Car back from service

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 00:03

My wife took our car for its 80k service yesterday and I knew it needed the cambelt changing. She collected it today and the final total was £1584 :eek:

At least they gave it a free valet :rolleyes:

Whats the most expensive garage bill you have ever had? (everyday work not tuning etc)

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 00:10

Yes, it was the Audi.......

Had the cambelt plus water pump and other related bits done, new pads all rounds and the standard service(about £440 alone)

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 00:21

yep, took it to the Audi dealer I bought it from. I am not totally stupid, I asked around at a few local garages but they were reluctant to do it as it is a hell of a lot of work to change the cambelt. You have to take the entire front end off including the lights, rad etc to get to the cambelt.
They estimated it takes 7 hours to do the cambelt alone. I called an independant Audi dealer near Slough and they only quoted £100 less than the main delaer and it would use £50 in petrol there and back.
Believe me, If I could have got it done a lot cheaper I would have, i'm not too bothered about FMDSH anymore.

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 11:11

I'm sure Fox will see a similar hike in service/running costs when he gets his 530D.

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:34

[TW]Fox said:
There is no £1500 scheduled service for the 530i. The most expensive scheduled service is an Inspection II at approx £300.

But thats the point, the service plus brakes was about £500 but the cambelt and bits was £1000. This only needs to be done every 60-80k so is a one off, not a routine cost.

pdw8 · 24 Mar 2006 at 15:55

[TW]Fox said:
No cambelt on the 5 though, so I wont see routine servicing bills that high

OK, good point

pdw8 · 27 Mar 2006 at 09:28

Third Opinion said:
A girl at work has just had her X reg BMW 323i returned from the dealer. Its blown its head gasket for the second time although this time its not under waranty. She refused to to divulge the exact amount but coupled with a major service and a couple of other items she didn't get much change from 3k.

Last month I had a 2.5k bill for a rebuild on my Alfa.

Dam these cars are getting expensive.

Now even I know that she is crazy, I mean thats probably more than the car is worth.
Going back to my car, I'm waiting for the service manager to call me back as they have charged me about £100 for a oil sensor that should have been done under the extended warranty. It didnt even fix the problem, the low engine oil light is permanently on.

However, the serious issue is that on the invoice they advise that the front subframe is CRACKING and making a knocking noise and the rear anti roll bar is also knocking. They did not do this work but surely this will be covered under the warranty??

pdw8 · 27 Mar 2006 at 16:18

big_white_dog84 said:
I think at the start of the car's life getting it done by a gragae is probably justifiable to maintain the FSH. Once a service costs more than the amount by which the car's value would drop by losing the FSH it isn't worth it.

I agree, but under the terms of the extended warranty I have to use Audi approved garages which seem to be 95% main dealers.