Great time for DIY

motorguy

Mercdriver said:

fred246 said:

Well I have got exactly the same qualifications that the mechanics at the main dealers and independents have to possess. I have loads of time and years of experience and I only work on one car brand so I am a specialist just like a main dealer.  Most people taking a car to a garage for a service have no idea whether the car has had anything done to it. They're not bothered either. All they want is the stamp in their book or their digital record updated. They aren't actually bothered if it has been serviced. They are happy that they can sell it on to someone and say it's been 'well looked after'. Put yourself in the dealer's postion. You've had a bad day and run out of time to service a car. Do you a)stamp the book and charge £200 and give the car back with a smile or b)explain that you haven't had time to do it and wait from them to rant and rave and claim compo? It's not all bad it's just too random for me. I want to know the job's been done properly.

In that position, my experience is that I get a call from the dealer apologising and saying there has been a delay.  100%.  You never use dealers so you have zero experience and zero evidence - apart from anecdotal rants on facebook  - of dealers doing what you suggest. 
Your suggestion is always that people with no experience should tinker with their cars, but you never put your money where your mouth is and indemnify them for your naff advice.  
When you start to advise committing fraud by misrepresentation you become an absolute joke.  

Thats totally it.  Theres a service manager whos job it is to schedule jobs, book them in and book them out when finished.  They'll pro-actively manage that on any given day.  Anyone with half a brain would know they wont just let the customer walk in at 17:30 and go "sorry we didnt get round to doing your car".  But no, Fred is working on experience from the 1970s before mobile phones, texts and computers when the Service Manager might have been caught short as it were and been on the back foot apologising to an irate customer in front of them.

And i agree - to suggest people with no experience should follow a youtube video on how to service their car or change the brakes to save maybe £30 is frankly banal.

And then to suggest doing what he accuses dealers of - stamping the book to give the assurance of the work being done without them actually doing it - you're then in to the realms of being a complete joke.

fred990

Fred, you note that garages are sometimes less than competent on routine servicing and miss things.......been recently pulling my vw t5.1 apart (owned from new) and found finger tight nuts, grommets missing, wiring looms that are starting to chafe on metal! All factory issues !!
No wonder some garages leave something to be desired, the factory can't get it right! 

Mercdriver

fred990 said:

Fred, you note that garages are sometimes less than competent on routine servicing and miss things.......been recently pulling my vw t5.1 apart (owned from new) and found finger tight nuts, grommets missing, wiring looms that are starting to chafe on metal! All factory issues !!
No wonder some garages leave something to be desired, the factory can't get it right! 

I wondered when you would start talking to each other again.  Get a room.

Marvel1

I won't have a clue, or even attempt even with a guide book or YouTube.  

Let's say I decide this weekend, and mess it up, I'm screwed getting to work on Monday.

fred990

Mercdriver said:

fred990 said:

I wondered when you would start talking to each other again.  Get a room.

Really? You've been thinking that for many months then! Weirdo, get a life. 

fred246

I just find it strange how people are so disconnected from their cars. There was a presenter on our local radio who was boasting he had no idea how to change a tyre. That drives me mad because you always change the wheel. Even I've never changed the tyre on a car. I could with the right equipment and a youtube video. He was saying that was someone else's job. Just call the AA. Surely people are better off taking an interest in their cars. If he had a puncture he could be stuck for hours waiting for someone. I'd have the spare on in a few minutes. Before I retired about 3 people came up to me saying they had had breakdowns and their engines were trashed. They hadn't checked their oil and the engines seized. So many cars are neglected. Their owners have no interest and their garage have no interest. Just check MOT histories. So many tyres with no tread, bulbs out, washers empty. It's rare to find one like mine. Pass year after year with no advisories. That's one of the reasons I can sell my cars easily with no stamps in the book. It's pretty obvious that a neglected car wouldn't have an MOT history like mine.

motorguy

fred990 said:

Mercdriver said:

fred990 said:

I wondered when you would start talking to each other again.  Get a room.

Really? You've been thinking that for many months then! Weirdo, get a life. 

Freds - i think its you who needs to get a life.

Theres a certain inevitability that if the "Fred 1" posts on a thread, the "Fred 2" account will be along to defend the "Fred 1" account.  Oddly never logged on at the same time....

motorguy

fred246 said:

I just find it strange how people are so disconnected from their cars. There was a presenter on our local radio who was boasting he had no idea how to change a tyre. That drives me mad because you always change the wheel. Even I've never changed the tyre on a car. I could with the right equipment and a youtube video. He was saying that was someone else's job. Just call the AA. Surely people are better off taking an interest in their cars. If he had a puncture he could be stuck for hours waiting for someone. I'd have the spare on in a few minutes. Before I retired about 3 people came up to me saying they had had breakdowns and their engines were trashed. They hadn't checked their oil and the engines seized. So many cars are neglected. Their owners have no interest and their garage have no interest. Just check MOT histories. So many tyres with no tread, bulbs out, washers empty. It's rare to find one like mine. Pass year after year with no advisories. That's one of the reasons I can sell my cars easily with no stamps in the book. It's pretty obvious that a neglected car wouldn't have an MOT history like mine.

You sell your cars easily because you drive them until end of life and anything that looks like its half reasonable at all will sell easily at that point - thats certainly not "evidence" that all cars must be maintained your way.

Scrapit

fred246 said:

I just find it strange how people are so disconnected from their cars. There was a presenter on our local radio who was boasting he had no idea how to change a tyre. That drives me mad because you always change the wheel. Even I've never changed the tyre on a car. I could with the right equipment and a youtube video. He was saying that was someone else's job. Just call the AA. Surely people are better off taking an interest in their cars. If he had a puncture he could be stuck for hours waiting for someone. I'd have the spare on in a few minutes. Before I retired about 3 people came up to me saying they had had breakdowns and their engines were trashed. They hadn't checked their oil and the engines seized. So many cars are neglected. Their owners have no interest and their garage have no interest. Just check MOT histories. So many tyres with no tread, bulbs out, washers empty. It's rare to find one like mine. Pass year after year with no advisories. That's one of the reasons I can sell my cars easily with no stamps in the book. It's pretty obvious that a neglected car wouldn't have an MOT history like mine.

I constantly had advisories when I had MOTs. And not a single one of them was or is a problem. For example child seat fitted, engine cover fitted etc. 

fred246

Scrapit said:

fred246 said:

I just find it strange how people are so disconnected from their cars. There was a presenter on our local radio who was boasting he had no idea how to change a tyre. That drives me mad because you always change the wheel. Even I've never changed the tyre on a car. I could with the right equipment and a youtube video. He was saying that was someone else's job. Just call the AA. Surely people are better off taking an interest in their cars. If he had a puncture he could be stuck for hours waiting for someone. I'd have the spare on in a few minutes. Before I retired about 3 people came up to me saying they had had breakdowns and their engines were trashed. They hadn't checked their oil and the engines seized. So many cars are neglected. Their owners have no interest and their garage have no interest. Just check MOT histories. So many tyres with no tread, bulbs out, washers empty. It's rare to find one like mine. Pass year after year with no advisories. That's one of the reasons I can sell my cars easily with no stamps in the book. It's pretty obvious that a neglected car wouldn't have an MOT history like mine.

I constantly had advisories when I had MOTs. And not a single one of them was or is a problem. For example child seat fitted, engine cover fitted etc. 

I agree. Luckily my MOT tester doesn't do silly advisories.