MOT advice....

[tomt84]

heya

first post here so pls be gentle think I'm being ripped off, could do with some advice.

put my mk3 through its mot yesterday. The garage rang me last night to say it had failed on these points:

headlight alignment, both sides
rear brake pipes corroded to excess, both sides
excess free travel in handbrake - could be cable needing adjustment or something wrong with drums (more expensive)

I said to them "whats it going to cost me" and the guy said £100, maybe a bit more. Thought £100, not too bad, is this about the right price to expect? I replied "if it is significantly more than £100 then it's not worth it cos the car isn't worth that much more, ring me and take it from there".

Anyway, got a call from them today saying they'd fixed it up and passed it. "What do I owe you" - reply was £207

Is it reasonable to argue the toss over this? I've been told that brake lines can be had for about £20 for a 20m roll of the stuff...

Haven't yet picked the car up or paid for it btw. Quick answer would be brilliant because I could do with collecting it in the morning.

cheers

tom

[GroovyCarrot]

Headlight alignment takes a couple of minutes and a screwdriver (and most testing centres do it for free as a matter of course), handbrake adjustment takes a couple of minutes and a 10mm socket. Unless there was something seriously wrong with the drums, then I'd say that's some very expensive brake pipe..

[ste mk1lx]

think you are best talking to CAB as if you didn't ask them to fix the car if it was over the £100 quoted.

[robz]

i think its Very xpensive m8, id agree wif u £100 aint 2 bad. As GC says the headlights & handbrake arent big jobs.

Let us no how u get on wif the arguing
Oh & welcome 2 the forum! get some pics of ur polo posted up!

[hardhitter]

Most friendly MOT places will adjust the headlight aim for free. They may leave it to a fail sheet if theres lots of other fail points, thought.

The brake job is no more than £50 worth of work at the most.

[tomt84]

thanks for your comments, I'll be printing that lot and taking it with me to the garage when I get home tomorrow.

Got a quote from a vw parts company for flexible rear brake pipes for the polo.... they're £7.50 + VAT for the generic ones or about a quid more for "better" ones, so theres £15 + VAT there.

Even if the rear drums needed totally replacing, they can be had for £15 each from the same place.

They're having a laugh, aren't they....

ps I'll get some photos up when I've got the rust under control

[louise_gt]

too much imo

[pete69zx]

heya

first post here so pls be gentle think I'm being ripped off, could do with some advice.

put my mk3 through its mot yesterday. The garage rang me last night to say it had failed on these points:

headlight alignment, both sides
rear brake pipes corroded to excess, both sides
excess free travel in handbrake - could be cable needing adjustment or something wrong with drums (more expensive)

I said to them "whats it going to cost me" and the guy said £100, maybe a bit more. Thought £100, not too bad, is this about the right price to expect? I replied "if it is significantly more than £100 then it's not worth it cos the car isn't worth that much more, ring me and take it from there".

Anyway, got a call from them today saying they'd fixed it up and passed it. "What do I owe you" - reply was £207

Is it reasonable to argue the toss over this? I've been told that brake lines can be had for about £20 for a 20m roll of the stuff...

Haven't yet picked the car up or paid for it btw. Quick answer would be brilliant because I could do with collecting it in the morning.

cheers

tom

Can i start with saying... IMHO if the garage have actually informed you that the headlights are missaligned, then what i would suspect is that the adjusters could have snapped, causing alignment impossible without them in one piece. This is just a case of going to the dealers for some new ones, or a scrapyard (more plausable if the garage isnt a 'top whack' kind of place).

The bit i would have a problem with is the garage actually saying to you ' around £100'. There is a significant dfifference between £100 & £200!!!

The handbrake issue... was the lots of sideways play/slogger in the mechanism if you remember? Mine had this, and failed its MOT. All i had to do was tighten up 2 13mm nuts (situated underneath the handbrake cover).

The garage are there to make money, not to be your friend, but that still doesnt give them the right to quote you one price after telling you all the faults. The usual case is a reply from them of...'well, we had to change this part aswell'.. b****x!

I doubt you will have much of a leg to stand on, as i suspect the conversation you had with them was a none witnessed verbal phone call? If so... i doubt you will be very successful in any other area than arguing with them directly yourself

Good luck with it all, & my plan here wasnt to p*** you off, just voicing my opinion

[Tahrey1043]

what can i say? classic first time polowner ripoff. sold with hookey brakes, and whats the first thing youre going to do? get it the hell to a garage so you dont die, as "VW brakes are crap" anyway (never mind the rears do little on the road, you can leave it in 1st in place of handbrake on pretty much any hill, and the pedal placement & torque-per-kilo make it hell easy to hill start without handbrake). said garage then charges through your nose.

(i'm qualified to make such a comment as i came a cropper of it too - or my mum did at least, and its as much my fault for allowing a mechanically blind lady to take a banger off for tricky repairs to kwik fit. £250 - for lines (a few metres of 7mm copper pipe), fluid, shoes, cylinders (fiver a pop) and a handbrake cable that they didnt even put the right tension on!)

its worth probably as much as that repair cost, though it probably should have been cheaper.. mind you remember you're paying for their time, effort, and skill more so than the materials! Labour charges are a killer on old-car repairs which is why its good to do it yourself.

Either that or find a garage that will only start doing "extra" work at greater expense without phoning you, after getting to know you as the kind of guy who'll just wave his hand, or say down the line "whatever you think's best, my good man" and hand them your debit card. (yeah, i was that moron too). Better yet one that will still occasionally call you over it anyway.
Caveat: Such garages are rare, like chilli peppers in christmas pud.


(i wonder what they would have charged you for a snapped clutch cable?)

[tomt84]

well.......

Went down to the garage today and got given the invoice, and basically told them I was unhappy with the price, given the jobs that were done.

Having argued the point that they charged me more than double than their verbal "estimate", and that I asked them to call me if the price went significantly beyond £100, but they didn't call me, I got them to acknowledge that that wasn't really on, given that the car isn't worth much more.

Anyway they knocked me an hour of labour off the bill (£50).

I accept that I was paying for the skills and the labour more than the parts (and in fact the parts they used were itemised at the same prices I could have got them for), but I frankly dispute that their skills are worth £50 an hour.

For future reference, where do you stand on doing repairs yourself once your car has failed its MOT? Ie moving the car, retesting, etc etc?

pete:
There was a *lot* of travel in the handbrake, and I'd say it can't have been far off being completely useless. I don't remember any noticable sideways play in the mechanism. They actually completely renewed the handbrake cable. Plus, the headlights passed their MOT without any new adjusters being fitted, and not having looked at it I'd assume they are in fact intact.

needless to say I won't be using them again.

cheers again

[robz]

atleast you got it sorted! the fact they knocked £50 off seems 2 say that they no they were rippiing u off?!

[tomt84]

yeah i think so too, £50 off is better than nothing i spose. still miffed that I had to shell out £160 + £60 road tax today for my £270 car.

one of those things i suppose.

[robz]

look on the bright side, you got a polo for buttons!

[tomt84]

was the £270 cheap do you think?

[pete69zx]

Glad you got some kind of good result there m8