Car main dealer prices vs. Independents - Worth reporting?

[MrGrumpy]

MrsR's 5 year old Mini was in the local main BMW/Mini dealer for its MOT last week. It failed on one corroded brake pipe and got an advisory on the other.

We were quoted, wait for it...£1013 to replace one brake pipe, or £1209 to replace both.

After picking myself up off the floor I did a bit of Googling and ringing around a few local independents and found that the going rate for replacing brake pipes on a Mini is about £70 each.

I appreciate that a main dealer has higher overheads and would expect to pay more, but not *that* much more!

I dropped the car off at an independent yesterday. Shortly after I got a phone call from them saying "we wouldn't fail it on the brake pipes, they just need a bit of a clean up". Long story short, they cleaned them up, changed the brake fluid and MOT'ed the car for £120.

My main reason for posting is to ask whether it's worth reporting the main dealer to anyone and if so who?

My concern is that a vulnerable customer could be ripped off - I can imagine, for example, an elderly customer just assuming that the main dealer must be right and paying without querying it.

@screenman ?

Go to an independent to get the work done, no point in reporting neither. Main dealers are always more expensive, for example we have a 4 yr old Mini Cooper, its got a mini service plan on it. Chucked it in for its service and got the fright of my life when they gave a list of things all needing done. The main one being the AC condenser. That was £600 !! btw it still works just happens to have been hit by a stone, so got a few dings and holes. Also they reckoned the discs were corroded and the pads need changed, fine I said. However that was another £300 for them to do that !! Bare in mind this car only has 16000 miles on it ! Picked up my keys and left, will do any remedial work myself.

As a rule of thumb I don`t put my cars into a main dealer for an MOT as they will look for as much as possible to rinse your cash, always have done, don`t trust them at all.

 

[Moodyman]

Unfortunately, the poncy car viewpoint has some merit. Dad's Lexus and my Toyota needed a front suspension strut during our respective MOTs. The cars are the same age and the MOTs were within days of each other.

His part was £220, mine was £45. We used an independent garage for fitting.

The parts are made by the same Japanese supplier.

 

[accountantpete]

As a rule of thumb I don`t put my cars into a main dealer for an MOT as they will look for as much as possible to rinse your cash, always have done, don`t trust them at all.

Even many of the local dealers have gone the same way around here. To get around this I book my MOT in a local garage who don't do MOT's and they take the car to another garage (who used to continually fail my car on costly minor points) for the MOT - doing this I have had one fail in 8 years!

 

[KnackeredBike]

Well, you semi-regularly hear of "roofers" sent to prison for charging little old ladies £20k to replace a couple of slates. Same thing isn't it?

No, they are prosecuted by Trading Standards for either doing unnecessary work or not doing work to the standard agreed.

There is no law against charging a high price for a low-worth product.

 

[Profpointy]

No, they are prosecuted by Trading Standards for either doing unnecessary work or not doing work to the standard agreed.

There is no law against charging a high price for a low-worth product.

Yebbutt, are you saying it's OK if they diligently replace 2 slates, and charge £20k?

 

[KnackeredBike]

Even many of the local dealers have gone the same way around here. To get around this I book my MOT in a local garage who don't do MOT's and they take the car to another garage (who used to continually fail my car on costly minor points) for the MOT - doing this I have had one fail in 8 years!

There is a garage near me that just does MOTs. Of course they get repeat business if you are happy with the MOT result. Top place and if it is something wrong that is a five minute fix they will just fix it for you and pass. Top blokes.

 

[KnackeredBike]

Yebbutt, are you saying it's OK if they diligently replace 2 slates, and charge £20k?

Yes - if the problem actually needed doing, the work was described properly and the person understood and still agreed. Of course in the real world that wouldn't happen unless the person had cognitive impairment, so they wouldn't be able to give informed consent anyway.

This happens all the time, if you go to a festival and want to buy a 500ml bottle of water you are probably forking out £3 - and that is much more essential than a roof. But TS won't care if you point out to them Tesco sell water for 5p per 500ml, so the festival is overcharging.

 

[simon.r]

But then again, few people ever open the bonnet never mind pop a wheel off to get to the brake pipes.

I've had company cars for years, so never worried about servicing costs. I must admit that attitude has carried through to MrsR's car, especially as she bought it new and it came with a 5 year service plan.

Lesson learnt - I will be carrying out basic preventative maintenance on her car from now on.

 

[fixedfixer]

Totally rip off. I've had several Beemers and currently we have a Mini Clubman. They are actually very easy to work on. The main dealers are having a laugh - how do you think they afford to supply you with free coffee? Europarts have most of the parts for mini's - go to a Indy and you shouldn't pay more than £100 for a proper job. (Better still do it yer self like most tight fisted Aberdeenshire folks ).

PS buy the Haynes manual, a fault code reader and just Google problems. Oh and resetting the service lights just requires a few clicks on the indicator stalk.

 

[fixedfixer]

And, 5.2 litres of Castrol premium oil and a filter from Europarts, half hours work and your oil change is done for less than £50 - what's you main dealer been asking?

 

[Profpointy]

Yes - if the problem actually needed doing, the work was described properly and the person understood and still agreed. Of course in the real world that wouldn't happen unless the person had cognitive impairment, so they wouldn't be able to give informed consent anyway.

This happens all the time, if you go to a festival and want to buy a 500ml bottle of water you are probably forking out £3 - and that is much more essential than a roof. But TS won't care if you point out to them Tesco sell water for 5p per 500ml, so the festival is overcharging.

You have a different view of morality than me. Is your view of morality purely the law, and what you can get away with

 

[KnackeredBike]

Oh and resetting the service lights just requires a few clicks on the indicator stalk.

Yeah but they scam you for loads of money to fit indicators to a BMW.

 

[KnackeredBike]

@Profpointy You asked if someone would be sent to prison in a hypothetical situation that has never happened in real life.

However good luck with expecting tradesmen to have morals when quoting you a price. They are running a business and will quote the highest they think they can get whilst also getting repeat business.

 

[lutonloony]

We all buy fancy bikes when a £200 subway would do ?

A £200 subway would be a mighty big sandwich

 

[fixedfixer]

Yeah but they scam you for loads of money to fit indicators to a BMW.

Aye. Indicators might be optional for some but if you can't fix stuff yourself then you pay the price. YouTube is you friend and will save you shed loads of cash