Mobile Mechanics?

aardvark0

Ramble in progress alert....

I have an 11 year old Peugeot 205 diesel which I am very happy with.

I keep the car serviced at a local independant garage, and am generally happy with their quality and work. Tyres/exhausts/brakes - I phone around the local fast fit type places and go for the best deal.

I recently had to have one of the front headlamp assemblies replaced for the MOT, and was quite happy for the local garage to do this, but was somewhat shocked that the price for the part was £48. I can see the same part at the german/swedish/french car parts web site for £23(ish) inc postage plus vat.

Which got me to thinking...if I can get many parts substantially cheaper by buying direct from this sort of web site, and engage the services of a local mobile mechanic to fit said parts (presumably at a rate lower than the £40 an hour the local garage charges due to lower overheads) I may be able to lower some of my repair bills.

As an example - one of my front shock absorbers is leaking slightly, and I am thinking therefore about 2 new front shocks in the near future.

The cheapest local quote is in the £140 bracket for buying and fitting them (The most expensive was £400 - I actually burst out laughing as the very nice man informed me of the price - even he was surprised - he suggested that they were probably gold plated parts).

I can buy shock absorbers myself online for £65 inc postage and vat.

The trouble is I don't know how much time (and therefore money) a professional mechanic would need to fit them. Can anyone help?

A very big additional spanner in my cunning plan is that I am unable to find any local mobile mechanics. Scouring the local papers and the local yellow pages has not helped. Is there some other resource I can use to find mobile mechanics? I live near Yeovil, Somerset...

I suspect in this particular instance I should probably take the £140 deal on the table, but there may be times when buying the parts myself and having them fitted could be substantially more cost effective.

Regards

blue_haddock

I would not be suprised if the local garage did not source the headlight from somewhere like GSF or eurocarparts (which additional trade discount) but invoice you a higher amount and make a little extra profit.

tonys_3

Have you tried Google uk -type in "Yeovil mobile motor mechanics "and see what results you get?
You could also put a small ad yourself in the local rag or newspaper window asking for a mechanic.Some small businesses cannot afford Yellow pages.