My mother in law has recently been having trouble with her turbo-diesel Corsa - it's been displaying the engine light (intermittently). Her local independent suggested the air mass sensor might be at fault, but that they would prefer to clear the fault codes and then reread them once the fault had reoccurred.

Her son hit the roof at this advice and told her to take it to the main dealer, who have so far lightened her of nearly £2,000 yes, TWO THOUSAND POUNDS, firstly to change the air mass sensor (didn't fix the problem) and then to change the turbo (also didn't fix the problem) and possibly a few other things they thought might have been wrong along the way. She's nearly of pensionable age and just can't afford this. She's now seriously considering part-exing the car because she really just doesn't want it any more.

I've know people who've replaced everything in sight following forum advice trying to repair their own cars, but surely a main dealer can't charge for work it didn't need to carry out and parts it didn't need to fit? I think someone mentioned the workshop staff had binned all the old parts so there was neither an option of putting it back how it was nor examining the evidence.