I have a 98 Laguna 1.6 16valve due a new cambelt and looks like the exhaust will need replacing before too long.
Has anyone used french garages and found them cheaper?
As we're going there on holiday would it pay to get them done when out there? Renault bits are expensive here as is labour - Is it be fair to assume that as every other car in france is a renault, then parts/labour would be cheaper.
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I used to work with somebody who had a Renault and he always had it serviced in France because it was far cheaper and the work was always done very competently. Even if you have a non-French car, like a VW, it pays you to have it fixed and serviced in France. You might do even better in Andorra if you are in the south, since there is no VAT equivalent there, or in Luxembourg where VAT is lower.
Renault parts will be a lot cheaper - when we had a Simca, which was some time ago, I always used to buy parts in Calais when we went over on a day trip.
Actual servicing and repair work costs a lot less in France, apparently, because of the way the garages are organised.Some of the work is given to supervised apprentices, who are paid less than fully qualified mechanics. And generally there doesn't seem to be the same overpriced rip-off and cheating you find here (apart from the odd tyre and oil scam at motorway service stations)
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Reading Ian Chandler's letter,a lot of work in this country is done by apprentices but you still get charged the full hourly rate.
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I'd say yes.
SWMBO's uncle used to tow a cravan around France for 5 months each year with a Renault and often used the services of French garages (no slight on Renaults intended here). Even the small village garagiste will be able to help you and will be by far the cheapest option, although you may prefer the reassurance of using a main dealer. Of course, you'll need to know the French for replace the cambelt and replace the exhaust. Franch for how much? is combien?.
They also have fast-fit places for exhausts like Mr Speedy but I've no experience of them.
HTH - aren't these italics wonderful!
Terry :o)
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I'd agree - the French garages of which I have had experience have been practical, human places - e.g. courtesy help with a packed-to-the-gunwhales overheating Fiat Panda and then excellent insurance-funded advice and help on how to nurse said car + occupants several hundred miles home successfully to a waiting ferry without mishap.
David M
You know Citroens make sense in an up-and-down world......
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One thing to watch is that you do not replace a UK specific i.e. RHD component with a LHD one.
I got caught out when we broke a door mirror. The French version locks into place to cover the correct angles for someone sitting in the passenger seat!
Ditto, presumably, headlights etc.
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You might be surprised. I used to live in Bordeaux 10 years ago and needed a new headlight glass for my Volvo 340. Was very surprised that the local Volvo dealership had one in stock!
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CM
Maybe Pug dealers are thicker than Volvo. It was obvious that we were English (the sign language gave it away, or maybe they thought that we were deaf and dumb) and that the car had UK plates, so the garage did not twig that the local version would give the wrong angles.
If I had realised we would have made do until we got back home.
IIRC there wasn't much difference between the French and UK prices on this item, since we had to change it 2 or 3 years later when it got broken again.
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Hi Johnny - Have no experience of French garages, but the Spanish versions are much, much cheaper than ours. Last year I drove my Xantia 2.1TD and caravan from Calais to Malaga. On the journey the pipe fractured leading into the rear silencer and parted company with the box. A temporary wiring got the journey completed, then a local garage removed the silencer, welded the pipe back onto the box and refitted it. Total cost 4000pesetas (£16).
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Like everyone else seems to be saying, my experience is that you could save a lot by going to a French garage for servicing and any other mechanical work. We had all locks changed on a 405 (4 locks), a new exhaust and full service - cost £205 at Peugeot main dealers in Grenoble. Seemed very competent and service was efficient and friendly.
I am sure examples of bandit, daylight robbery garages do exist, but employment regulations, training and safety are big issues in France with heavy fines for those who do not comply or try to avoid the state regulations. If you can, take a pretty women along with you as the mechanic will wont to show off and give you A* service. Tried and tested technique!
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I am not sure yhat SHMBO would fall for the "I'm just taking this blonde over to France to get the car serviced" routine!
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Slightly tangental this point, but at the same time picking up on others' comments about the quality of work and knowledge at French garages.
Last year I travelled with a bunch of mates to the Le Mans 24h in a poorly maintained but cheap to hire Transit. Almost inevitably the thing broke down. In a queue of traffic about a mile outside a small town, Beaumont-sur Sarth I think, the engine just stopped. Luckily one of the passengers was reasonable familiar with the 2.5D engine and checked where the cambelt should have been, obviously it had broken. This was when the awful realisation that the cheap hire hadn't included any form of breakdown cover.
Relatively unpeturbed, the French speakers in the group wandered into the town and the garage whilst the others hung around, drank Kronembourg and smoked, as you do in such circumstances. We were all surprised when they returned with the news that the proprietor of the garage had already ordered a cambelt, which would be there in an hour, was trying to source some pushrods, and was prepared to do whatever work was needed to make the bus roadworthy again that day.
The upshot was that within 4 hours we were back on the road with the advice of keeping the speed below 90 km/h. The mechanic had spent most of the 4 hours painstakingly and artfully straightening a pile of bent pushrods with a series of small hammers because he had been unable to source new ones that day.
The whole experience was unbelievable, and I think we would have been extremely lucky to stumble upon such fantastic expertise and service in the UK. And the bill was less than £150.
We are planning to call in to see the garage and the bar in which we spent the afternoon again this year on the way back from the race. Roll on June 15th!
Sorry for such a long-winded post - Hope it doesn't bore you all to much or get jetissoned to the Discussion group!
Andy
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Sorry for such a long-winded post - Hope it doesn't bore you all to much! Andy
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Far from it, Andy!
What a refreshing story! My own experiences in France (as a young hitchhiker) were that the French would go out of their way (literally!) to help.
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Hey, I can do long-winded, too.
In 1998 my bro-in-law and I took our families to Brittany, He in his Toyota Carina and trailer-tent and me in my XM and c*r*v*n. Near the end of our stay, the Toyota exhaust fractured in front of the front box. We consulted the dealer directory and found the local Toyota dealer. I drew the short straw and was despatched to a phone box to make contact. It turned out that the garage in the directory had abandoned its Toyota dealership, but here was the phone number of the new franchise. Another call later and I had established that they were open for business and where they were. When we arrived to check out their stocks of exhaust bits it seemed like they had been Toyota dealers all of 20 minutes. Everything, including the "toyota" sign was in packing cases, there was no furniture or garage equipment to be seen. They were desolated of course and would order us the bits immediately, but the parts would not be there before we were due set off for the ferry.
We left and on the way out of the industrial estate passed a local engineer with scrap cars and trucks in the yard. The glitter of a welding torch was seen within. I asked the very grimy Monsieur if he would look at the exhaust and possibly fix it; he shrugged his shoulders and asked us to bring the Toyota into the workshop. After he had lit up a pipe the size of a flower pot, he produced a wheeled hydraulic lift and pushed it under the car. He asked me to let the handbrake off. At this point my French vocabulary deserted me and I asked bro-in-law to put on the handbrake instead. As the car started to lift, the locked rear wheels seemed to stop it settling onto the supports and the front of the car fell off the lift dropping about 6 inches. Monsieur took a deep breath and blew smoke across the workshop. He said "Merde!" quietly. He dropped the lift, repositioned the supports, prduced an enormous long screwdriver which he used to tap the handbrake release button from outside the car, jacked the car up and welded the exhaust, a repair which lasted nearly 20,000 miles. It cost about 250 francs.
Only the French can do this!
Darcy
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Darcy,
Not just the French you know.....
Six years ago I sorted a holed BX front pipe with a trolley jack, two jubilee clips, a trimmed baby milk tin, pair of tin snips and a tube of exhaust paste.
After three years the repair fell off so I replaced it in the same way.
Now a total of six years on the car still has the same front pipe. In fact just last week I made another repair a little further along the pipe but in the interest of experimentation used a cut down Chappie dog food tin. This could outlast the car!
I have to say this isn't my prefered standard but it's for a rather careful friend.
David W
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David
Now that's interesting. I was always under the impression that this sort of repair was an MOT fail. Weld repairs, new pipe sections held by proper clamps OK, but DIY jobs like this no.
Regards
John S
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Well I've never asked for special treatment at MOT time and the guys have been happy as long as the repair holds well. In fact Holts (I think?) do repair kits that are just a commercial version of mine and they claim to be "MOT friendly".
If we find I'm wrong perhaps I'll have to finally remove this long length of tin cans held together with short sections of exhaust!
David W
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David
Reminds me of my father (rest his soul) who many years ago, pre-MOT fixed the exhaust of his 1936 Ford 8 with an opened-up catering-sized spam tin.
It took years before we stopped getting the smell of roast pork on a long run!
Terry :o)
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Darcy
Would that be this Toyota garage?
vgonzague.free.fr/index.php3?p=image_gd2&bimg=humo...8
Terry :o)
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Terry.
There was no sign of any description on the unit. these guys are just covering their options.
Darcy
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Ahhh ...Le Mans....not long to go now...I can't wait for this annual pilgrimage. I was down there for pre-qualifying in early May Andy...can't wait the full 12 months any more...
If anyone is interested in Le Mans there is a wonderful forum at www.club-arnage.com, as well as a host of other info and links.
In respect of this thread, would it be worth me getting my Omega exhaust looked at over there as it is burbling a lot on one side...local tyre-u-like has said it's in 3 sections, £94 each... anyone any idea how much I might save "over there"?
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There was an article in the paper-man took his car to Calais,stayed overnight,had his car serviced and even paying for dinner/hotel still saved money.
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