Sharp practice or just normal for a main dealer......?
Discussion
So, I took the missus' 3 series in for a service and MOT this morning at the local dealer. All fairly routine, dropped the car off, lift into work thank you very much. Didn't expect it to pass as the fronts are just about on the wear blocks.
Anyway, get a call later telling me it has failed on all four tyres which need replacing, the rear brakes which need new pads and disks and a badly leaking sump gasket on the auto box. Would you like us to go ahead with the work and get it through the MOT Sir?
I was going down to pick it up anyway so I said I would go and have a look at the detail. Turns out that the car had actually failed on one front tyre, that's it. Nothing more. The rears apparently had cuts in (that he couldn't point out) but have plenty of life, the brakes have a couple of thousand miles left in them apparently and I'm not sure about the disks but they said when I turned up that they had life in them too. The 'estimate' to fix that stuff, £1600......!! The thing that really hacked me off was that when I checked they quoted a price for the tyres that was almost exactly double the fitted price on Black Circles. Double!
The thing that really gets up my nose is that they are obviously preying on the uninformed to just roll over and tell them to get it all done and I'm sure many people do. It is so obviously their strategy. The service woman actually seemed really put out that I questioned the work quoted and then decided to take the car away and get it rectified myself! For me, it's bordering on sharp practice and the prices they are quoting are just phenomenal. So anyway, a pair of fronts for a couple of hundred quid fitted tomorrow and we will have an MOT and i'll be tapping up my local Indy for the brakes and sump gasket later when they need doing!.
I won't be using them again.......
I know, I know, dealer in expensive work shocker but it just got up my nose.......
Anyway, get a call later telling me it has failed on all four tyres which need replacing, the rear brakes which need new pads and disks and a badly leaking sump gasket on the auto box. Would you like us to go ahead with the work and get it through the MOT Sir?
I was going down to pick it up anyway so I said I would go and have a look at the detail. Turns out that the car had actually failed on one front tyre, that's it. Nothing more. The rears apparently had cuts in (that he couldn't point out) but have plenty of life, the brakes have a couple of thousand miles left in them apparently and I'm not sure about the disks but they said when I turned up that they had life in them too. The 'estimate' to fix that stuff, £1600......!! The thing that really hacked me off was that when I checked they quoted a price for the tyres that was almost exactly double the fitted price on Black Circles. Double!
The thing that really gets up my nose is that they are obviously preying on the uninformed to just roll over and tell them to get it all done and I'm sure many people do. It is so obviously their strategy. The service woman actually seemed really put out that I questioned the work quoted and then decided to take the car away and get it rectified myself! For me, it's bordering on sharp practice and the prices they are quoting are just phenomenal. So anyway, a pair of fronts for a couple of hundred quid fitted tomorrow and we will have an MOT and i'll be tapping up my local Indy for the brakes and sump gasket later when they need doing!.
I won't be using them again.......
I know, I know, dealer in expensive work shocker but it just got up my nose.......
The Moose said:
No different to kwik fit!
I've got a kwik fit local to me with really decent guys running it. They've helped me out several times with bits and bobs and havent charged me, carried out above volvo mot, i knew tyres were nearing the limit and they confirmed what i already knew, everything they mentioned about the car was accurate and mot passed and they only charged me 30 quid.There are some good ones out there
John.
My local Kwik Fit are reasonable guys. They're strict but honest.
However a friend's brother who has no idea about cars took his C2 to Kwik Fit for its MOT and came back £500 poorer. Apparently his battery failed some of their tests and the receipt says it was about £150 to replace, and there was some other s
t on there. However, since his first comment about my old Impreza was "it's killing the planet, don't drive it" I couldn't care less if he got stung.
However a friend's brother who has no idea about cars took his C2 to Kwik Fit for its MOT and came back £500 poorer. Apparently his battery failed some of their tests and the receipt says it was about £150 to replace, and there was some other s
t on there. However, since his first comment about my old Impreza was "it's killing the planet, don't drive it" I couldn't care less if he got stung.I'm sure you will find there is nothing wrong with your rear brakes. Have them changed elsewhere, because BMW told you they were shot after all, keep the perfectly good parts and take them to show the dealer principal. Demand they pay for this unnessecary work reccomended by them. Thats what i did what I did when they tried this scam on me. Cost them a few quid.
This will only work if they put all the 'faults' on your car in writing.
This will only work if they put all the 'faults' on your car in writing.
Sounds par for the course in general with regards to main dealers.
I took my W202 C-Class to a Merc dealer for a "free safety check" last year just before my MOT, and their report came back saying (1)Steering rack leaking, (2)Diff leaking, (3)Ball joint at front knackered, (4)Worn rear wheel bearing and (5)Unknown oil leak from engine.
Armed with their report I took it to a local garage I'd not used before (I'd recently moved to the area and had never needed to MOT something yet) and asked them to check the car and MOT it. (Un)Surprisingly they said it was fine, no issues whatsoever and it flew through the MOT.
I took my W202 C-Class to a Merc dealer for a "free safety check" last year just before my MOT, and their report came back saying (1)Steering rack leaking, (2)Diff leaking, (3)Ball joint at front knackered, (4)Worn rear wheel bearing and (5)Unknown oil leak from engine.
Armed with their report I took it to a local garage I'd not used before (I'd recently moved to the area and had never needed to MOT something yet) and asked them to check the car and MOT it. (Un)Surprisingly they said it was fine, no issues whatsoever and it flew through the MOT.
My Mum took her Corolla to a Toyota dealer a couple of weeks back for a recall on the airbag. They phoned her to say that was sorted but there is £640 of other work that needs doing!
She phoned me to see if it sounded right and I said hell no just collect the car.
They wanted to charge for oil top up, coolant top up, new wipers and the big bit was £350+ for 2 new headlights as they were getting cloudy.
5 mins with some polish and a cloth sorted that out!
She phoned me to see if it sounded right and I said hell no just collect the car.
They wanted to charge for oil top up, coolant top up, new wipers and the big bit was £350+ for 2 new headlights as they were getting cloudy.
5 mins with some polish and a cloth sorted that out!
My first job after school was as a mechanic in a dealers and it put me off so much that I retrained and changed trades. All my previous suspicions were confirmed and I used to feel sick at how much customers were ripped off. For example, we used to have a box in the workshop full of genuinely knackered parts we'd replaced on other customers cars so we could produce a 'failed' item if requested - Cortina starter motors was a regular one as I recall. We'd tell a customer his/hers was knackered, clean up their perfectly working one in situ and show them one from the box pretending it was theirs that we'd replaced, offering to let them take it away and dump it. Of course they never did so it went back in the box for the next sucker.
I loved working on cars but hated working on them for a living. I'm sad to see it still goes on.
I loved working on cars but hated working on them for a living. I'm sad to see it still goes on.
It genuinely baffles me we still see this sort of post.
Is it not common knowledge that ALL car dealers are bent, ALL of them, END OF.
The only variable is the degree, the slightly bent ones like to think they're honest, but know deep down they're not.
The proper criminal kids himself he's only slightly bent.
I'm not sure what BMW dealers think of themselves!?!?
Is it not common knowledge that ALL car dealers are bent, ALL of them, END OF.
The only variable is the degree, the slightly bent ones like to think they're honest, but know deep down they're not.
The proper criminal kids himself he's only slightly bent.
I'm not sure what BMW dealers think of themselves!?!?
FeelingLucky said:
It genuinely baffles me we still see this sort of post.
Is it not common knowledge that ALL car dealers are bent, ALL of them, END OF.
The only variable is the degree, the slightly bent ones like to think they're honest, but know deep down they're not.
The proper criminal kids himself he's only slightly bent.
I'm not sure what BMW dealers think of themselves!?!?
you sir are a knob Is it not common knowledge that ALL car dealers are bent, ALL of them, END OF.
The only variable is the degree, the slightly bent ones like to think they're honest, but know deep down they're not.
The proper criminal kids himself he's only slightly bent.
I'm not sure what BMW dealers think of themselves!?!?
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