oh man... big service bill!

morg_monster

Hi
Have taken the car in today for its MOT and full service (Astra 1.4 5door petrol, P-reg). Just had a call from the guy at the garage telling me that although the car has passed the MOT, it has an advisory notice on. The things that need fixing/replacing are: rear brake cylinder, front brake disks, front shock absorbers (damn those speed humps), fan belt, a front gasket (oil leak). On top of a full service (which hasn't been done yet) and MOT (which has) the total cost is about £800. He reckons that next year it'll only cost £200 in repairs... the last 2 years its been about £400-500.
Now I do trust this garage so I'm not too worried about them ripping me off (tho let me know if you think they are, we're in London btw). I'm just wondering whether its finally time to say goodbye to this car. Its been owned by mum then me for 11 years now so we know almost all its history and it has been reliable (never broken down!). But £800 plus the £350-400 the insurance will cost to renew in May is now getting to the price of buying a newer, reasonable used car. Might get £500 for the car if I sold it, it is quite low mileage obv the advisory notice will have an effect. We don't need the car at the moment so wouldn't need to replace it asap but in the summer we will as we are moving out of London.

Any tips on how to know when its time to say goodbye to your older car?! & What decent replacement could I get for circa £1000?

bryanb

I don't know of any legal reason not to market the car as it stands with 12m MOT. The advisory is merely to inform you of potential future problems. Morally however perhaps you should pass on the advisory, especially in a private sale, but in a trade deal I think it would be "caveat emptor"

morg_monster

i have read that some insurance policies may be invalidated by driving with an MOT advisory on but I don't know if mine would be. At any rate I'd be OK til Feb 29th!
I agree with you that morally if I was to sell the car I should be upfront, there's no way I couldn't be, I'm terrible at any kind of lying/stretching the truth! Could do a part-exchange but I suspect most cars available this way might be too expensive. Its more the hassle of buying and selling vs the ease of just handing over £800 (actually I'd only pay half of this and had budgeted for it thank god, ain't I a good MSEer!)

Conor_3

morg_monster wrote: »

Hi
Have taken the car in today for its MOT and full service (Astra 1.4 5door petrol, P-reg). Just had a call from the guy at the garage telling me that although the car has passed the MOT, it has an advisory notice on. The things that need fixing/replacing are: rear brake cylinder, front brake disks, front shock absorbers (damn those speed humps),

ALL OF THESE ARE MOT FAILURE ITEMS. If the rear brake cylinder, front disks and front shockers needed replacing, it shouldn't have passed the MOT.

I'd ring them and ask if they need replacing and if they say yes, ask how it managed to pass an MOT with them as they're items which would result in an MOT fail.

I suspect there's a bit of work generation going on. TBH, I think they are trying to rip you off. Phone them up and put what I've just said to them and see what they say about that. Say you're particularly worried about the MOT now as with those being fail items, it shouldn't have passed. If they try to bully you into the work, tell them you're going to see VOSA, as it sounds dodgy passing an MOT then saying several testable items need replacing after its passed, and they're not to do any repairs to the vehicle. That'll scare the hell out of them.

anewman

I agree, most of the things there are very clear cut pass/fail MOT things. So either they need doing or don't. £800 overall sounds rather steep too.

And if a rear brake cylinder needs replacing it's probably easier to replace both sides and do the shoes at the same time if they're wearing a bit.

morg_monster

Hm well Conor that may be true that the car should have failed, the guy did make it sound like he had done me a favour by persuading them not to fail, he said he told them that I was a regular customer (which I am), presumably with the unsaid statement that I'd definitely get it fixed and not cause trouble for them.
I realise now that I don't know their policy on charging for repeat tests as the 3 yrs I've used them for the car has always passed first time; my old garage used to do the full service before the MOT so they had an idea of what might fail beforehand; I failed once once emissions and they had it retested it for free after fixing the prob.
I suspect it may be down to him not wanting to take the car back to the test centre later in the day after doing the work. I hope its that and not down to work generation as you say but it is always possible. pretty god damn lazy if it is that though, I know there's a test centre just 5min walk away (but prob a 15 min drive the traffic round there!).

anewman

Remember it is illegal for them to pass a vehicle that should fail. Any one at a garage who passes a car claiming they did it out of kindness then asks to do work later needs shooting IMO. A complaint to VOSA should help.

If it's passed it's passed and needs no work. If they passed it when it should have failed, they have done something illegal.

Sounds to me like the relationship they've built up with you is to take ever increasing amounts of money from your wallet year on year, not to keep your car in great condition - and save you the measly £20 or so re-test fee.

bryanb

Seems to me that if the test centre is separate from the garage, the advisories are not neccessarily fail items. I base this on the fact that I had an advisory last year that said "front brake discs slightly worn" This was at a main dealer who would apply the rules very strictly. Ask to see the paperwork.

Keith

The car has an MOT so take it home, I wouldn't bother with the annual service.

The items don't immediately need changing otherwise it wouldn't of passed the MOT, if you advertise it you should mention the defects as any buyer may look at the MOT and see an advisory was issued and walk away.

As above you really need to read the advisory note, I got one last year for:-

Spare wheel missing :rolleyes:
Top mount of suspension worn, which cost £20 to fix

morg_monster

thanks for the advice conor and anewman. I know it is illegal for them to pass a fail... but its hard to know what stance to take if they thought they were doing a favour. Bryan interesting points, I will closely look at the advisory cert.

I know nobody who is any good with cars and this garage was recommended by a friend (again, who doesn't really know much about cars). It is really hard to know if you're being ripped off etc when you've nobody and no real know-how to back you up! The old garage I used to use before we moved, we only used because my parents have always used it. I don't know how you find a truly reliable garage without knowledgeable input! My MSEness with the car only extends to buying superficial parts (aerials, mirrors etc) from breakers or ebay and then trying to fit them myself using a Haynes manual (from ebay of course), giving up after a couple of hours and getting the garage to fit it!

I just don't know where I'd start with questioning their work or judgement on what needs doing, or finding out how reliable they really are, I really haven't a clue. wah.

Inactive

Keith wrote: »

Spare wheel missing :rolleyes:

No need to have a spare wheel, so that was wrong.

I know of at least one new car that comes without a spare wheel of any kind.