Disc con so late

We bought a new Mk IV Golf in October 1988. At a service in early 2001 at 40,000 miles the VW garage said all 4 discs were worn and wanted lots of money for replacements. The pads were ok. We argued that...

Fraud focus

Your recent correspondent from Uckfield who discovered that the VW dealer who performed an oil change charged him for 4.5 litres of oil when the sump capacity was 3.5 litres is not alone. My Golf was recently...

Air today

Our Lexus GS 300 with 175,000 miles needs an exchange air-con pump at a cost of £1,300. The Lexus dealer considers that the car once repaired is capable of 250,000 miles. So for £1,300 we could probably...

XC Naughty

I have a Volvo XC90 2.4 D5 SE 185, purchased in March 2006 and it has now done 74,000 miles. My mileage is largely motorway driving, no off road use, and I have always had it serviced at the Volvo dealer...

Speaking Berlingo

I have a Citroen Berlingo 2.0 HDI, which is due a 5 year service. The ever-decreasing number of solvent Citroen dealers in my vicinity have quoted circa £240 for the service. Local garages quote about...

Happy pack

In a rash moment I part exchanged my 2004 Civic Type R for a 2008 Type R GT with Sat Nav and HFT, 9 months old demonstrator. ‘Honda Happiness’ is offering a fixed price servicing package for 5 years or...

Flawed Focus

I bought a new Ford Focus 1.8L FFV petrol 2 years ago and paid for the FordProtect Service Plan, 3 services. Cost of the service plan was £425.53. The car went in for its second service recently and Hartwell...

Turblow

My friend took her 02 reg Volvo V50 turbo diesel into a branch of a national chain of repairers for a service. It was booked in over the Internet and included, as a special offer, an engine flush. The...

Long strife servicing

My Golf Plus 2.0 TDI Sport is now a year old and the Service Indicator counted down to "Service in 200 miles" then said "Service Now", although the service sticker on the B pillar indicated variable servicing...

Slippery custom

This month was our Polo’s first service. On the receipt the long life SLX Oil was priced by the VW Garage in half litres at £6.90 each, they claim to have used 9 half litres, total £62.10 plus VAT. As...