Re: Modern Cars.
Originally Posted by
JBR
->
Ours is serviced by them whilst under warranty.
After that, it will be our local garage.
That will be my choice from next year. The last service was advised as going to cost me £179, then I received a telephone call to say that as the car was five years' old the timing belt would need replacing – £479, and then I was advised the brake fluid needed changing, another £64.
So a five-year-old car having done just 16,000 miles needed to £722 spent on it! I hadn't even replaced a tyre on it then, and last week the two front tyres were replaced by the local garage, far less than the price VW dealer quoted me!
I enquired at the local garage about the cost of replacing the timing belt – £350, that will be done after Christmas and the next service and MoT will be booked with them too.
The labour charge at the local garage is £50 an hour, their mechanics are all time-served mechanics. Their courtesy cars are part of the service. The VW dealer charges £15 to have your name put on the courtesy car insurance, they charge almost £100 an hour – need I say more!
The local garage also doesn't need to advertise, their work is all by word of mouth and they are always very busy.