whats your biggest garage nightmare

blacksmith105

Thought i would post this thread as I am pissed off with garages trying to rip me off
Every time i ever took a car into a garage to have it looked at they tell me that i need to have major work done and will cost hundreds to fix it
Last time i had a problem took to a major dealer in Dublin who told me that they had two of their top mechanics look at the car and i need a new ECU and airflow unit and would cost me 1100 euro plus vat plus fitting . I found a local guy who knew specialised in alfas and turned out it was only a small job and cost me a total of 65 euro ,car was like new after he did the job, he laughed when i told him about the garage and loads of guys fell for it and paid thousands in repair bills
Does anyone actually believe what they are told by a mechanic working for a major dealership

Would like to hear your horror stories ::p

T-Square

I had a 160BHP civic that went for in for an oil change.
Got it back two weeks later, and nearly a grand lighter,
because the pleb working on it totally reamed me.

He was supposed to be the foreman from a Honda main dealer,
when I checked after the fact, it turned out to be a lie.

After working on the car, he tried to start it, and he said
the timing belt is after jumping a tooth. So he disassembles the engine,
and then couldn't reassemble the bloody thing.
I had to get a Honda technical trainer, to contact the pleb personally,
and walk him through a valve rebuild/assembly.

I'm wary of back of the house/back street mechanics.

looksee

I was on the receiving end of a very minor shunt, I was waiting at a junction and someone rolled into me very gently. There was no visible damage. I took the car to the main dealers expecting that they would say that it needed a new bumper, but they looked at it and said the chassis was 'crumpled'. They gave me a quote somewhere around a thousand. I did not believe this and went to my usual mechanic who said there was nothing wrong with the chassis, and it just needed a new bumper, which he fitted for a couple of hundred, about €50 over the cost of the bumper.
I don't go back to main dealers after the first service, since I keep a car for maybe 8 or 10 years it doesn't matter whether it has a main dealer service history. Both my last two cars were paid for in four years, so I got another 4 - 6 years motoring for little more than the cost of tyres and service.
Best thing is to find a reliable garage and stick with them.