Expensive bill for service and disc/pad change

[SamR380]

£10 fuel treatment could have saved the emmissions. My wife's MINI failed on emmissions and the garage said it needed a new cat... costing £xxx. A quick service at home and a bottle of 'fuel treatment' (I used cataclean) and it passed with flying colours.

My point - the garage could have saved your friend from £600 quids worth of catalytic converter + labour, that they may have otherwise got away with charging.

[Evanivitch]

Pothole said:

What is the mystery fuel thingy, then? Was it requested? Was it necessary? There's no end of places offering MOTs in my area for £30.

One of any number of fuel tank additives that claim to clean your engine. It's not unusual to be part of a service.

[geeks]

nsa said:

Although the car is cheap it would be clear to anyone who meets the owner that this is not all she can afford, and the car is on a private plate, so the garage might think £375 is what she would expect to pay for a service.

Irrelevant.

[Monkeylegend]

nsa said:

Although the car is cheap it would be clear to anyone who meets the owner that this is not all she can afford, and the car is on a private plate, so the garage might think £375 is what she would expect to pay for a service.

So you are suggesting that the garages pricing policy is based on what they think their customers expect to pay based on how wealthy or otherwise they might or might not be.

I think you are a bit out of touch with reality. Get a quote from a main dealer for the work she had done and compare.

[GreenV8S]

The charges look reasonable to me.

I assume the parts charges each represent a set i.e. an axle's worth of discs and pads.

[Chris32345]

Evanivitch said:

Where the nearest ECP? Who's going to bring it to the garage?

Prices aren't cheap, but they're not unusual for a garage.

Ecp will bring it to the garage
They do same day delivery for trade accounts you not seen all the vans driving around ?

[Evanivitch]

Chris32345 said:

Ecp will bring it to the garage
They do same day delivery for trade accounts you not seen all the vans driving around ?

Same day? Same price as retail?

Hard to miss the vans when their 6 inches off your bumper.

[bluezedd]

nsa said:

This is for a 2001 Toyota Corolla worth about £500. Small London garage. A friend asked if she was being ripped off. Does anyone think this is reasonable?

£100 for (one) rear disc - £20 at ECP.
£36 for a pad
£10 for "fuel treatment"
Three? hours labour to change oil, air filter, and a rear disc/pad

It seems reasonable to me, especially as it's in london.

[Chris32345]

Evanivitch said:

Same day? Same price as retail?

Hard to miss the vans when their 6 inches off your bumper.

Can't speak for prices but I know they often send parts out to garage's same day e.g order in morning get dinner time ect

[deggles]

Overall bill isn’t extortionate but the breakdown is a bit odd; as others have said:

• Disc/pad prices are a bit excessive
• No oil/fluids itemised
• No VAT mentioned

Maybe they’ve just done it all as a cash job and made up the numbers?

[Driver101]

£150 for labour in London isn't going to be 3 hours is it?

Cheap value cars doesn't mean cheap labour, repairs and parts. They still cost the same.

Surely they haven't just changed one disc?

I would be really annoyed if they changed brakes on one side, but if £375 is the total cost for an MOT, service and rear brakes in London, it's not unreasonable.

[Little Pete]

That’s about what we’d charge and we’re not in that London Town!
I don’t imagine they’ve only changed one disc, it’s just poorly written. As has been said, get a quote next time.

[stevemcs]

Chris32345 said:

Can't speak for prices but I know they often send parts out to garage's same day e.g order in morning get dinner time ect

We get 3 vans per day, 9, 12.30 and 2.30. Cut off is 10 mins before the van leaves.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

I very much doubt it's for one disc, it'll almost certainly be a pair and a set of pads.

For reference I've just bought at work on our trade account a pair of Apec discs, pads and shims the front of a Vito. Not from ECP but another motor factor and that lot came to £120+ trade price to us.

Don't forget the garage in question here is quite within their rights to charge the retail price on parts supplied and they also may fit quality components not just the cheapest crap that the likes of ECP sell.

Oh and the missing oil on the bill is a mystery.

[stevemcs]

Good luck with Apec, we only use them as a last resort and wouldn’t fit them to anything commercial.

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

stevemcs said:

Good luck with Apec, we only use them as a last resort and wouldn’t fit them to anything commercial.

I've never had a problem with them to be fair.

[steveo3002]

its about what id expect from a garage , all the ones around would do the same and mark up the parts , nice earner when you can do that with the parts , you have the option do buy and fit them yourself the garages arent there to do you a favour

[finishing touch]

Learn to do it yourself and you don't pay any labour charge.

You also get to buy the parts with no mark up.



If you expect someone to do it for you then you have to pay. People have to earn a living.

Paul G

[Andy 308GTB]

I think the OP could help everyone out here and take a quick look at the discs in questions and confirm that they've both been replaced.

[markcoznottz]

Pretty sure most factors won't supply single discs/pads now. I can't see the relevance of the vehicles worth either, are cheaper cars not required to be serviced and kept mechanically sound? Or maybe it's because the owner feels that because she is either unable or unwilling to buy a newer vehicle over an older one that she somehow 'deserves' to spend less maintaining it. Working in the trade you see this all the time. I think to be fair running older cars only works if you do your own maintenance.