Why are car garages such complete *****?

[acemastr]

You still have to get the car to the mechanic, wait for it to be finished (or started from my experience). You can do all of this yourself with a basic toolkit and a youtube video playing next to you in 2 hours. So the time you're sitting waiting and paying someone else to do it someone else to do it you can do it yourself for substantially cheaper.

You'd probably need a 14mm wrench, maybe a 10mm, some red grease.. and that's about it.

 

[mjt]

OMG I agree with Easyrider for like the first time ever Thanks

Anyway, discs aside, this dodgy dealer charged me €150 for new S3 pads, but wants €250 for A6 pads 2 years later because he thinks i'm a mug.

Also, if anyone can find a garage that will fit YOUR parts in Belgium, let me know!
You have no idea how long it took me to find a tyre fitter that would fit tyres I bought online.........

 

[Armageus]

You still have to get the car to the mechanic, wait for it to be finished (or started from my experience). You can do all of this yourself with a basic toolkit and a youtube video playing next to you in 2 hours. So the time you're sitting waiting and paying someone else to do it someone else to do it you can do it yourself for substantially cheaper.

Audi used to collect mine from Work, valet it and drop it back

 

[Armageus]

Anyway, discs aside, this dodgy dealer charged me €150 for new S3 pads, but wants €250 for A6 pads 2 years later because he thinks i'm a mug..

Did you actually read my post above - what year/engine/spec is your A6 - some of the pads listed by ECP were £100+ for a set? Including labour probably isn't too unreasonable

 

[easyrider]

You still have to get the car to the mechanic, wait for it to be finished (or started from my experience). You can do all of this yourself with a basic toolkit and a youtube video playing next to you in 2 hours. So the time you're sitting waiting and paying someone else to do it someone else to do it you can do it yourself for substantially cheaper.

You'd probably need a 14mm wrench, maybe a 10mm, some red grease.. and that's about it.

My Indy even lent me a car, even when I supplied the parts...

 

[easyrider]

OMG I agree with Easyrider for like the first time ever Thanks

 

[mjt]

Did you actually read my post above - what year/engine/spec is your A6 - some of the pads listed by ECP were £100+ for a set? Including labour probably isn't too unreasonable

Well **** me sideways. Who knew pads on a crappy diesel cost twice as much as on a 'performance' car. Guessing this is because of the heavier car and engine?

Feel like a right pleb now

With discs costing around £75 or so each (ECP), I'll only be saving on the Labour (which makes sense, obviously).

€100 for one brake pad! Blimey.

 

[kindai]

Just buy them online and get a local garage to fit.

Litchfeilds charged me 45 minutes labour I think to change front discs and pads, and that involved disassembling and re-fitting the bells.

Granted my discs cost £500 each and the pads £250 odd

 

[mjt]

They're being fair. I'll pay cash for the labour, get an invoice for the parts, everyone's a winner.

Thanks OcUk
Will get them to replace the discs too.

Still can't believe consumables are more on a ******* 4-pot diesel than an S3.

 

[grudas]

Well **** me sideways. Who knew pads on a crappy diesel cost twice as much as on a 'performance' car. Guessing this is because of the heavier car and engine?

Feel like a right pleb now

With discs costing around £75 or so each (ECP), I'll only be saving on the Labour (which makes sense, obviously).

€100 for one brake pad! Blimey.

Haha which is why I was asking about the prices.. they're not cheap, depends on weight of the car etc.

 

[bledd]

Whilst I do have a garage that will fit parts that I buy, there's only 2 in the area that will do this (from about 20).

 

[mjt]

Whilst I do have a garage that will fit parts that I buy, there's only 2 in the area that will do this (from about 20).

I can understand why though. If someone brings dodgy parts that fail, who's at fault? What if it causes a serious accident?
Then there's the aspect of profit from selling the parts on to the customer.

 

[easyrider]

I can understand why though. If someone brings dodgy parts that fail, who's at fault? What if it causes a serious accident?
Then there's the aspect of profit from selling the parts on to the customer.

You just dont buy tat...

I was buying Pagid Disks for my E46...and getting the indy to fit them.

Its common sense.

 

[Orionaut]

I can understand why though. If someone brings dodgy parts that fail, who's at fault? What if it causes a serious accident?
Then there's the aspect of profit from selling the parts on to the customer.

This, at several different levels..

To add

How would one pursue a warranty claim if a customer supplied timing belt assembly failed wrecking the engine(Say)

Who pays for time wasted because incorrect parts have been supplied or prove faulty later down the line?

(And yes, profit on parts is part of the business model. It would be stupid to ignore that. Would you expect to take your own tinnies and drink them in the local pub??)

There have been many articles in the professional press on just this issue and the general conclusion is that fitting customer supplied parts is a legal minefield that can easily come back to bite the workshop if something goes wrong and that mainly the practice should be avoided.

 

[Semple]

This, at several different levels..

To add

How would one pursue a warranty claim if a customer supplied timing belt assembly failed wrecking the engine(Say)

Who pays for time wasted because incorrect parts have been supplied or prove faulty later down the line?

(And yes, profit on parts is part of the business model. It would be stupid to ignore that. Would you expect to take your own tinnies and drink them in the local pub??)

There have been many articles in the professional press on just this issue and the general conclusion is that fitting customer supplied parts is a legal minefield that can easily come back to bite the workshop if something goes wrong and that mainly the practice should be avoided.

Agree with all the points you're saying, but i guess most people feel like they've been fobbed off when they see the margin the garage is making on parts. Bear in mind a garage will also get trade discount on parts over what the general public will pay.

If labour rates weren't so high, i don't think people would complain so much about garages profiting from supplying parts. But when main dealership labour rates are on par with what you'd pay a solicitor, you can understand why people get a bit unhappy.

 

[Orionaut]

Agree with all the points you're saying, but i guess most people feel like they've been fobbed off when they see the margin the garage is making on parts. Bear in mind a garage will also get trade discount on parts over what the general public will pay.

If labour rates weren't so high, i don't think people would complain so much about garages profiting from supplying parts. But when main dealership labour rates are on par with what you'd pay a solicitor, you can understand why people get a bit unhappy.

Trade discount really isn't that much. If I buy OEM VAG from TPS I am lucky to get more than 3-4%

I may get a bigger margin off the "Counter Price" "Matching Quality" items from the likes of AP/ECP, but again, it is rarely more than 15-20% and it would be wrong to consider it a major profit generator since much of that margin is absorbed by other costs (Such as workshop consumables, Time/fuel expended if I have to collect parts rather than have them delivered and so on) that I do not make specific charges for.

The only area where significant discounts are available is with motor oil.(And other fluids)

But in order to get those discounts one has to buy the 200L drums which represents a significant "Up Front" outlay and with the increasingly diverse range of oil specifications out there it is increasingly difficult to be able to take advantage of these discounts because of the sheer number of different oils in use

The idea of garages profiting from fitting loads of expensive parts sold at a massive mark up is a myth....