Silly car servicing/repair beliefs...

[E21_Ross]

Also friend of mine is always complaining they have no money, fair enough. They own a 2004 corsa and despite the supposed lack of funds they insist on taking it to a vauxhall dealer who charge £100 per hour because they think other garages will do a poor job or rip them off. Errr!

Yesterday their water pump failed, so they once again they've taken it to a main dealers who said 3 hours labour plus. About 60quif for the part. They were moaning about the cost etc but refused point blank when I said take it to a local independent or someone from the good garage scheme and they said no because they get good service at the dealers and its good having full dealer history.

How can I convince this person that to save their supposed low finances and avoid the stealers! Water pump failed on my e21 2 years ago and took my indy less than 25mins to change it! Though I guess it was more simple on my car...

Cherrs

[Ozzie Osmond]

Never forget there are at least as many rogues and incompetents under the railway arches!

[NHK244V]

You can't! they are the exact sort of idiots that keep the dealerships going.
Nothing you say will change thier mind, even when they come to sell the car and the full dealer service history makes the car worth £200 more than one without they will still neevr change, give up and enjoy the cash you have and they dont

[E21_Ross]

for what it's worth chaps....the water pump was changed by the dealer at "over £300", whether this included VAT or not i don't know. the part was between £50-60 which means they charged at least £250 labour to change a water pump! they said it was expensive but think they "did a good job". i said good, but i was thinking "i should bloody hope so for that!!"

you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. some people just won't listen. i reckon an indy would have saved at least £100 on that. next time they moan i think i'll have a right go at them!!

Ross.

[Chrisw666]

It is fine ranting but good indis are a lottery, and good cheap indis an even bigger one.

For average Joe who knows nothing about what a water pump does the security of going to a shiny building and dealing with a smart person in a suit is probably worth the extra they pay.

[blueg33]

E21_Ross said:

for what it's worth chaps....the water pump was changed by the dealer at "over £300", whether this included VAT or not i don't know. the part was between £50-60 which means they charged at least £250 labour to change a water pump! they said it was expensive but think they "did a good job". i said good, but i was thinking "i should bloody hope so for that!!"

you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. some people just won't listen. i reckon an indy would have saved at least £100 on that. next time they moan i think i'll have a right go at them!!

Ross.

Just reminded me of a line from a song "you can take a horse to water but a pencil must be led"

sorry

[E21_Ross]

Chrisw666 said:

It is fine ranting but good indis are a lottery, and good cheap indis an even bigger one.

For average Joe who knows nothing about what a water pump does the security of going to a shiny building and dealing with a smart person in a suit is probably worth the extra they pay.

i've even recommended the garage i use when my car needs minor work, have known the guys who own it for years and are £40ph and do a very good job and are genuinely honest, she won't listen though.

i wouldn't care if she never moans about always being tight on cash! if i didn't have to listen to her moaning about it i'd just laugh it off, but felt i had to say something as i thought i could generally help them out by suggesting it but they just won't listen. oh well!

[vit4]

E21_Ross said:

i've even recommended the garage i use when my car needs minor work, have known the guys who own it for years and are £40ph and do a very good job and are genuinely honest, she won't listen though.

i wouldn't care if she never moans about always being tight on cash! if i didn't have to listen to her moaning about it i'd just laugh it off, but felt i had to say something as i thought i could generally help them out by suggesting it but they just won't listen. oh well!

Highlighted the problems


In all seriousness, unless I had a brand new car I'd never go to a dealer Although I am lucky in having an extremely good, extremely cheap indie...

[mccrackenj]

blueg33 said:

E21_Ross said:

for what it's worth chaps....the water pump was changed by the dealer at "over £300", whether this included VAT or not i don't know. the part was between £50-60 which means they charged at least £250 labour to change a water pump! they said it was expensive but think they "did a good job". i said good, but i was thinking "i should bloody hope so for that!!"

you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. some people just won't listen. i reckon an indy would have saved at least £100 on that. next time they moan i think i'll have a right go at them!!

Ross.

Just reminded me of a line from a song "you can take a horse to water but a pencil must be led"

sorry

You can lead a we to culture but you can't make her think.

[bigdods]

To Be fair though, to the average punter garages are a nightmare. All those daily wail horror stories !

Even those of us who know a bit about the subject can get caught out - I've been using a VW specialist instead of my usual local back street mechanic as the Golf has a V5 engine and my usual mechanic/garage are a bit wary of it.

Turns out the VW specialist I was using seems to know very little about VWs, and also very little about even basic mechanics or diagnostics - a few examples

'You've got an oil leak but we cant see where its coming from' - Err no thats a water leak and its probably the hose at the back of the engine (common V5 fault they didnt know, I googled it to find out)

'you cant adjust a handbrake , it will need all the cables replacing at £xx silly pounds'- when I got it back it just needed some slack taking out with the adjuster...

'fans are working fine' - err no they arent, common problem on ALL Mk4 golfs, low speed fan fails when resistors burn out


Following the above I now get my local mechanic to change the oil etc and have found a new VW specialist to try for the engine stuff that needs doing. Interesting that the specialist mentioned above has gleaming premises, free coffee, comfy chairs - just like a dealer !. The new place I am trying is a proper old school workshop so I have high hopes !

[E21_Ross]

jz325i said:

E21_Ross said:

for what it's worth chaps....the water pump was changed by the dealer at "over £300", whether this included VAT or not i don't know. the part was between £50-60 which means they charged at least £250 labour to change a water pump! they said it was expensive but think they "did a good job". i said good, but i was thinking "i should bloody hope so for that!!"

you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. some people just won't listen. i reckon an indy would have saved at least £100 on that. next time they moan i think i'll have a right go at them!!

Ross.

As with a lot of cars nowadays I would guess that the water pump is part of the timing belt assembly, and that's something you don't want to screw up. More importantly though... if the water pump has gone and if it is part of the timing belt setup, then two questions ...

1.) Why change just the water pump - the timing belt is prob due at the same time.
2.) And if the timing belt was recently changed, why didn't the person get the full kit and replace the water pump at the same time?

because they are a main dealer and know the person will come back and bend over ready to take it up the arse again when that's due