How honest do you expect a garage to be?
Discussion
We regularly see complaints that fast-fit places try to get people to replace perfectly good tyres/brakes/shocks or worse - but this issue isn't confined to just them by any means?
When a spring snapped on my last shed, the garage around-the-corner said I needed a new strut, as the 'cup' in which the spring sits was damaged. Their quote was £140 and they "strongly suggested" that I do the other side whilst I was at-it. In the end, I got the car recovered to a mate's lockup and he replaced the spring - price to him £35 - price to me £35 and a pint - job done!
Thing is, the garage weren't wrong in what they said - the cup was damaged and when you replace one spring, replacing the other isn't a bad idea!?
The difference between their £280 of work and my mate's £35 was a mix of 'friend prices' and him simply patching-up an old car instead of putting-it-back to 'as new'. The fact I managed to get a £125 recovery done for free is another factor...
Every time you talk to a garage, you go through this to some extent I guess? Work may be advisable but not essential or work which appears 'essential' is something people are happy to ignore (I know someone still driving a Vectra C 3 months after the turbo expired, for example!).
What I'm asking is, how honest do you expect a garage to be and how much of the problem here is in how it's presented and the gullibility of the punter?
Example: I could easily say to ANY car owner "your car would be safer with new brakes and 4 new tyres" - unless they're replaced them in the last few weeks, that would be true!?
If I didn't say that, another garage might and that's me out of business? There's little financial reward for being nice and honest in this situation??
When a spring snapped on my last shed, the garage around-the-corner said I needed a new strut, as the 'cup' in which the spring sits was damaged. Their quote was £140 and they "strongly suggested" that I do the other side whilst I was at-it. In the end, I got the car recovered to a mate's lockup and he replaced the spring - price to him £35 - price to me £35 and a pint - job done!
Thing is, the garage weren't wrong in what they said - the cup was damaged and when you replace one spring, replacing the other isn't a bad idea!?
The difference between their £280 of work and my mate's £35 was a mix of 'friend prices' and him simply patching-up an old car instead of putting-it-back to 'as new'. The fact I managed to get a £125 recovery done for free is another factor...
Every time you talk to a garage, you go through this to some extent I guess? Work may be advisable but not essential or work which appears 'essential' is something people are happy to ignore (I know someone still driving a Vectra C 3 months after the turbo expired, for example!).
What I'm asking is, how honest do you expect a garage to be and how much of the problem here is in how it's presented and the gullibility of the punter?
Example: I could easily say to ANY car owner "your car would be safer with new brakes and 4 new tyres" - unless they're replaced them in the last few weeks, that would be true!?
If I didn't say that, another garage might and that's me out of business? There's little financial reward for being nice and honest in this situation??
MX7 said:
Your friend got trade prices, so retail is probably around £50. If they booked it for a 1.5 hour job, then added VAT, I wouldn't expect it to be any cheaper than that.
What price would you be happy with from a garage?
I wasn't really UNHAPPY - I was using that as an example of how I could make something sound extortionate and yet it probably wasn't - as well as illustrating how you can 'increase the work required' without actually being outright dishonest. No mechanic really wants to help you run a car on a shoestring...What price would you be happy with from a garage?
I also don't think avoiding 'main dealers' will help much, every garage has bills to pay and they will all be tempted to add something to the list.
A bigger issue, to my mind, is the growing issue of the 'job which doesn't fix something'.
Example: mate had an Astravan with a misfire. He's already spent money on leads/plugs and wiring checkover, it's not solved it. The garage he uses says the next step is a new ECU - but they're expensive and if it doesn't fix it you cannot return it because it has to be coded to the car.
Hang on - you cannot ask someone to spend £1000 on something which 'might' fix their car can you? That's ridiculous?
Other cases are garages replacing water pumps for cooling problems which they don't solve - you need a thick-skin to take money from someone for NOT fixing their car don't you?
p.s. For the record, the "mate" I mentioned used-to-have proper premises but he gave-them-up and moved back to a 'lockup' because it was £2500 a month he didn't have to earn - which is quite a lot of money!?
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