are you afraid to get your car checked?

beachlife

I was just replying to a thread where someone was asking what could be wrong with there car,It seems people will CHANCE a ect sensor or o2 sensor or air flow meter or whatever BEFORE bringing it to a garage is this true? I have lived in the uk where i feel people can leave a car to a garage to get checked and it will cost 25/30 pounds to find out whats wrong with it. I get the feeling that if you leave your car to a garage here you are expecting a BIG bill even for routine diagnostics?

mickdw

I dont think its a fear of the price of the diagnostics check. I think alot of people think if they go to a main dealer, they have to get them to do the work. Also the many reports of dealers charging an arm & a leg for a diagnosis, then replacing a part only for it to not be a success scares people.

Mr.Diagnostic

From experience I can tell you that it is no different in the UK than it is in Ireland.

But you are right, people seem to be afraid to get a problem diagnosed. The percentage of cars that I see with multiple new parts fitted yet still not fixed is astounding.

I think the problem lies in lack of confidence with the trade in general. However I cannot understand the logic in fitting expensive parts based on guesswork.

_Kaiser_

Well a few months ago I brought my car in for what was supposed to be an electrical problem with the front lights - basically the right front parking light wouldn't stay on (even with a bulb change) and Main Dealer A diagnosed it as such - I'd brought the car to Main Dealer A because they were quoting me €400 less for service work than the dealer (B) I got the car from.

Anyway, as the car still had a few months of warranty left, I brought it to Main Dealer B who told me to leave it with them and they'd call me when it was ready - fair enough.

3pm arrives with no call, so I rang them only to get told the problem was a wire that was trapped behind the bulb, and that theyd gone ahead and fixed this and wanted €150 for the privilege!! Not only that, but I'd have to settle the account before they would give me back the car.

I duly exploded on the phone and told them that I'd brougt the car in for what I was assured was a warranty job by Main Dealer A, but that regardless of this, if it turned out to be a billable job they should have called me before proceeding. I went on that they can't expect a customer to just come up with <insert random figure here> at the end of the day before they can have their car back!

He tells me then that this charge was their standard diagnostics/labour rate (€95 ex-VAT an hour) and that of course they had to diagnose it before they could determine the extent of the problem. My argument was that they should be calling the customer (me!) with a quote before undertaking any chargeable work not covered by the warranty I brought the car in under. Also I told him I didn't think much of his mechanic's "diagnostics" if it took him over an hour's worth of work to discover a trapped wire!

I ended up ringing the MD of the garage who was out of the country at the time but in the end I got the car back and only paid the charge for the rental car they'd arranged for the day.

I'd be the type that hates to have anything wrong with his car - even a minor thing like a blown bulb, but the experience definitely left a sour taste in my mouth...

smash

I think a lot of it is down to Irish people being lazy! You rarely even see an Irish car with a full service history, and when you do it's usually just 3/4 stamps in a book with no receipts or proper invoices!

As with Kaiser2000 above, I dropped a car to a mechanic to have a look at it, he then left it with a franchise dealer to run a diagnostic check and without telling myself or my mechanic - they decided not to use their diagnostic equipment and let a trainee mechanic at the car to try and solve the problem himself... the f*cker took the whole dash out to trace a wire and they tried to charge me €600 for it!

beachlife

there a few horror stories alright but when you left the car in did you agree on a price for the check or tell them to ring you before carrying out repairs??

I would also like to know the hourly rate and who was doing my car(ie not a first year apprentice)

smash

When my car was left in, they were told not to work on it and just hook up a laptop to diagnose the issue as my own mechanic who dropped the car in was going to be doing the work!

They took it upon themselves to let a trainee have a look to see if he could figure it out without using software to diagnose the issue. After a massive argument with them and me going to the distributor about them, they lost 2 new car sales because I warned friends away from them!

Mr.Diagnostic

steve06 wrote: »

When my car was left in, they were told not to work on it and just hook up a laptop to diagnose the issue as my own mechanic who dropped the car in was going to be doing the work!

Obviously they were wrong to carry out work they were told not to but if they took the car in under the conditions you outlined above then they should not be in business.

What was the fault/symptom?