Main Car Dealer rip-offs

[thewizardofodds]

Cheapest way to fixing your own vehicle...

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f149/

head straight for the software section,

waiting on all the post saying I CANT ACCESS THAT FORUM now.

[yorugualoco]

My experience with bmw dealer aka ($tealer) i get there with some noise in the engine like a faulty piston they said i need to change my exahust (1600€) i say no thanks and get the hell out of there. when i get home i see was a problem with connector over the spark (10€). since there i don't even pass thru a stealer

[Wolfpack]

I was down at VW the other day and they wanted to charge me half our labour to take a radio out to get the code, I said it will take me les than 2 mins to walk to the car park take it out and come back, the guy was a bit sh***y and said go on then. So off I trot to the car and back with the radio in my hand

They did give me the code for free though so not all
bad

What did you think they were going to do it for free? As an auto tech i will never do it for free. I have this thing about getting paid for a living. It is not how fast i can do the job it is how much time the book says we can charge. But like always you can do it yourself if you can. remember the price includes paying the tech that has to buy the tool for the job also includes paying the bills and taxes for the shop to be open oh and some profit too!. If the place charges to much go somewhere else. One thing about auto repair is not so much the price it's about finding a qualified auto tech not some hacker

[gtpilot]

If you are price sensitive the dealer is not the place to go. There really is no secret or new news. There overhead is highest. They only source and sell OEM parts (not to be confused with OE which may be the same actual part but not branded/boxed via for sale through the manufacturer's network). The one factor that the new car dealer has an advantage is that the quality of repairs are to OEM specifications. Thats your choice in the market.

[masterz2k]

Main Dealers / OE Parts are always going to be expensive, i work for a motorfactor and we frequently buy OE parts from other world markets at a fraction of the UK Retail prices -

from a labour perspective, Main Dealers have alot of equipment charged to them from their franchise.... (when i worked for subaru the new toolkits for new models were mega money!) so they need to cover those cost - however - they are still extremely expensive....however in the OPS case.. ?20 a hour is VERY cheap in my opinion.... thats surely a mates mates rate.....most independant garages I know charge aobut ?40-60 a hour.

one thing i have always thought though - a Main Dealer should be able to diagnose and fix a problem the quickest.... say it takes an hour @ ?100 a hour.... an independant could take twice as long or longer as they havent so many specialist tools/diagnostic equipment so you could end up paying as much or more..

if your after an expensive ish part for your car that has to be OE..... look into an Irish (southern) car dealership... in alot of cases they will be cheaper - and for the sake of a phonecall / email you have nothing to loose!

[v5uk]

What did you think they were going to do it for free? As an auto tech i will never do it for free. I have this thing about getting paid for a living. It is not how fast i can do the job it is how much time the book says we can charge. But like always you can do it yourself if you can. remember the price includes paying the tech that has to buy the tool for the job also includes paying the bills and taxes for the shop to be open oh and some profit too!. If the place charges to much go somewhere else. One thing about auto repair is not so much the price it's about finding a qualified auto tech not some hacker

Yeah they did do it for free, and I love it that they did it for free, I love it that much I cant wait to put the radio on every morning on my way to work and listen to the little people in the magic music box
? but I think that you need to read my other posts to understand the full picture. My gripe wasn?t that I had to pay I don?t expect anything for free (always nice if it happens but I never expect it) merely that I personally thought the price was a bit excessive for such a easy job!!
I don?t blame them and Im sure a lot of people pay that price for a decode from them, my wife would have paid the price if she went plus vat or tax as you call it.

But when someone come to me for a decode( I can?t do VW hence I went to the main agents) then I look after them price wise, as I know they will remember me and come back for other jobs

But I?m covering old ground now