Ford garage repairs

johnytwentyten

Hi,

I had my 2013 ford Mondeo 2 litre diesel hatchback serviced in a ford garage this morning for the first time, I was informed that I require 2 rear trailing arm bushings,

I was quoted a price of €275 fitted, is this excessive compared to a local garage?

whippet

johnytwentyten wrote: »

Hi,

I had my 2013 ford Mondeo 2 litre diesel hatchback serviced in a ford garage this morning for the first time, I was informed that I require 2 rear trailing arm bushings,

I was quoted a price of €275 fitted, is this excessive compared to a local garage?

Depends on what price the local garage would quote ... have you asked ?

clfy39tzve8njq

whippet wrote:

Depends on what price the local garage would quote

Isn't that what the OP is asking

SmartinMartin

Quick story. Got my 05 audi a4 tdi timing belt and water pump done in an audi main dealer cos they were doing a special price. When i picked it up they told me i needed most of the front suspension replaced. I asked them to email me a quote for the work. They came back with a list of what's needed and a price of €3,800. I used their parts list, bought all the parts from QH for €320 and a local mechanic fitted them for €80. Main dealers are expensive.

swarlb

Here's an even quicker story. I'm the service manager in a Main Dealership. Had a car dropped off the other day on a recovery truck. No drive. Customer was told by their 'local' mechanic that the clutch was gone.
Up on the ramp and a quick inspection revealed that one of the drive shafts had pulled out of the CV joint. The small 'C' clip that secures it had snapped. Sourced a new clip... €0.87, charge the customer €25.00 as it was a very quick fix. We could easily have fitted a CV joint and charged 10 times that amount.
Sometimes Main Dealers are not expensive at all !

johnytwentyten

whippet wrote: »

johnytwentyten wrote: »

Hi,

I had my 2013 ford Mondeo 2 litre diesel hatchback serviced in a ford garage this morning for the first time, I was informed that I require 2 rear trailing arm bushings,

I was quoted a price of €275 fitted, is this excessive compared to a local garage?

Depends on what price the local garage would quote ... have you asked ?

I know this sounds silly but I live in a small village, always gone to the same garage, first time I've gone to a main dealer, it's just kind of a given that you just throw the car in, no mention of what costs what, know these people too well if you know what I mean? Don't think i even know what I mean

SmartinMartin

swarlb I agree with you, sometimes they're not, but they do have way higher overheads and hourly rates than smaller independent operations. €275 for 2 bushings does seem excessive, and I'm guessing the main part of it is labour.

johnytwentyten

I checked prices on an official ford stockist website and theses bushings look to be £25 each so thought the quote was a bit steep, am I right in saying that if you go to a competent local garage that you trust, that what they fit is no different to what a ford garage would fit?

SmartinMartin

johnytwentyten wrote: »

I checked prices on an official ford stockist website and theses bushings look to be £25 each so thought the quote was a bit steep, am I right in saying that if you go to a competent local garage that you trust, that what they fit is no different to what a ford garage would fit?

They'll probably fit a good quality pattern part from the likes of QH. You could always buy the genuine Ford parts for €50 and get the local garage to fit.

swarlb

johnytwentyten wrote: »

I checked prices on an official ford stockist website and theses bushings look to be £25 each so thought the quote was a bit steep, am I right in saying that if you go to a competent local garage that you trust, that what they fit is no different to what a ford garage would fit?

Everything is relative. We charge €99 Euro for an oil and filter change, nothing more. A service involving oil/air/fuel/pollen filters could cost anything from €180 upwards depending on price of parts involved. Replacing a €25 bush could involve many hours labour depending on where the bush is located, and or if tracking may be involves after replacing the bush.
For example replacing a fuel filter on a Pajero takes about 10 mins, doing one on certain Laguna models involves removing a wheel, a section of bumper, dismantling of the old filter (sensors etc) and re-assembly, up to 3/4 of an hour.
Removing a glowplug on certain models could take 5 mins, on others the risk of the plug tip breaking off, and remaining in the cylinder head, which involved the removal of the head and a trip to a machine shop to fix.
The small bolt that hold down injectors on some Golf models is prone to snapping. Usually part of the bolt remains in the head, which involves removing at least 2 injectors and possibly more just to get at the broken end of the bolt. So, the bolt costs about a fiver. We did one recently where the injectors had popped out and were damaged as the engine continued to run with the injectors flapping about, causing damage to both injectors. Total bill came close to €1800... all for the sake of a five euro bolt.
Everything is relative, for every cheap fix, there are a dozen expensive ones.

rex-x

SmartinMartin wrote: »

They'll probably fit a good quality pattern part from the likes of QH. You could always buy the genuine Ford parts for €50 and get the local garage to fit.

Qh are not good quality parts in my opinion. Lemforder or trw would be good quality. Qh are very much a budget option

JohnBoy26

rex-x wrote: »

Qh are not good quality parts in my opinion. Lemforder or trw would be good quality. Qh are very much a budget option

Qh used to be pure rubbish, not sure how they are now though.

JohnBoy26

johnytwentyten wrote: »

I checked prices on an official ford stockist website and theses bushings look to be £25 each so thought the quote was a bit steep, am I right in saying that if you go to a competent local garage that you trust, that what they fit is no different to what a ford garage would fit?

You can't say for sure withouth asking them. The ford garage will be fitting genuine parts so if you want no different the independent garage will need to fit genuine parts too.

If the trailing arm bushes on the mondeo are anything like the old focus it can be a bit of a pig of a job, still €275 is a bit steep but then again it is a main dealer.

khaldrogo

johnytwentyten wrote:

I checked prices on an official ford stockist website and theses bushings look to be £25 each so thought the quote was a bit steep, am I right in saying that if you go to a competent local garage that you trust, that what they fit is no different to what a ford garage would fit?

And did the website tell you how long the job takes to fit the bushes or should the mechanic work for free because the parts are so cheap????

To do these bushes correctly the entire rear trailing arm has to be removed from the car, the bush pressed out, the new one pressed in and the whole thing reassembled, x2. Plus the 4 wheel alignment should be redone.

275 incl vat is a good price, but let one of these YouTube mechanics on here tell you how easy it should be cos they did some bushes on the anti roll bar of a Carina E 30 years ago........

SmartinMartin

Ah, vested interests abound. Check with your local garage you've been using for years op, they'll let you know quick enough. Its not an urgent job it's an advisory, so you can wait a few days for the parts to come in. As for QH parts, each to their own, I've never had a problem with them but sure everyone's entitled to their opinion.

George Dalton

johnytwentyten wrote: »

Hi,

I had my 2013 ford Mondeo 2 litre diesel hatchback serviced in a ford garage this morning for the first time, I was informed that I require 2 rear trailing arm bushings,

I was quoted a price of €275 fitted, is this excessive compared to a local garage?

That’s cheap for a main dealer. Think we charge €250 for them.

Toyotafanboi

SmartinMartin wrote: »

Quick story. Got my 05 audi a4 tdi timing belt and water pump done in an audi main dealer cos they were doing a special price. When i picked it up they told me i needed most of the front suspension replaced. I asked them to email me a quote for the work. They came back with a list of what's needed and a price of €3,800. I used their parts list, bought all the parts from QH for €320 and a local mechanic fitted them for €80. Main dealers are expensive.

To be fair, and I am making a few assumptions here I will admit, please correct me if I'm wrong.

A quote of €3800 vs €320 for parts and €80 fitting?

Let's say the Audi genuine parts are a whopping 5x times the price of the spurious ones, say €1600 for parts on the Audi quote, that still leaves a €2200 gap. If the Audi garage charges a (what would be considered high) €150 per hour, that allows for almost 15 labour hours of work.

This suggests to me one of three things and I'm not sure which is which.

- The spurious parts sourced for one fifth of the price couldn't be of a comparable quality to the Audi ones. Either that or all the parts list wasn't sourced or like for like wasn't sourced.

- If the parts are a 100% like for like sourcing, then the mechanic couldn't be doing as high a standard of work if he is working for roughly €5.25 per hour.

- The story is economical with the truth.

People are always quick to say the most expensive option isn't necessarily the best and that's true but it's probably even more true that the cheapest option is rarely the best.

punisher5112

Spending that much on a 2005 would be nuts.

kyote00

It tends to be easier to replace the whole arm, rather than fitting new bushes so sometimes it can be the full arm that is fitted and not just the bushing ....

worth checking what exactly is being done.

khaldrogo

kyote00 wrote:

It tends to be easier to replace the whole arm, rather than fitting new bushes so sometimes it can be the full arm that is fitted and not just the bushing ....

Not to mention the immense likelihood of the bolts being seized and the time and parts it will take to sort that mess out.....

Philb76

Had to replace the front bushes on golf i had they wer 10 euro each or whole wishbone for 30 euro from gsf was a no brainer saved mechanic a lot of hassle and he had them both replaced less than an hour

SmartinMartin

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

To be fair, and I am making a few assumptions here I will admit, please correct me if I'm wrong.

A quote of €3800 vs €320 for parts and €80 fitting?

Let's say the Audi genuine parts are a whopping 5x times the price of the spurious ones, say €1600 for parts on the Audi quote, that still leaves a €2200 gap. If the Audi garage charges a (what would be considered high) €150 per hour, that allows for almost 15 labour hours of work.

This suggests to me one of three things and I'm not sure which is which.

- The spurious parts sourced for one fifth of the price couldn't be of a comparable quality to the Audi ones. Either that or all the parts list wasn't sourced or like for like wasn't sourced.

- If the parts are a 100% like for like sourcing, then the mechanic couldn't be doing as high a standard of work if he is working for roughly €5.25 per hour.

- The story is economical with the truth.

People are always quick to say the most expensive option isn't necessarily the best and that's true but it's probably even more true that the cheapest option is rarely the best.

the story is 100% true and accurate. Yes audi genuine parts would be 5 times the price. I expected a higher labour bill myself, but i use them a lot and have always found them very reasonable.

SmartinMartin

punisher5112 wrote: »

Spending that much on a 2005 would be nuts.

Of course it would, the car isn't worth that!

8943

There charging an hour per side ,include the parts price and are probably tracking the steering system afterwards that’s an ok price