Does this quote for wheel bearings (parts/labour) sound right?

Janesy B said:
Would you have taken your VXR to a garage in an alleyway behind Habib's carpet shop? I think that's what people are getting at..
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He'll doubtless say yes with personal recommendation blah blah but I don't tend to get personal recommendations from people about backstreet garages you could take a high performance car to, so I'm not sure how you are supposed to come across these recommendations :p
 
[TW]Fox;17521972 said:
He'll doubtless say yes with personal recommendation blah blah but I don't tend to get personal recommendations from people about backstreet garages you could take a high performance car to, so I'm not sure how you are supposed to come across these recommendations :p
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Just try it

Have you ever actually taken your BMW to a backstreet garage for a service ?
 
MrLOL said:
Just try it
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Why?

Have you ever actually taken your BMW to a backstreet garage for a service ?
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No, why would I want to?

I've taken it to recognised and reputable independant specialists for repair work - but I consider these types of people to be a tad different to Bobs NE Vehicle Repairs round the back of the pub.
 
My point is

How can you be so sure that its going to go wrong if you've never tried it ?

There are tons of people in this world who dont give a damn about where there car goes for tyres, or servicing.

This sort of person its rarely its first owner, as if you've got money to buy a car new, then you've got enough money to not have to worry about main dealer pricing. And expensive stuff like turbos , wheel bearings etc.. rarely go in the first 3 years that your warrantied for.

But for its second owner, its out of warranty so they dont care where it gets serviced. There are plenty more on the internet for whom having a "proper specialist" service their car is important. Equally there are plenty more who dont give a damn and just give it to anybody. How do these cars survive if the garage is so un trust worthy ? youd be expecting them to blowing up left right and centre ..
 
You don't even understand the point I'm making, so I'm not sure whether its worth continuing to argue it with you.

When you drive a £10,000+ car why paddle through an oily workshop round the back of a pub after dropping off your sports car to then walk to the bus stop whilst the 'boys' from the garage swoon over the fact they've never seen anything with an engine bigger than 2 litres before and take turns in bouncing it off the rev limiter when instead you can either:

a) Pop it into the dealer and drive off in a 60 plate loan car
b) Pop it into a reputable specialist for whom the car is just another 350Z and therefore not like a red rag to a bull.

I've seen the reaction you get in places like Kwik Fit when I had tyres fitted to a perfectly ordinary BMW 5 Series, let alone a 350Z. It was like I'd turned up in a freaking Veyron. It was ridiculous. Whilst I'm sure there exists the odd backstreet place with only mature and talented individuals, there exist many more full of complete chimps with the business skills of a squashed fruit. I can't be bothered with the risk, and if you have £10,000+ of 350Z, neither should you.

Obviously Nissans quote on this occasion is ridiculous, so take it to somewhere that knows 350Z's and pay less and get peace of mind.
 
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If you've not tried jumping in the tiger cage, how do you know you might get attacked? You dont. Heck, the tigers might not even be hungry today. But really, whats the point in even trying?

There is little real benefit to 'trying' a random backstreet garage with a high value sports car. So who cares? Why bother? Take it somewhere nice.
 
[TW]Fox;17522146 said:
There is little real benefit to 'trying' a random backstreet garage with a high value sports car. So who cares? Why bother? Take it somewhere nice.
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The OP has been quoted over £1000 by the dealer.

After asking round he's found a family friend who will charge £36/ hour labour and supply the parts @ £195 per hub.

Its probaby going to be near half the price of the nissan dealer. There is plenty to be gained.

I take your point when you've referred to servicing before at the BMW dealer, that it cant be done much cheaper elsewhere, and £220 for the sort of stuff done an inspection I (i'm sure i read somewhere that was about what you paid) is very reasonable - and i agree theres little to be gained going elsewhere

But when theres £400 + to be saved. Its got to be worth investigating.
 
A Jap cars specialist isn't going to charge £1000 either.

Obviously this is a tad different if its a 'family friend', but I'm talking generally.
 
[TW]Fox;17521885 said:
Correct, given how dishonest many of them are.
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I can understand your view, but this kind of implies that you consider main dealers and specialists to be mostly honest which is just as far from the truth as suggesting all back street places are dishonest.
 
I could understand the logic if we were talking about a truly exotic car, or it was a highly specialised job that required special equipment but a wheel bearing on a 350Z? I'm not sure why you'd really sweat taking that to an independent.

The fact that they are located on a backstreet means that they are no less professional than us bods in a main dealer.

For the most part a car is a car and a wheel bearing is a wheel bearing.
 
Dogbreath said:
I can understand your view, but this kind of implies that you consider main dealers and specialists to be mostly honest which is just as far from the truth as suggesting all back street places are dishonest.
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I'm sure you all know my views well enough to know that this isnt what I think. I dont have a particularly high opinion of much of the motor trade.

However, at least the main dealer or a specialist sees enough cars that the novelty of yours has worn off and they are at least partly accountable when they do something stupid.
 
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Joshy said:
I could understand the logic if we were talking about a truly exotic car, or it was a highly specialised job that required special equipment but a wheel bearing on a 350Z? I'm not sure why you'd really sweat taking that to an independent.

The fact that they are located on a backstreet means that they are no less professional than us bods in a main dealer.

For the most part a car is a car and a wheel bearing is a wheel bearing.
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Please go back and read my opinion again. It is not neccesarily about competency to do the job, it's more about the car and the way Mr Average will treat or perceive it. Working at Bentley you will have no idea how utterly dim the average garage worker can be.

Seriously, if I get can people reacting to my car as if it's some sort of supercar then I can imagine a 350Z at an average backstreet place would be like them seeing a Ferrari.

Fail all your GCSE's? Apprentice time at Bobs Backstreet Motors! I've used similar places before for other cars. In most cases there lacks the sort of pride and attention to detail or recognition that its somebodies pride and joy you'd expect. Or perhaps not expect, given 99% of the stuff they work on is bangernomics stuff on a shoestring budget owned by people who dont care as long as it works and goes from A to B. It's easy to let standards slip when everything that comes through the doors is usually pre-battered for your convenience. The ones that DO have business ethics, high levels of attention to detail and a real thing for customer service realise very quickly they can further the business better by becoming a specialist in certain marques, rather than being Bobs Backstreet Fix NEThing. The ones that remain sell on price and price alone. They don't add value because the average customer wants rock bottom pricing.

It wont be the same where you work because day in day out you are surrounded by awesome cars to such an extent that the novelty of seeing a Bentley in the workshop doesnt exist. Your employer also has strict terms - I remember you saying you are not yet allowed to drive the cars. Bobs Backstreet has nothing like this..
 
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Recently got a mechanic friend of mine to do a rear wheel bearing on my Mondeo for £125, of that £75 was parts. Even though that was a friend £1000 seems very steep. Surely be able to source the parts cheaper/find an alternative specialist mechanic that doesn't charge £100 an hour.
 
[TW]Fox;17522553 said:
Please go back and read my opinion again. It is not neccesarily about competency to do the job, it's more about the car and the way Mr Average will treat or perceive it. Working at Bentley you will have no idea how utterly dim the average garage worker can be.

Seriously, if I get can people reacting to my car as if it's some sort of supercar then I can imagine a 350Z at an average backstreet place would be like them seeing a Ferrari.

Fail all your GCSE's? Apprentice time at Bobs Backstreet Motors!

It wont be the same where you work because day in day out you are surrounded by awesome cars to such an extent that the novelty of seeing a Bentley in the workshop doesnt exist. Your employer also has strict terms - I remember you saying you are not yet allowed to drive the cars. Bobs Backstreet has nothing like this..
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My idea of being "Professional" isn't just about job competency, that includes not being spanner and treating people's pride and joy with a bit of respect.

To be absolutely fair you're going to get ***** and unprofessional people in every garage. To be quite honest I'd be lying if I said that I'd be utterly happy for any of our 20 odd technicians to do work on my own car, not because they could not do the job but because there is doing the job and then there is taking a certain amount of pride in doing it properly and (to an extent) enjoying it.

Don't get me wrong Fox, I can understand what you are saying, but my point is that you're not necessarily going to avoid these types of people by going to a main dealer. It's the luck of the draw regardless if the workshop is behind a pub in hull or in a central London location overlooking the Thames ;).
 
My Brother is a tech for Audi and from his stories, it would appear that half his work collegues are indeed, *****, working to get the maximum amount of bonus on each job. It's certainly not somewhere I would want to be putting my 20/30/40k + Audi.
 
Joshy said:
Don't get me wrong Fox, I can understand what you are saying, but my point is that you're not necessarily going to avoid these types of people by going to a main dealer.
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Absolutely - I agree. Heck I know this from personal experience given it took over a YEAR for BMW to not **** the repair of my car. Incompetent people are everywhere, especially in the motor trade.

But backstreet garages and expensive cars is just an un-neccesary way of adding a heck of a lot more risk and complexity into the veritable snake pit that is paying anyone to do anything with your car.
 
Christ I didn't ever think I would agree with Fox at all, let alone so strongly as I do now.

I do as much work on my car as I can myself, as I truly believe I wouldn't be able to find anyone else that I could pay to work on it that would give as much attention to detail and is as careful as me.

For any work I decide I don't want to undertake I take the car to only one garage. He is a known specialist on my make + model of car and actually takes pride in his work (perhaps not as much as my OCD standard but there are limits :p). There is an added bonus that he is also really cheap but I would still take it there if he charged more.

No way would I take it to a little back street garage to have the scallys who didn't pass their school exams rag it around.
 
[TW]Fox;17520127 said:
Good idea, take a 350z to a back street place, I imagine they work on them all the time.
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And be like the woman who took her SLK320 to Mercedes after we diagnosed a knackered N/S door control module (needed to be prgrammed by dealer) and still changed all the window reg and motor as well, 'just in case'

Like the owner of the BMW 1 series we've had in this week, who was told by the dealer he needed two rear wheelbearings...seems they failed to notice the fact the pinion bearing in the diff had collapsed

Drop the snobbery and a cars a car regardless of what emblem it has on the bonnet.
:)
 
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