MOT and Service on W reg Vectra

ingresman

This is a kind of money saving thing but it's more of don't spend as much thing.
I've got a Vectra W reg, 72,000 miles and generally in good nick. I do 25,000 mile a year so need a good reliable car.
So last friday comes and I've booked it in at a main dealer for an MOT and as serivce. During the day I got a call from the dealer telling me the car failed and will need a front spring (£600), a new exhaust (£300) and a lambda sensor (£??) so I'm looking at £1000+ in repaires for a car which I'm told is worth between £600 and £2000 depending on how you dispose of it.
After picking myself up I told the dealer don't do any work on the car I'll come and get it and I'll look for a new one.
Get's to the garage to be presented with a bill for £185. But an MOT is only £35 says I, they did a full service on the car !. So a not very happy Ingresman pays up and demands to speak to the manager.
He gives some some old pony about it depends in what order they do the work, i.e. they can do the MOT first and then decide what to do or do the service so the car is fine and spanky for its MOT. Guess which order they did it in. Strikes me as odd if they did the service first and they see a huge hole in the exahaust and a broken spring to not start the MOT. I tell the guy how poor this is and I'll never darkend his door again.
He then says he can check out the price for non genuine Vauxhall parts. I say keep talking, he says he'll phone me back.
20 mins later I get a call from the guy saying they can do all the work for £498!, so I say yes do it (I had £500 as my break out point), he orders the parts and calls me back a hour later and tells me they are in. So I booked the car in for Monday , they did the work, for the price (I was expecting VAT on top!) and I was quite pleased.
So to sumarise my story.
-It's worth looking onto the local authority MOT stations (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot#full)
-It's worth puting in writing what you want the garage to do e.g. do MOT, call you before any more money is spent.
-if you get a fail let them quote the prices and then ask for them to quote non genunie parts (which are probabbly made in the same factory anyhow)
-If you get a fail for stuff like exahust ask what the restest fee would be and then have a little drive around the fastfit/quikfit style places to see what they can do you you.
-Always complain for action, don't just give the guy a hard time or he wont do anything for you, ask him what can he do for you to keep you as a loyal customer? (I actualy got him to agree to a free retest even if I got the work done elsewhere)
-You might ask why go to a main dealer with such an old car?. Maybe in a few years time but at the moment it's still a good car and they are getting so complex now that back street garges don't know how to fix them. I had a Mondeo and the local garage had no clue how to reset the central looking (2mins at the dealer)
-And my final tip, always give your self 2 weeks before the MOT so you have time to maneuver , do it on the day and they have you over a barrell

Crabman

Hi Ingresman, I'll move this to the Motoring Board

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

anewman

ingresman wrote: »

-And my final tip, always give your self 2 weeks before the MOT so you have time to maneuver , do it on the day and they have you over a barrell

I was caught out by this last time. Left it a little late and called around and could only get MOT tests later than I wanted, local authority was at least a month away. Luckily I found a place that did MOT's but didn't do any work, so I'll keep going there as I can get an appointment easier than with local authority.

Probably best to start booking 5 weeks before your MOT expiry as you can be a month early and get 13 months on the MOT cert.

Lorian

Do yourself a favour on a W-reg and clean the two top hoses from the cam cover to the throttle body, and also take off the accelerator cable and lubricate it properly. Vauxhall never do these as part of a service.

There are loads of other little things you can do to help keep the car in good nick. Its well worth a read through the vectra/signum forum at

http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk

ohreally

Lorian wrote: »

Do yourself a favour on a W-reg and clean the two top hoses from the cam cover to the throttle body, and also take off the accelerator cable and lubricate it properly. Vauxhall never do these as part of a service.

There are loads of other little things you can do to help keep the car in good nick. Its well worth a read through the vectra/signum forum at

http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk

Absolutely, and get a can of carb cleaner and clean the inside of the throttle body as well, (open the flap and clean under it as well). Engine will be a little lumpy to start but will be much smoother to drive and idle better.Also worth doing if your getting air mass meter faults showing intermittently.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

It doesn't cost £600 to replace a suspension spring. With the correct tools it's no more than an hour to do, and I can't see a spring costing £500. £50 more like.

Conor_3

SIX HUNDRED QUID FOR A £30 SPRING AND AN HOURS LABOUR?????????

They're having a giraffe.

They're also not allowed to do any work without your say so so if you took it in for an MOT and they serviced it, that's their tough titty. Go and demand your money back for the cost of the service. WHILST TALKING IN A VERY LOUD VOICE SO ALL THE CUSTOMERS CAN HEAR, tell them you never asked for it and you doubt that they actually did a service before the MOT because if they had THEY WOULD HAVE SPOTTED THE BROKEN SPRING, THE BLOWING EXHAUST AND THE FAULTY LAMBDA SENSOR before the MOT and rung you to advise you it needed doing. Make sure you make a very strong point of pushing what I've written in red. Take the phone number for trading standards with you. If you don't get anywhere, tell them that you think they're trying to rip you off and whilst you're still stood in the dealership, phone trading standards.

Hell, last main dealer I took my car to, I got a phone call to say the mechanic had changed a suspension arm but because they'd not asked me for authorisation first, they couldn't charge me for it.

custardy

as said theres something amis with the quote for the spring!

cyclonebri1

How wrong this all is, I really do feel for non mechy types that are taken advantage of like this. New spring from motor factors every bit as good as original, £25, fitting time 1 hr

As others posters say, disgusting.

And as I keep saying find a decent garage, believe me they do exist;)

anewman

Even if they were replacing them in pairs on the same axle, which is what you're meant to do, £600 is way over the top.

Conor_3

I think you'll find the pairs thing is advice for shockers and brakes...