It's time to get my car serviced, so I rang around three supposedly reputable local garages today to get some quotes.

Chris Fiddler's told me to call back next week when the boss is back!
Millers Garage told me they'd phone me back and never did. Same story with Rayners.

Now, I distinctly remember being told we were in some sort of double dipping austerity calamity and we're all going to die.

So why can't any of these three be bothered to do something as simple as giving me a price for servicing a car?

Clearly they must all be making so much money that my custom is surplus to their requirements.

So can anyone here recommend a good local garage that might just possibly be willing to let me give them some money? Who have you used that's good? Any suggestions welcome thank you!

Sharpes in bone lane.

Or try one stop.

Never heard of one stop before. Their website looks a bit kwik fit ish. Have you tried them yourself?

The Car Clinic!

http://www.motnewbury.co.uk/

Recently done a few things for me, including an MOT. They came recommended to me, and now I'm just passing the goodwill on.

Once or twice, no complaints. Can recommend sharpes highly.

A bit out of town but A & T Motors at Ball Hill are very good.
Or ever thought of doing it yourself ! Service kit's average around £40 - £50 including oil, takes about 1 hour & saves you loads of money.

I ha the same problem trying to get a new garage door fitted.
Was on my 3rd company before someone actually responded to my order.
Placed an order with the first two and nothing.
Weird!

Recommend Newbury Motors by the way.

I have used the car clinic a lot and have always felt well looked after. I hate newbury motors, but I never actually got round to having work done with them, they annoyed me long before that!

Millers are good but sometimes you have to chase them..

Sometimes garages are so busy they can't call you back. it happens?

Sterling Garage has been honest and efficient for my needs over many years.....

Can you imagine trying that line on Alan Sugar? "Sorry, I was too busy to make some more money"

Nobody is ever that busy.

Do you have two spare doors now?

I had one company come round and decide they couldn't sort mine out (up-and-over type), so I've left it as it is. Please could you PM me with the company you went with?

You have to have a Mk1 Escort or similar to be able to service your own car these days.

Modern cars are cleverly designed to ensure that you pretty much have to take it back to the dealers if you want to do the smallest of jobs. To replace a bulb on some cars you have to disconnect body panels or if you're lucky (and have the same size hands as a ten year old and the manual dexterity of a professional contortionist) you can sometimes do it yourself (after an hour of groping around blindly in the recesses of the headlamp area)

Lift the bonnet on any vehicle made in the last 5 years and all you'll see is a wall of plastic which has been put there to prevent you getting to the engine. These days a service involves plugging your car into a diagnostics analyser to link to your to engine management system. Most of us don't have acess to one of those in our tool box of spanners........



A good garage I've been using for all my cars for a few years now is Thatcham MOT & Service Centre on Bath Road (the old Q8 garage) The service manager there knows his stuff

try fix quick, did my old one when the wire snapped, not cheap but cheaper than a new door.

Little bit off topic I know but ho hum. My up and over garage door wire snapped and I repaired it myself and it only took a few minutes. I sent for a repair kit from this company
www.garagedoor-spares.com it was delivered within a couple of days and it was very cheap.

Wire? What wire? Mine has two lever arms with massive springs.

Fortunately for you, my lord *bows* - It does happen in the real world. If you were actually busy at work you would know what I mean. If you don't work then if you have a busy social life, again you will know what happens. You are busy out and about, see a text and forget to call back...or text back, or whatever social medium you communicate with.. Wifeswapping.

I also happen to know one of Millers top mechanics personally, he's a good friend of mine, Millers themselves I often use anyway and am on good terms with them. I can pretty much walk into the workshop when my car is on the ramps and they don't care.

They are down like 2 mechanics at the moment due to them being on training courses and on holiday - They have like 4 or 5 mechanics in total, so if you think that's basically half their workforce down...everyone has to pick up the slack. They've had to bring on another guy to help work the front desk so of course he needs training up too, the other front desk guy (Glenn) does MOTs occasionally, I think - so he's probably having to work double time as well.

I'm not giving them an excuse, they often do it to me and sometimes it gets annoying. I have personal mechanic mates who do private jobs as I said, so often I'll use them, but sometimes if I need it done in a specific way I will get Millers to do it, I do have to chase them and it can get pretty annoying. But when I get the car back and it's all fixed up, then I don't mind.

I'm not suggesting you forgive everything that all of these garages do to piss you off - I'm suggested you drop your "I AM A CUSTOMER I DEMAND SERVICE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" attitude and consider (shall we say - "understand") that sometimes people are busy, occasionally call backs are forgotten.

Yes at this house I have the door mechanism is the same as yours, large springs and levers.
At my other house the door has steel wire that runs on cones up and down the door jamb with a massive spring across the top of the door hidden in a channel. many many different designs out there though.

xjay, sorry, Timbo, I like attempted to read your reply like, but it was like really long so I like gave up very quickly like.

Your application for the next Apprentice series is hereby rejected.

Sounds like the one I just got rid of.
Had to replace the frames as well as they were rotten.
Fix Quick was one of the firms that let me down.
I'll PM you with the contact details of the firm that finally sorted me out.

Or just find another garage that will offer basic courtesy, although I think this rudeness is widespread in the murky world of grease-monkeying. I don't bother waiting for a return call, I just phone back later.

He wasn't asking for service NOW, he was asking if they would quote for it ... like.

David Jones on 07778176336. He has a workshop at Shefford Woodlands, but he also operates mobile, so he could do the work at your premises.

I like read it OK, ans it's like totally lame. I don't mind the odd time when you need to call back, sometimes things do happen, but being too busy is not really an excuse, nor is doing it all the time. I am glad you are happy with their service, good luck to you, but if that was supposed to be an endorsement you have failed.

I agree about plugging the engine into a diagnostics centre spartacus. But like for normal basic oil / filter changes like, this is still easy on most modern vehicles innit. Far cheaper than the £170 i was charged the last time i let a garage !! ( round by St. Bart's ) do it like. They also tried to persuade me to have the cam belt changed until i informed them it was done about 2000 miles previously innit !!

I know I ramble a bit. Priors Garage looked after us. At Ball Hill. I thought it had been built over,
They took us to Heathrow, and collected us after Christmas in Libya.

It was our car and petrol but it was a long journey in 1963.
ce

The cambelt or timing belt is a critical part of your engine. If it breaks, you may kiss your engine goodbye.
The garage was doing you a favour by "offering" (which is the correct term perhaps) to do that for you. All they can do is look at the mileage or age and compare that with the manufacturer's recommendation. How would they know, if you didn't tell them, that it had already been done. It would have been a different story if they hadn't advised you and next day your belt broke.
My opinion, they did you a favour so instead of using it as a negative, it's actually a positive..

Normally the cam belt is part of a major service and would be documented in the service book. Also the wear and tear can be seen I believe, but I am not 100%.

No, it isn't part of a major service and would always be an extra charge on top. Changing a belt and the tensioners is expensive and you would probably, within the manufacturers recommended time, have two major services without a belt change.
Have a look in a modern engine and see if you can see the cambelt. My car would need at least 30 mins to gain access and there is no way of judging the wear. I doubt you will find any repairer including the main dealers telling you you cambelt was OK if it is due on mileage or time. If you drove away and it broke, you might want them to put the damage right, that's why they won't give you that assurance.
You might even find that an Mot station won't test your diesel car/van if the belt is overdue in case it breaks during the test.

A cam belt can be a part of a major service. Depending on the car, I've seen cam belts advised at any time between 60k miles and 100k miles, or 5 years, which ever comes sooner.

I know many people will change the belt much sooner than it is due. Having said that, on some cars the cam belt is a major event. On some, it is an engine-out job.

I'd say advising of a cam belt change is reasonable, unless it was, say, only 2 years old and had only done 20k.

I would agree and can be done at the same time as a service, but is still an advisory purchase and not done without consent (I would hope).
If the sevice book isn't available or not stamped up then "Thanks for bringing that to my attention mr garageman."

I suppose the problem is that i do have a fair amount of mechanical knowlege but not all the facilities of a workshop, so am & always have been wary of someone telling me how to suck eggs as they say.
This all stemmed from Craven Motors, ( yes it was that long ago ) telling me i would never without special tools be able to replace the broken rear wheel shaft on a friends Lambretta scooter ( i did !! ).
And i have actually replaced a cambelt that had stripped some of the teeth off on an early Passat, it had stopped without damaging the engine how i will never know.

If you have a 'non-interference engine' design, then you might get away with a snapped cam belt.

That is very unlikely with modern engines and diesels never. If the camshaft stops and the crank keeps going then piston to valve damage is inevitable. Bent valves, a damaged piston(s) and so on. I don't think it can ever be worth the risk. I'm not that sure a Passat is a safe engine by the way so for one in a thousand, a bit of good fortune but perhaps if the owner had been given the correct advice and taken it then the story about stripped teeth would never have happened.

But, we stray from the subject matter, the garage were 100% right to advise the cambelt was due if they were unaware that it had already been done so why HJD was ticked off about the advice I don't know. He should have thanked them for their diligence.

At least I get to like be on the TV for like 5 minutes?


And anyway, for the above load of gumf, normally things such as cambelts are documented and will fall in line with a major service.. eg on my car, it's oil and filters every 10,000. And then at 80k, it's cambelt. However the cost would be an extra, not included within the service price (they would charge for oil, filters, brake fluid etc..)

On my vehicle at least, a visual inspection can be completed with only removing 2 bolts holding on the cover, but more often than not it's the micro-cracks which you can't see which would cause a belt to snap. Correctly tensioned there's no reason why a belt wouldn't last 120% the specified interval, although I wouldn't personally try it...

A friend has his cambelt slip due to failed teeth, not had his car for over 2 months - a replacement engine that was causing him more issues, finally got it fixed only about 3 days ago..

If your friend has failed teeth, he should visit his dentist.

The reason i was ticked off was having been charged £170 for a service that just entailed an Oil & Filter change. Did'nt feel like thanking them for anything after that !!

I really have no clue (and please I don't want to know) what a cambelt is for...
I believe a pair of nylons worked in an emergency. I am beyond that now.
I think I have a chain,
The car tells me what to do. "Brake fluid Change overdue"
Shut up you Bavarian computer. .
ce

On a modern car if you ignore those little red lights & computer messages you'll invalidate your warranty.

When the car is plugged into a modern diagnostics machine, the first thing the car does it tell the garage what a naughty owner you have been.

Having mechanic friends helps, you see. I buy all the oils and filters, help my buddy out doing it,he charges me £25. Stamps my book. Happy days.

Not sure that the stamp in the book is of any value with a job done by a "mate" and no guarantee such as you would get from a reputable garage. No doubt the friend lifts it in the air to check all your joints etc. I doubt it.

Have heard (long ago) that a pair of nylons can turn a belt-driven alternator or a water pump in an emergency, but not replace a cambelt or chain!

I have no idea. These days . Nylons are a fond memory.I just get told what to do.

My trip as a child in 1952 through Balkan countries was strange.The roads were rare.
We ended up in some town. A something had broken. Dad asked for help from some folk sipping mint tea.
"You must ask the Mayor" He was at the next table
They spoke...And He said it would be fixed in the morning.

Sure enough he was there in the morning welding something.
That was a Balkan mayor!
ce

Were they not the favourite gift in 1942 - near to US air bases?

Later, Brentford Nylon sheets with their electrical charge?

I think so.Not that I ever wore any.
Apart from Hershey bars which are rubbish I think .
I spent my youth in digs near to theatres. It was all Brentford nylons.
Nightmare.
ce

Never did the Rocky Horror?

That takes me back - Dr Frank N. Furter? On a date with a bird from Greenwich in the West End.

It is/was a great laugh. I went to a show in Oxford in '88!

And then "Return to the Forbidden Planet" - a spin off, more The Tempest perhaps, and the crew met you on the stairs going in to the theatre. The lead guitarist was a spit of Brian May, who joined us for a drink afterwards in a pub in Victoria.