A little worried I'm going to get ripped off?

Jlawson118

I bought a five year old Vauxhall Corsa from JCT600 back in August. At first the car and everything was spot on, but as time has gone on, the car has been getting a little sluggish to a point I'm struggling to drive it slightly.

My step-dad recommended a place in our village that he goes to quite often for his car repairs, he's always found him honest and fair. I went with him on Saturday and we booked my car in for a look yesterday. When taking it for a test drive, the mechanic (And owner) agreed it's not performing how it should be and offered me a full service today for at least £125 which I found was fair. The last service was performed by Vauxhall in March although it doesn't look like they did an awful lot to it on the notes. So I thought a fresh service might just be what it needs. And the mechanic told me it could just be the spark plugs that have burned out slightly and not been replaced. I was looking up the symptoms of those last night and well I have them all.

I took it in this morning. And then my mum informed me that a few months ago when my step-dad had his gearbox repaired there a few months ago, the guy ran a full service as part of it, put him two new tires on without even asking and charged him for them. "So much for him promising this guy would be reliable" I said.

I'm awaiting the phone call to tell me it's ready. I know one of my tires at the back was lacking slightly less tread than the others but it isn't ready for replacing. I'm getting a bit worried I am going to get new tires or ripped off somehow now.

If there's new tires or anything that I haven't asked for, do I have a right to argue and decline these if they're already on? I just don't know. It's a Corsa Limited Edition so they're really expensive, low profile tires..I can afford a service but I can't really afford brand new tires for a while anyway. Last time I looked at getting a full set, they were going to be over £100 each for the well known brands. Cheaper ones are around £40 which isn't too bad.

But regardless, would I have a case? I'm getting a little nervous about going back up there to collect it later..

EdGasket

They should ideally ask you to authorise any extra expense rather than just do it. I guess you should have made this clear when agreeing to the service. On the other hand if stuff needs doing/changing then you can hardly blame them for doing it. Most likely it will be th eservice cost only; if worried, call them up and see if there is anything extra, you might catch them before it's too late.

Stoke

There's lots of reasons why it might be getting sluggish mate. What's the mileage?

Le_Kirk

Why don't you give them a call to see how the service is progressing and ask if they have found anything over and above the service they promised to do, maybe drop into the conversation that you cannot afford major items - like tyres!!

Jlawson118

Stoke wrote: »

There's lots of reasons why it might be getting sluggish mate. What's the mileage?

It was about 28,000/29,000 when I got it and I've got it to about 32,000 now if not 33k. It's not an awful lot but the mechanic said the timing belt stretches a lot in those cars, but that's an expensive job so he'd rather rule it out, and tested the clutch and said it's all in order. So he's running the service to change the oil, filters and advised me not to run supermarket fuel through the system either. Him and myself are hoping that it'll be fixed up in the service

Jlawson118

EdGasket wrote: »

They should ideally ask you to authorise any extra expense rather than just do it. I guess you should have made this clear when agreeing to the service. On the other hand if stuff needs doing/changing then you can hardly blame them for doing it. Most likely it will be th eservice cost only; if worried, call them up and see if there is anything extra, you might catch them before it's too late.

I'm going to have a walk up there shortly anyway, I need it to go to work with for 16:30 or 17:00 at the very latest. I did inform them of this when dropping it off because they asked me when I needed it for

Stoke

Jlawson118 wrote: »

It was about 28,000/29,000 when I got it and I've got it to about 32,000 now if not 33k. It's not an awful lot but the mechanic said the timing belt stretches a lot in those cars, but that's an expensive job so he'd rather rule it out, and tested the clutch and said it's all in order. So he's running the service to change the oil, filters and advised me not to run supermarket fuel through the system either. Him and myself are hoping that it'll be fixed up in the service

If the timing belt stretches I would be very bloody worried that the timing would go out.......

Do timing belts stretch before they snap? I thought they just snapped.

Franz_Ferdinand

Jlawson118 wrote: »

It was about 28,000/29,000 when I got it and I've got it to about 32,000 now if not 33k. It's not an awful lot but the mechanic said the timing belt stretches a lot in those cars, but that's an expensive job so he'd rather rule it out, and tested the clutch and said it's all in order. So he's running the service to change the oil, filters and advised me not to run supermarket fuel through the system either. Him and myself are hoping that it'll be fixed up in the service

You do realise that timing belts should be changed at a set mileage or age, whatever comes first. Vauxhall dropped all their time due to problems with then going. It's a few hundred quid to change one but it'll cost you more when it goes.

tedted

pretty sure these have a timing chain and they do stretch

Robisere

So it's 2011 Corsa. What model and engine size please?

Check out this forum for information:
http://www.allcorsa.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/timing-chain-39309.html?

Strider590

I don't really see anything to panick about, mechanics often "bend the truth" because normal people wouldn't understand the truth OR might get a bit ar5ey if they heard the truth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlQeavkp5ow

Basically, sometimes there are problems that require nothing but a bit of tweaking and if you tell a customer you didn't actually replace anything, they'll often turn around and refuse to pay. People want something quantifiable for their money, service isn't quantifiable.