Mazda 323 woes

Gary ITR

Mate of mine has a 2001 Mazda 323 1.6, Last Friday the battery light came on while he was driving then the car began to overheat. Free tow to a garage where it was quickly discovered the alternator belt had snapped. Grand so, he collected the car on Tuesday.

Wednesday evening he phones me, car is overheating again so I told him to stay put and drove down to him. The coolant was full so I was thinking thermostat or waterpump issues. Anyway we weren't going to fix it at the side of the road at near midnight so again with the free tow and he just brought it to the same place again.
It was diagnosed as a broken thermostat.

Now the part I have an issue with is this, for the alternator belt he was charged €140 and for the thermostat he was charged €230. As far as I am aware there was a Sniff Test done on the car too but this takes all of what? 2 minutes?

So all in all he was charged €370 for a thermostat and alternator belt. Am I the only one that thinks this price is madness?

Sofiztikated

I think, and this is from what I can formulate in my ManCold addled mind, Mazda parts are know to be pricey anyway, but that sounds like a lot of labour charges. Tis the problem with going to a garage and having to get work done without being able to price around.

Gary ITR

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I think, and this is from what I can formulate in my ManCold addled mind, Mazda parts are know to be pricey anyway, but that sounds like a lot of labour charges. Tis the problem with going to a garage and having to get work done without being able to price around.

Mazda parts might be pricey, but a thermostat for my car was €10 and the alternator belt was €7. He hasn't paid the €230 yet because they only called him at 4 yesterday and he didn't have time to collect it. I've told him to phone a Mazda dealer and get a quote for the same work

Sofiztikated

I just read it again. Thought it was 140 for the 2 jobs! Thats mega steep, i'll get onto one of the lads, and try and find out a price for ya.

DublinDilbert

A spurious thermostat typically costs around €10, but in many cars now the identical part comes with a "plastic housing", so instead of €10 you pay €40. Also when they fitted the thermostat they probably charged for a full re-fill of coolant also.

It is amazing for something you'd easily have sorted for €20 to €30 + an hour of your time, you get a bill for almost €400. They must be charging for the towing also...

Gary ITR

DublinDilbert wrote: »

It is amazing for something you'd easily have sorted for €20 to €30 + an hour of your time, you get a bill for almost €400. They must be charging for the towing also...

They didn't tow the car. It was towed by ITS

Even if you put say €100 aside for parts that still leaves €270 for labour

Muckie

They were a bit hard on you, not nice getting
hit with such a high price. Stuff like this gives mechanics a bad name.

colm_mcm

I paid 11 euro for an alternator belt for a 1.6 323 2 weeks ago. There's no way Mazda charge that much.

Gary ITR

Well he's going to ring Mazda tomorrow to find out what they would have charged to do the work. It was an Indy over Southside Dublin that carried out the work