Bloody Ice and now need advice!

mezzdon

Ok quick question as I don't know a thing about cars. I hit a curb yesterday because of the ice and got a mechanic out and he said that my lower suspension is bent or something like that and it is going to cost me €200 to fix. With me being a girl and pretty obvious I know nothing about cars I just want to know is this a fair price or should I get someone else to do it?

Tipsy Mac

Hard to know without a list of parts to be replaced and/or fixed but €200 for suspension damage sounds ok.

johndaman66

Depends really mezzdon. Your question is sort of akin to asking how long is a piece of string. If you could supply details of the make/ model and exact part(s) that are needed to be replaced then the motoring heads out here might be better able to answer your question.

spurious

You being a girl has nothing to do with your not knowing about car repair prices.
Get another couple of quotes and then you can judge if the first one was way off or not. If you like, get a male friend to get the quotes to counteract the 'women know nothing about cars and are ripe to be ripped off' phenomenon.

Muckie

Price given depends on the damage. If its what he said, its
not bad at all. No harm in ringing around a few other garages.

mezzdon

My car is 05 1.9 tdi Golf Estate.. See I think he will be able to fix it pretty quickly as he said I could drop it up on Monday to him and I need the car back working a.s.a.p! He explained that the wheel is rubbing against the car. It's the drivers lower suspension arm that needs to be fixed. I have only moved here and don't know anybody and all male friends are in a different county plus most of them would know less about cars then me so I'll have to go on your advise.

guil

its probably the wishbone that bent, is the wheel back near the door rather than in the center when ur lookin at it from the side

mezzdon

Yeah thats exactly what it looks like.. I can fit five fingers between the wheel and the rim on the passenger side and onle four on the damaged drivers side.

Dark-Mavis

200 yoyos sounds like a good price for a new wishbone.
I paid 350 at a dealer for the same on the same type of car when I hit a large stone on a back road.

johndaman66

I reckon if it is a wishbone which it more than likely is 200 Euro isin't too off the wall. I'm not sure of the exact model of your car but for that model diesel golf it would appear that wishbones seem to range from 70 to 80E on micksgarage.ie. I replaced one myself in a vectra some time back. Granted that I'd be a novice and didn't have the complete range of tools available in a workshop but it took some considerable time to complete job. And with the rates practically all mechanics seem to charge need I say anymore. Certainly no harm shopping around though for better price as with any motor repairs or servicing you need done in Ireland. Also if you get a quote and are getting it done on that basis get the garage to guarntee you beforehand that the price of job will be pretty close to what they quoted. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough as on a few occasions I have being caught quite badly when I went in to pick up car. Quote meant absolutely nothing and I had to pay the bill put in front of me to get my bloody car back!

frank gooding

Sounds like a fair price. There is a bit work in doing this job, as long as he gets the parts handy enough it should be all done with in a day.

Drop the car in early in the morning you should have it back end of day.

There is going to be a lot of these jobs next week I would say.

guil

frank gooding wrote: »

Sounds like a fair price. There is a bit work in doing this job, as long as he gets the parts handy enough it should be all done with in a day.

Drop the car in early in the morning you should have it back end of day.

There is going to be a lot of these jobs next week I would say.

there isnt that much work involved to change a wishbone, 3 or 4 bolts hold it in and nothin else has to come out to take it out

mezzdon

Well he took the car and has now said that this and that is wrong with it also. He knows I need the car back a.s.a.p to get into work so have to fork out €500 to get it back!! I know he is full of it but what can I do!! (Note to self: must get boyfriend who can fix cars!)

ardmacha

(Note to self: must get boyfriend who can fix cars!)

You've probably come to the right place!

mezzdon

ardmacha wrote: »

You've probably come to the right place!

Well I'm single and not too bad looking so ... Pic of Miss wishes she knew moe about cars attached!

racso1975

well you'd defo pass my nct test!!!

antodeco

Wishbone needs replacing on mine. Looking at around €200 for parts and install, which is what I was kinda expecting anyway. Sounds like a fair price.

Just remember, there may be other bits wrong with it. It could suspension, wishbone, tie bar (rod?), and other components. My mate did 12k worth of damage after hitting a kerb. Wasnt going fast but whatever angle he hit it. Also managed to warp the chassis from it.

Beruthiel

racso1975 wrote: »

well you'd defo pass my nct test!!!

/Hands racso his coat....

plasmaguy

Mezzdon, do you or anyone in your family know a mechanic who can give you friendly impartial advice? It's worth knowing such a mechanic.

Otherwise you could call out the AA or something like that, they are pretty impartial.

Finding an impartial mechanic is difficult as they all want your money and business and you being a woman as well, they will make things as expensive as possible.

But that doesn't sound right that he took the car away and you have to pay 500 euro to get it back.

If you want an aggressive male to ring the mechanic up on your behalf, I am sure there are plenty on this forum who would do it for ya, just drop them a pm or something.

johndaman66

Mezzdon did the mechanic give you a breakdown of what he replaced and the labour hours per any chance? Not sure if you got the car towed but if you did the going rate for getting a car towed is at least 100 Euro. Thats seems to be the cost for putting the tow rope on. Bump up that distance and you can bump up that cost.

corktina

mezzdon wrote: »

Well I'm single and not too bad looking so ... Pic of Miss wishes she knew moe about cars attached!

fair play..i bet you get that fixed up really quickly now....

mezzdon

This is the list of everything "he says" was wrong with it..

Lower suspension arm
Drop link
Bolt
Inner Tie Rod
Complete Drive Shaft

Materials came to €342
Labour€160

I had to pay it, I had to get my car back I missed two days of work already. I made him put all the parts he took out in my boot so I'm thinking of bringing to to another garage and seeing what ws really done to the car..

peasant

mezzdon wrote: »

This is the list of everything "he says" was wrong with it..

Lower suspension arm
Drop link
Bolt
Inner Tie Rod
Complete Drive Shaft

Materials came to €342
Labour€160

That's not a bad price actually, both for parts and labour.

Muckie

How does the car behave on the road.
Does it feel any better, alot of times its important that the car
is tracked and the tires balanced.
Hopefully you'll be trouble free for ages.

pdiddy

was actually a very good price for all parts replaced and labour was quiet resonable,prob cudnt tell at first glance what was fully damaged but wud have been obvious once on a lift.

got a price of 700 euros for a new drive shaft for my 95 celica thats without even paying some one to replace it,car is barely worth that,thank god for breakers yards.