I'm not going to defend main agent labour rates, despite their being very good reasons for them charging more than the bloke down the road with two ramps and three mechanics, but I'd ask you to maybe consider your main agent like you do your LBS, hear me out, yes they might charge marginally more, but they are specifically trained, have the specialist tools including diagnostic machines, and they only fit genuine manufacturer approved and sourced parts. Ok, maybe not exactly like your LBS, but I hope you get the gist of my point.
Loyalty and goodwill are like two way traffic in my book, they run both ways
Loyalty did no good for me.
List of things my dealer did to my car when in for servicing and repair.
Forgot to refit all the wheel nuts.
Forgot to refit the engine cover properly.
Left brake fluid hand print on front bumper.
Ditto on tailgate (still not repaired).
Replaced rear exhaust pipe due to a hole, didn't notice the bigger hole in the catylist until I pointed it out.
Broke the aircon pump.
Crushed the nearside sill when jacking the car.
Left a club hammer in front of the radiator. It smashed the radiator, the inner wings, the grille and was working its way through to the front brake pipes before I discovered it after a long drive. They denied it until I showed them the hammer with their stamp on it.
Wired the trailer electrics wrongly, fogs and both rear lights onto the nearside sidelight circuit.
As for properly trained, I had to storm into the workshop on a number of occasions to stop them using hammers on parts that should never be hammered and to point out parts wrongly fitted and bodged into place.
-1 for main dealers too. In the past I have had my car done at the main dealer and one service ages ago I noticed that they charged for washer fluid refill and I was sure it was full before I took it in. Anyway, the last time I took it in I thought I'd carry out a little experiment. Beforehand I made sure that the washer reservoir was full to the brim, not another millilitre could have been squeezed in there. Sure enough, on the bill was a charge for washer fluid. I didn't bother querying it, not worth the bother for about £1.50 or whatever it was, besides I could imagine the ' He would have topped it up after draining some out while testing it' bollocks excuse if I had have done
They also did the topping up the already full washer bottle as well and I did the same test as you to see how many nanolitres they managed to squeeze in.
I even had old brake fluid in the reservoir after a fluid change was on the service bill. I know they didn't change it as the nipples were dry and stuck when I changed it myself afterwards.
- not the first leak either!), that I was worried might be brake fluid (rainbow patterns in puddles on the drive), they jacked it up, took wheels off to check, concluded very slow diesel leak (which was fixed by the main dealers under warranty) so OK for imminent journey but 'get it fixed soon' and charged me £0.
