Budgeting for a used car or big repair bill?

jimjames

forgotmyname said:

jimjames said:

fred246 said:

The £725 bill becomes £100 when you know how to do it yourself. Makes a difference. You never get to the point where you say "this car is costing me too much".

Going from doing zero maintenance to cambelts is quite a push. I maintain my cars but wouldn't do a cam belt. The oil/filter/air filter/cabin filter are all perfectly do-able and will cut the £250-300 extra off that £725 bill for a cost of probably £30-40 for parts.

Not forgetting that buying the tools to do the job the first time will probably be double what the garage want.  I have spent a forune on tools

over the years and there is always something else I need.

Good point although apart from the oil filter the others just need a screwdriver which most people would have at home anyway but definitely something to bear in mind.

fred246

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

Shoxt3r

fred246 said:

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

The problem we have is that we have to park on a main road so space to do any major work like a cambelt change would be very limited.

Shoxt3r

Well, on the plus side the garage I've used before is willing to throw in a free MOT when I book the full service, so that's good news!

jimjames

fred246 said:

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

Except it's not just a day's labour is it? Do you really think a business has no overheads?

motorguy

fred246 said:

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

Can you show us where to get all of the following for £100 please?

• New engine oil
• Oil filter
• Air filter
• Spark plugs
• Timing belt kit (including tensioners, rollers and belt)
• Water pump
• Fresh coolant

ontheroad1970

fred246 said:

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

You've plainly not seen all the bad reports on mobile mechanics on here.  I suspect that like you, Servicing Stop 'engineers' do all their training via YouTube, and that's why they don't have a good rep

fred246

I don't see why a mobile mechanic would be any worse than a garage. You don't need any training or qualifications to be a mobile mechanic. You don't need any training or qualifications to work as a mechanic in a garage. The 'vetting' has to be done by the customer. A lot of mobile mechanics have trained at main dealers but just prefer running their own business. If the mobile mechanic has his own business and does all the work then you know who will be doing the work and who is responsible for it. At least you can see him working and you know he hasn't just stamped your book. Servicing Stop is different because that introduces a 'middle man'. The garages using Servicing Stop obviously can't attract enough customers and the reports are that the middle man is less than reputable. Whoever you use it's up to the customer to do their research. The whole industry is unregulated. Like the wild west.

AdrianC

ontheroad1970 said:

fred246 said:

I could do all the work on my drive in less than a day. It would be interesting to see if you could find a good, well recommended mobile mechanic. If the parts are about £100 surely they couldn't charge £625 for a day's labour?

You've plainly not seen all the bad reports on mobile mechanics on here.  I suspect that like you, Servicing Stop 'engineers' do all their training via YouTube, and that's why they don't have a good rep

ServicingStop are simply a marketing front end to a bunch of local garages.

Why do those local garages need to join up to something like ServicingStop? Because they have lousy reps locally, and can't get business in the same way all the good local garages do...

Herzlos

Shoxt3r said:

fred246 said:

The £725 bill becomes £100 when you know how to do it yourself. Makes a difference. You never get to the point where you say "this car is costing me too much".

Yeah true, although I don't trust myself to do other than the bare minimum when it comes to servicing cars, especially traveling with my family - if it was just me I might consider it but there's also the fact I'd have peace of mind by going through a garage I suppose!

It's worth noting that fred has a pathalogical hatred for mechanics, despite asking fairly basic maintenance questions on here.

The reason a £725 bill costs that when there's only an alleged £100 in parts because you're paying for the garages expertise and liability (and equipment). You're only saving £625 here if you already have the equipment needed, including the space and the ramps, know what you're doing, get the right parts and don't break anything.  I've DIY'd a few things and it's cost more in the long run than getting an expert in.

Sure, there are some bad mechanics, but there are probably more bad DIY'ers out there. Just get local recommendations for a good one and you should be fine - go for something that's been around a while and isn't too flashy. Ideally, find the place taxi's use because they cannot afford to be off the road for longer than required.