Service cost?

salubrious

fred246 wrote: »

When I bought my car with a 1.9VW PD engine I decided I would let garages service my car. However, I joined a forum and everyone was saying how difficult it was to get garages to use the correct oil (VW505.01). People were being told all sorts of lies. The garage would say we put oil X in it. The customer would say but oil X isn't PD oil, you should have used oil Y. The garage would then say "Sorry, our mistake we did put oil Y in" and change the invoice. Dishonesty just seems to be the norm in garages. I decided servicing it myself was the only way forward.

This is an issue with those garages that offer menu servicing at rock bottom prices - You take your chance with those kind of set ups. Admittedly there are plenty at it.

We don't buy bulk oils at our place, purely down to the fact that the different oil grades are well into double figures, and to carry bulk oils for all those grades is not practical. Instead we buy oil on a per car basis. Not as cost effective as buying in bulk, but at least we use the correct spec oil 100% of the time.

Westmead_Fan

salubrious wrote: »

This is an issue with those garages that offer menu servicing at rock bottom prices - You take your chance with those kind of set ups. Admittedly there are plenty at it.

We don't buy bulk oils at our place, purely down to the fact that the different oil grades are well into double figures, and to carry bulk oils for all those grades is not practical. Instead we buy oil on a per car basis. Not as cost effective as buying in bulk, but at least we use the correct spec oil 100% of the time.

oils today is a minefield we stock the common oils in barrels like 10w-40 we pay £1 per litre, 5w-30 c3 petronas, 5w-40, 5w-30 ford spec these are the regular ones we use but for the rest we keep them in 20/25 litre drums & the rare we order in when we need them. you cannot stock all oils their are so many

roneik

arcon5 wrote: »

Exams and competences... You'll find very few mechanisms are working in a garage without qualifications.

As for not doing work charged for, you'll find that would already be a criminal offence. Proving it is the problem, but that would be no different with a governing body!

And then there's the guys who do fix their own cars, and contrary to their own believe don't actually know how to do it properly, just think they do because they don't know any better.

I have serviced my own cars for 40 odd years and until recently . Just do the oil and filters now myself in between service intervals. I have changed drive shafts/ suspension parts /clutch /brakes disks and calipers. brake lines master cylinders /head gaskets /water pumps radiator change ect ect. I don't do much now as technology has changed and no longer will my strobe light be of much use with engine management chips:rotfl:It's not for everyone , but some are mechanically very competent. Before anyone asks I like to change the oil more frequently than BMW recommend.I have many tools collected over the years , but not as enthusiastic as I used to be. Can afford a garage, but there are many sharks out there and some are criminal robbers. Recently in my area someone almost went to prison for scamming people with work that was never carried out. Many had to do their own maintenance for reasons of cost and affordability,and for anyone starting out now,with You tube ect and other sites plus a manual' is with common sense quite able to undertake many tasks. Garage mechanics do though have training and skills I would not deny and the ability andequipment to diagnose faults that cant be detected without . Never has one of my repairs let me down .

patman99

Just had my car serviced by a reputable garage. Was quoted £180 +VAT.

Westmead_Fan

patman99 wrote: »

Just had my car serviced by a reputable garage. Was quoted £180 +VAT.

what vehicle was it & do you know what they carried out?

patman99

Berlingo 1.6 Diesel. They carried-out a full service but without fuel filter change (this had been done 6 months earlier by another workshop).

A full service should include a check of the anti-freeze and the brake fluid as well as the filter changes and other stuff that goes with a service.

AishaShealy

I think an independent garage like Titans Auto Service provides a car service that starts from only £79.
You should first make clear what all repairing gets covered under it.

fred246

I would tend to avoid Titans Auto Service at all costs. Even when you pay over £219 for a full service they still don't change the pollen filter which is a pretty basic servicing task.