'We don't do clutches'

rubble2

We have a local independent garage that our whole family use for servicing and repairs and have always found them to offer excellent service at reasonable cost.

My daughters friend mentioned to her that she had a problem with selecting gears in her car (Zafira) so my daughter recommended our garage to her (she normally uses the Vauxhall main dealer -eek).

Anyhow she rings the garage and they say that it sounds like a gear linkage problem and to bring the car in the following day. Daughter's friend arrives the following morning and they diagnose a faulty clutch but say that they don't do clutches and recommend her to another place in a town about 10 miles away. Our garage state that if they farm out the job to another local place it would cost in the region of £550 to replace the clutch, the place they recommend do the job for £220 (plus £50 to transport the car).

Couple of things - is it normal for a garage with seemingly reasonable levels of equipment (they are an MOT testing station) to not replace clutches?

Secondly is it unusual for a Zafira with 47000 miles on the clock to need a new clutch.

Must admit, it has shaken my faith in our local garage a bit (having said that I cannot remember ever having a clutch changed in any car I have owned) and as previously stated have never had any problem up to now with any of the work they have carried out.

I would be interested to hear the opinions of those in the know

roddydogs

Its not "Mr Clutch" they've recommended is it? seems cheap.

stator

Don't know about Zafiras but 47000 doesn't sound too unusual if the driver has been dumping the clutch like a lot of people do.

I had a garage do a clutch for me before and they were moaning that they don't usually do clutches because it takes up the lift for too long. If they'd told me this before I would have taken it somewhere else.

I do think it's quite bad customer service to turn away work but clutches are something you can shop around for quite easily.

BeenThroughItAll

My local indie that I know and trust won't do clutches on most GM stuff, as too many of them require the subframe dropped, and with the time it takes it ties up a ramp they could do numerous other jobs on in the same period. Better to pass on one job than five, basically.

EdGasket

There are places that specialise in clutches so I guess the garage is saying that it would be more cost-effective to go to one of those places due to the nature of equipment they have to change clutches more quickly than a general purpose garage could.

rubble2

I thought that it seemed really cheap. You must bear in mind that I am getting this info from my daughter ( who doesn't know anything about cars) who got the information from her friend (who doesn't know anything about cars).

I was more surprised about my local garage 'not doing clutches' I would have thought that this was pretty much bread and butter stuff for any garage but perhaps someone with some knowledge of the garage industry could shed some light.

interstellaflyer

Changing a clutch on modern cars is generally a nightmare, labour intensive job, maybe due to manpower, they've decided as a business, it's not viable for them to take on major work which takes up staff and workspace for the best part of a day. As for it is reasonable for a clutch to wear out after 47000 miles, how long is a piece of string, a full main dealer history is no guarantee that the car has been driven sympathetically, by that I mean stuff like using quite high revs and slipping the clutch whilst reversing in to parking spaces or pulling out of junctions etc, my late father, although generally a reasonable driver, was a prime example, because he was hard of hearing, any maneuvering or pulling out of junctions usually involved a shed load of revs and slipping of the clutch.

£200 to do a clutch, that would barely cover the parts, the cheapest I can find for my car is pushing £1000 all in but no flywheel.

rubble2

Sorry cross posted there.

I think that the time taken/facilities needed could well be the case, it is not the biggest of places and they have (from memory) two lifts. They are always busy so it could be that doing a clutch would take too long and result in a backlog of other customers being kept waiting.

seatbeltnoob

seems a bad business move to fob them off elsewhere. The may lose a long term customer after they build a rapport to the cluitch place. By all means charge more if the clutch job is longer/harder.

wgl2014

I would say its honest of them to explian like they have. If they wanted they could charge the £500 and send he car elsewhere, easy money for no work!

I would get a couple of additional quotes, if one garage is significantly cheaper than others you have to wonder why?

stator

seatbeltnoob wrote: »

seems a bad business move to fob them off elsewhere. The may lose a long term customer after they build a rapport to the cluitch place. By all means charge more if the clutch job is longer/harder.

The garage I mentioned previously lost me a customer anyway. They left my alternator disconnected after doing the clutch which I think was a passive aggressive way of reinforcing the 'we don't usually do clutches' message.