dumb: you paid about right, and if the labour was £40/hour then that is very reasonable.
personally, i would suggest that next time you take your car to a fast fit place(national, kwikfit, etc. type of garage) for your routine oil change service.
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Yes, I did get oil change every 5,000 miles at National, having read all the helpful tips from this forum over the past 3 years. What is new to me, however, is that they are people who post offensive messages, but thanks to the moderator.
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I'm sorry but where did you get 3 hours labour from. The labour for the MOT should be contained within the fee. Therefore you are paying 3 hours labour to replace wipers, filters and fluids. You have got to be having a laugh.
Carse
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Carse: Thanks for your comments. I thought the same when I first got the invoice (otherwise I won't raise this question). What would be a reasonable amount of labour charge (i.e. time spent) on full service you think? I see that you're a software programmer, not a garage owner, that is probably more independent.
How about others? What do you think of this?
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The job is done, the money is paid, forget about it and next time ask for a quotation before letting them do anything!
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Does your car have rear drums? Were these taken off, and the shoes inside cleaned lubed and adjusted?
I would say that two hours for a full service, including the coolant change, is reasonable, another half hour if the rear drums came off.
I don't think you have been ripped off at all.
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I asked a garage owner I know what he would charge for all that and his price was around £160-170 all in. He is a one-man band who has a workshop with 4 ramps and so when he comes to a stop on one job, he simply moves to the next one thus has great efficiency and he charges literally for the time he spends on your car, not what the bookable hours are.
He charges me £25 for an oil change, £15 for plugs, gearbox oil for around £35 and coolant £20.
He couldnt stop laughing when I told him about the cost of wipers - he said for £30 they better be gold plated or something since wiper blades cant be more than £12 and a couple of minutes to fit them.
On my old mazda he is having to renew all the brake pipes at the front and all the front to back ones aswell. He is charging me £180 all in for that. For changing a snapped front spring hes charging me £75 all in.
I dont know what id do for servicing if I didnt know him!
Oh and the bonus is he really knows old cars too so if you have a 70's or 80's heap like me, he doesnt look at it like you asked him to service your JCB :)
So £270 plus VAT is a bit scary from my point of view. Ive had a full service inc cambelt for around that figure.
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Dumb,
I used to drive a Ford Focus 2.0l. It was serviced every 12,000 and Ford charged £99. The one major service it had at 36,000 cost £180. I would say you are paying significantly more than I would expect.
Carse
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Thanks for all the replies.
The statistic seems to suggest most people reckon it's on the high side. When I got the invoice, wipers £30, I know I'm paying at a premium.
A "trusted private garage" recommended by a close relative, not that I blame, but thought I won't need to ask for a quote in the first place!
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I would say that aside from the wipers which at 30 quid seem to be double the realistic price, they've not over charged you at all. I'm afraid that car servicing is getting extremely expensive nowadays unless you can find a 'back-street' guy whom you can trust .
Even the good independents round here (Wembley/Harrow area) can charge between up to 60 quid an hour.
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or even "charge up to 60 quid an hour"
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Thanks for all the replies. The statistic seems to suggest most people reckon it's on the high side. When I got the invoice, wipers £30, I know I'm paying at a premium. A "trusted private garage" recommended by a close relative, not that I blame, but thought I won't need to ask for a quote in the first place!
You should always ask the price in the UK - you can do it in a friendly way, perhaps say you want to pay in cash and need to know how much to bring. For this kind of work, make sure the price includes parts and VAT. Some gargages just quote the labour price, then it's plus parts, plus VAT.
The wipers seem expensive - but they can be on some cars (there was someone here recently who was charged over £100 for wipers for a Renault Scenic). If you think it would take you maybe an hour to go and get them yourself, then fit them, then the price isn't so bad.
If you're happy with the work done then the price seems very reasonable - some people get work done cheap then spend days/weeks trying to sort out resulting problems.
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I believe he did a good job on the car (since he knows my close relative very well); it's a very reliable car anyway.
What puzzled me was that he didn't change brake or/and transmission oil on full service but car manual clearly suggested to have it done; other garages offer that in their full service package.
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I asked a garage owner I know what he would charge for all that and his price was around £160-170 all in.
He must be running the business for fun - if it's as you described he can hardly be making a living wage for himself, never mind covering the costs of running the business.
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£30.00 for wiper blades, what a laugh, in Tesco and Wilkinson they are about £2.50 for a pair.
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£30.00 for wiper blades, what a laugh, in Tesco and Wilkinson they are about £2.50 for a pair.
Maybe there are 3 on a Corolla and they changed them all?
While £30 is high, it's not outrageous.
I use Wilkinsons for all sorts of bits and pieces but there's no way I'd put a £2.50 pair of wipers on my car. I doubt they're really that cheap, but it doesn't matter anyway because I wouldn't dream of using them.
I've generally used Bosch and been very happy with them and they're £20+ a pair for the bigger sizes from Halfords.
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I use Wilkinsons for all sorts of bits and pieces but there's no way I'd put a £2.50 pair of wipers on my car.
I've tried them, more than once (didn't learn my lesson the first time) and they're quite poor, so never again.
I doubt they're really that cheap, but it doesn't matter anyway because I wouldn't dream of using them.
They really are that cheap (actually, i think its £2.99) but thats all they're worth. I can pay £2 more and have (superior) Bosch ones.
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Yes, all 3 wipers are changed to Bosche (£30 + VAT). Old wipers were Wilkinson that I fixed myself about a year ago and thought it still work very well so didn't change it before bringing it to service, otherwise I should have done it as it really costs 2.99 a pair, even today!
Will check at Halfords how much it charges for Bosche on Corolla.
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Dumb:
I have a Corolla (2000) and paid £18.99 for Bosch blades @ Halfords about 3 months ago. I've only had the car serviced at Toyota, and I reckon it'd be significantly cheaper if you combined it with a trip up North, they'll do it whilst you wait.
TimEC
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My relative has a 2003 Toyota Yaris where the 3 year service was carried out 2 weeks ago for about £250 (including MOT & coolant change).
It is nowhere near Dulwich so I hope I'm not naming and shaming this main dealer....but....the price seemed fair enough but I got a call during the work to be told "the wipers are a bit scratchy and judder a lot. We can supply and fit new ones for £35." I very, very politely said " no thanks, we'd do them ourselves."
Within a couple of days I learned from the owner that the wipers were now really making a poor job of clearing the screen and one in particular (driver's side - there's a surprise!) looked to be loose and a bit broken in places.
They were all fine before the attentions of the dealer. Abominable behaviour - but there's no point complaining.
I have now bought a pair of Toyota branded wipers from a London main dealer for £9.99 the pair, which I thought was a real bargain, and will fit them this week-end.
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