This car business is expensive.

[lexi]

Code: Select all

 Get phonecall that it needs new tracker rod and rod end and that will be £350 sigh.

Transfer that call to me next time............I am gathering fairy tales for some research atm...
So WTF had that to do with an oil change? Those garages are brilliant to check over other parts of the car when you are not paying them to do that! How thoughtful!

" Yes Sir, I was changing your oil and a pry lever came into my hand and I started to lever your ball joints...........I don't know what came over me,because my eyes then wandered onto your tyre. You see, I have an overwhelming sense of responsibility for your well being. I just cannot help it. In fact I spent so much time looking for work on your car that I had to charge 91 quid for the oil change. "

[Mandrake]

Code: Select all

 Get phonecall that it needs new tracker rod and rod end and that will be £350 sigh.

Transfer that call to me next time............I am gathering fairy tales for some research atm...
So WTF had that to do with an oil change? Those garages are brilliant to check over other parts of the car when you are not paying them to do that! How thoughtful!

" Yes Sir, I was changing your oil and a pry lever came into my hand and I started to lever your ball joints...........I don't know what came over me,because my eyes then wandered onto your tyre. You see, I have an overwhelming sense of responsibility for your well being. I just cannot help it. In fact I spent so much time looking for work on your car that I had to charge 91 quid for the oil change. "

Total ripoff. Find a new garage, and resist the urge to say yes to any un-asked for work offered by any garage. They're usually trying it on to see what they can suck you in for. As Alex says a track rod end has ZERO to do with an oil change, they shouldn't be spending time (and charging you for it apparently) looking for other jobs that need doing. On any older car there's always jobs lurking that need doing, but on your own terms, when you're ready to do them, and not at ripoff prices!

[Hell Razor5543]

As I mentioned somewhere else, Asda are currently doing 4l Castrol GTX for £12 as of yesterday evening.

[Citroenmad]

That all does seem very expensive!

This is why I like to do as much of the work on my cars as possible and you learn as you go along, so long as your careful and do some research before, it shouldn't go too wrong.

I've never used Castrol oil, I can't understand why they produce 4l bottles, very few cars I have serviced have needed less than 4l, most are closer to 5l. Seems pointless as you only have to buy another 4l or a 1l. I use Total, its what Citroen recommends too.

[evoke]

I've already forked out a small fortune on my C5. I got it at a good price because it was a high-miler ex-lease car, so it had been well maintained with a FSH.

I gave it to a local indie workshop to do a healthcheck on it and was relieved of the following:

New discs and pads all round, two new tyres: £800
New clutch, DMF: £1300
Minor service from dealer: £100
Brake fluid flush, replace lower ball joints: £550
Power steering hose: £650

TOTAL: £3,400

The care only cost me £3,850!

[Citroenmad]

I think I'd have found an auction and thrown it there!

I really couldnt justify that, I mean I certainly dont scrip on any part of car maintenance and all of my cars get genuine parts or top branded items, (tyres/exhausts etc)serviced at half the recommended etc, but £3400 in repairs!

I'm pretty sure I could do a total restoration on a Xantia for the cost of that

I guess it depends where in a cars life you buy it, if it is just as it is coming up to major replacement times, then its not totally out of the blue. Hopefully you will have a long spell of low maintenance now

[evoke]

I think I'd have found an auction and thrown it there!

I really couldnt justify that, I mean I certainly dont scrip on any part of car maintenance and all of my cars get genuine parts or top branded items, (tyres/exhausts etc)serviced at half the recommended etc, but £3400 in repairs!

I'm pretty sure I could do a total restoration on a Xantia for the cost of that

I guess it depends where in a cars life you buy it, if it is just as it is coming up to major replacement times, then its not totally out of the blue. Hopefully you will have a long spell of low maintenance now

Yes, agreed. I love the car and most of the items were ones that would get worn out. The car had around 137,000 miles when I bought it so was very high mileage so I had budgeted for around £1,500 of things to replace. I'm hoping to get a few years of cheap motoring out of it so it shouldn't need many parts for a while.

[Peter.N.]

I paid £550.00 for my nice red 2.0. Hdi, I have spent about £250.00 on it all together, buying parts from ebay and doing it myself. We have recently returned from a 2000 mile trip around Scotland and it behaved faultlessly and returned 60 mpg. When I can't do my own repairs any more that will probably be the end of my driving days - unless they drastically increase the state pension

Peter

[Northern_Mike]

I've never used Castrol oil, I can't understand why they produce 4l bottles, very few cars I have serviced have needed less than 4l, most are closer to 5l. Seems pointless as you only have to buy another 4l or a 1l. I use Total, its what Citroen recommends too.

Many of the smaller engines, at least in my experience need less than 4l. Certainly the 306 1.4 I serviced did, as did the 1.8 MX5.

Halfords also do 4l bottles. I find it quite useful when they do "2 for £20" offers. OK, I end up with 8 litres, but it's still considerably cheaper than the £20 or more for a 5 litre bottle of the same stuff.

[Northern_Mike]

I paid £550.00 for my nice red 2.0. Hdi, I have spent about £250.00 on it all together, buying parts from ebay and doing it myself. We have recently returned from a 2000 mile trip around Scotland and it behaved faultlessly and returned 60 mpg.

Peter

That's expensive! I paid £350 for mine, did 17,000 miles in it, spent about £100 on it (two tyres, an oil change) and then sold it to Jim..

[Rhothgar]

So took my C5 into garage for oil change.

Get phonecall that it needs new tracker rod and rod end and that will be £350 sigh.

Oil change, where I provided the oil cost £91.

Plus they say the tyre is cracking so need a new one (He's recommending a budget tyre, which I am always wary of after wearing out issues before)

So all told the filter change and putting in my oils ends up costing £500-550 smakeroos.

Bugger is I have road tax and insurance to pay this month in relation to the car. So sigh indeed.

I would not authorise the work on the track rod end unless it has already been done.

That is absurd.

Although we take the p!55 out of the Haynes Manual. You have to start somewhere and that is the place to start for basic through to advanced.

As another poster remarked about Scots, I thought I would add that perhaps it is a misconception about Scots being tight. It's just that they have no money from paying exhorbitant garage fees!!!

Truly unbelievable. I would imagine that they did the tracking as well in that price. Is it not necessarily a straight swap unless the length of the track rod end is exactly the same and that is assuming the tracking was correct before the start of the job. Tracking should cost no more than £30 - £45 I would imagine these days.

[Peter.N.]

I paid £550.00 for my nice red 2.0. Hdi, I have spent about £250.00 on it all together, buying parts from ebay and doing it myself. We have recently returned from a 2000 mile trip around Scotland and it behaved faultlessly and returned 60 mpg.

Peter

That's expensive! I paid £350 for mine, did 17,000 miles in it, spent about £100 on it (two tyres, an oil change) and then sold it to Jim..

I only paid £300.00 for the 2.2 estate

Peter

[taffy]

tbh if i had to take my car to a garage i couldnt afford to own it...with all the work ive done on mine and still doing....get haynes manual and a cup of tea....browse these forums and u can do alot urself...dont think u cant do it...watch some you tube vids...borrow some tools...have fun and have more satisfaction then handing over money to a monkey

[taffy]

so much knollage here mate ul never be stuck

[Gibbo2286]

There is one aspect of the posts that I don't agree with, that of the garage informing you if they spot something wrong.

A good mechanic will have his eyes open whilst under the car even if he's just doing something as simple as an oil change, not because he's looking to hit you with more work but for the safety of the travellers and to cover his own ass.

Just suppose Boris's track rod end had dropped off a couple of days later and he'd fallen of one of those Scottish cliffs as a result, the fact that it had been in the garage would have given the ambulance chasing lawyers a free run to sue the pants of the garage.

Win or lose there would be endless grief for the mechanic and the garage owner.

I do agree however that the prices charged by this firm seem extortionate supposing Boris has told the whole story.