Can you trust your mechanic?

[happyhippy]

Hi everyone,
I recently took my car in for its annual service at a local dealership,and to my shock and horror was told a few things needed sorting on it.Shocked because for one even though my car is 6 years old,it only has 21,000 miles on the clock and secondly because they told me it was going to cost me nearly £700 to fix the "problems".It got me thinking if I could really trust them?How do you know if you're getting ripped off?I rely on my car for work(wish I did'nt have to but hey?)so I probably won't have much choice but to pay out on it.Do you trust your mechanic?

[green_pea]

I know it might be a bit late now, but there are the council garages where they MOT buses etc. you can get your car MOT test done there, as they don't actually carry out repairs there (if anything needs doing either you take it to a garage or you fix it yourself, then they retest it for 1/2 price) they don't have the vested interest in squeezing you for every last penny like the private garages do with ''problems'' which don't actually exist. Might be worth a try for next time or maybe take it there now if you're suspicious, it might be worth the extra service charge as it could save you hundreds of pounds. If you're interested I'll try and find the list of council run garages for you, hope this helps. x

[Thomzo]

Hi
Nothing to stop you getting a second opinion at another garage. I'm always suspicious, especially of main dealerships. On more than one occasion I've had horrendous quotes from one garage that are seriously undercut by another one. I definitely think that a lot of them try to rip women off. I often take a male friend with me when I'm dealing with garages.

GP - that's very interesting. I'll bear that in mind in future.

Zoe

[pelmetman]

I wouldn't touch a main dealer again, even with a very very very long barge pole

Find yourself a proper mechanic, you won't find any of those in a main dealer

I have 3 vehicles, one is 21 years old and 2 are 12 years old, they are all kept in perfect fettle by a local garage for a fraction of the cost a main dealer would charge, you need to ask around and go on recommendation

Dave

[happyhippy]

Oohh those council run garages sound interesting?I did'nt know they existed?If I rang my local council,I'm guessing they could give me a list of the ones local to me???Interesting also the comments on the dealerships,its not the first time I've heard non complimentary comments on this.I just find it hard to believe that a car with only 21,000 miles on it can have so many problems!I'm obviously no mechanic(wish I was on the money they apparently earn! )but as I said before I had the car serviced this time last year,and one of the points last week at the service was I needed my brake fluid replaced.Later I checked last years service and they had "scored"the brake fluid as fine.I do get free roadside assistant for the year from service to service,but I doubt even if this is "free"because you end up paying through the nose for the service and things that need fixing.I would'nt mind swtiching to a private mechanic but am unsure how to find a trustworthy one as opposed to say a rogue???Is there any governing body that reputable mechanics can belong to?

[green_pea]

Here's a list of the council run garages by area: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel ... t#arealist Good luck, hope you get it sorted. x

[happyhippy]

Thankyou!Will take a look so thanks for the help xx

[snapdragon]

we have a trustworthy mechanic (family workshop) word of mouth seems to be the only advertising they do

[Graye]

Very interested in that council garages info, thanks. I believe dealerships have to tell you what their per hour labour charge is, enough to put anyone off!

Up until last week I would have said we trusted our mechanic 100%. We always took our cars to him, even when we were living abroad, we used to come back in our foreign reg cars for him to sort out. Last week we took our less than three year old and under 30k miles car to him for its regular service. We asked him to check the wipers (squeaking) and an occasional misfire, both of which he apparently sorted out.

We then went on a long drive and discovered the wipers still squeaked. But far worse, the misfire (which he had put down to a touch of damp) got much worse next day. I asked my son to have a look (he has a car electronics business) and he pointed out a knawed bonnet lining, knawed rubber distributor lead ends and frayed leads, all cobbled together with a bit of black tape! The whole thing could have given up the ghost at any minute. It seems a rat had been living under the bonnet at some point. We have to park on the street alongside the harbour, very near to a derelict boat where I believe the local down and outs sometimes doss down so that's probably where it came from. Parking is such a problem that we tend to find a space and walk everywhere so it could be in one spot for anything up to a week at a time. No one else has ever so much as lifted the bonnet so the finger has to point straight out our previously trustworthy mechanic, who will not be seeing us again. A new set of leads (under £30 and fitted in two minutes - thank you, Simon!) and it has been fine since. Sheer laziness (he knows we always pay for whatever he recommends, and in cash) on his part and definite relief that my son knew what to look for or we could have been stranded on the motorway.

In future we will ask for recommendations for a new mechanic but also get a second opinion on anything more than a service.

[Jessiebean]

We can trust our mechanics, well at least one workshop we can- the other can charge retail=20% for parts which we can get our selves wholesale-but we have a wee Car Hire company and have many many cars and a lot to do with mechanics and the automotive industry. I would go to a dealership for anything I could get done elsewhere, sometimes you need keys programmed by a certain dealer and that is the only sort of circumstance I would go to one The dealer mechanics are poorly paid and poorly trained with little or no real experience as far as I can tell.

[happyhippy]

Snapdragon,where do you live in Wiltshire if you don't mind me asking?I'm fairly close to Bath and am now looking for local recommendations.I definately will go to a council run garage for my next mot which is early next year.Graye:Wow thats incredible!You must have felt very disappointed in your "old"mechanic and let down and its just not good enough is it?I'm on a big trust issue myself with mechanics,because I can either pay through the nose and get the work done at the dealership and hope to god I'm not paying for work that does'nt need to be done,or I go private and hope they're good enough to pick up any faults.Feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place.I have got the list of "problems"from the dealership,which I am going to show a local mechanic and see if they could do the work cheaper.

[Dr.Syn]

Can I trust my mechanic? Most definitely! He was recommended to me when I first moved here Everyone in our road have their repairs and servicing done by him, he doesn't rip anyone off. He is my next door neighbour and very good friend.

That idea about the council garages is brilliant. Over here the MOT (here its the NCT) is carried out at specific centres run by the Government. They do not nor are they allowed to carry out repairs. Although the test has been every 2 years there has been a backlog and the government has ruled that if you have to wait over a month for the test then you will be reimbursed the full cost of the test, € 50.00.

[baldybloke]

If you get really stuck, I know a few mechanics in the Devizes area.

[snapdragon]

Snapdragon,where do you live in Wiltshire if you don't mind me asking? I'm fairly close to Bath -/-.

Oh dear, looks like we're a long way off, right on the easterm edge of Wilts in Ludgershall.

[happyhippy]

If you get really stuck, I know a few mechanics in the Devizes area.

Thanks BB,I work in Trowbridge so am really looking for someone out that way or closer to home in Atworth xx