairer.

OddballJamie

wazza99 wrote: »

As for the ops issue, if the parts are indeed £130 and KF offer to do it for £200....is £70 really too bad for labour ? not everyone has the skills or knowledge or interest in doing such things. Ofc the main issue the op has is does he trust the KF opinion ? thats the question. You would hope what they say is correct but in general discs and pads are never measured its usually just the fitters opinion.

The £130 was based on front and rear. The OPs son was quoted on fronts only, parts are £45-£70 depending on quality.

Vauxhall quote £189 for the same job, however use a Service Club discount card and you're looking at around £150.

An indie will charge even less than this for such a straight forward job.

Speaking of Peugeots, my previous one used to cost me £130 just for Brembo front discs and at the time were a pain to get hold of.

wazza99

Lol, speaking of Peugeots.........3008 new tyre ? £150...each !.....remind me again did i buy a sports car or a MPV ?