For those of you who live in the south, I have just returned from a day trip to France.
In the supermarket at Cite Europe, they are selling Mobil 1 (4 litres) for £20 (195 Francs), compare that to over £30 in Halfords !!
Also for the same price is Shell Helix Ultra (Synthetic) Turbo Diesel but 5 litre size
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That price makes me go green with envy. Halfords price is 34 pounds/4 litres but thay are currently running a 25% dicount offer if you buy 16 litres.
Saxton.
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Better still,Auchan are selling,under their own name,fully synthetic B3 rated Diesel lube at under nine quid per 5 litres!
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Just pured Auchan's semi-synth at about £6.50 for 5 litres into daughter's Visa. Carrefour have similar prices for semi-synth although petrol engine synth was more expensive at around £16 last week in Perpignan. Other parts look good in these supermarkets but beware that some French market versions of Citroens, at least, seem to have different fittings in right hand drive. ie wiper blades for rhd BXs are longer, the Visa oil filter I bought from Auchan is threaded wrongly for the 1.0 litre although I put this down to their cataloguing. Carrefour lists two types of filter, including the correct one.
Don't know about Calais but in Cherbourg and in Perpignan there is a Norauto close to the Auchan stores. They are a bit like what Halfords should be. Prices for French model spares such as cables, brakes, clutches etc are cheaper than UK but not necessarily always stocked. A Thule locking roof bar set for a BX estate comes to £55 in Norauto but £90 in Halfords. Interestingly Michelin Alpine Pilots snow tyres in the BX 165/70 x 14 are £50 each in Norauto Cherbourg (pretty mild winters) and £60 each in Norauto Perpignan (edge of Pyrenees) and £80 each with a Michelin-owned distributor here in UK. Of course, winter tyres were stocked in the snowy south but need 8 days on order in Cherbourg.
David
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I bought Castrol GTX, Antifreeze and screen wash in Costco last week. In Halfords yesterday they were all at least twice the price I had paid.
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The Mobil 1 in France is not the same as the UK oil. In the UK, the viscosity is 00-40 but in France it's 10-40 as far as I remember. This will account for some of the price difference and it's why I didn't buy it + they don't sell the turbo diesel version. But I agree with others - I have found a lot of bargains over the years in French and Spanish hypermarkets.
Keith
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