WTF £22.50 for a puncture!!!

[OwlHoot]

Two things:

1) Kwik Fit are complete crooks - I know, my cousin worked there, and he's about as straight as Julian Cleary;

2) Garage labour is around £60/hour nowadays. Ok, I'm still in Permie-land but even when I'm not I don't like paying grease monkeys rates equivalent to my own on principle. It took a ******* DECADE for me to build my skills, so I'm not having some some shifty-eyed ape in overalls ...

Sounds like you're slagging off car mechanics because they get oily, while we breeze about nice and warm with clean pinkies in air conditioned offices...

Modern cars are pretty complicated, and changing all the time, and there are dozens of models. So it probably takes a decent car mechanic at least a decade or two to get adequate experience of all the models, and all their quirks.

To be honest, I reckon a _good_ car mechanic or even an adequate one is probably more skilled in their way than the average IT guy. (I'd agree there may be some monkeys in that business, as for any other.)

I don't begrudge the £1200 or so I spend on my annual service & MOT, because the guys in the garage I use really know what they're doing, and the car always drives quieter and better afterwards.

[OwlHoot]

Are you a contractor or what? You should make £22.50 in the time it takes for a fart to come out of your ass.

Absolutely - He makes Timberwolf look like a drunken sailor on shore leave

[Troll]

Modern cars are pretty complicated

Or most drivers have no mechanical aptitude and place blind faith in others

I don't begrudge the £1200 or so I spend on my annual service & MOT

They must dance a jig when they see Mr Gullible roll up again -did they fit the gold plated special spark plugs again by chance?

because the guys in the garage I use really know what they're doing

How would someone so clueless about things mechanical be able to substantiate that claim?

, and the car always drives quieter and better afterwards.

Sawdust / heavier oil in the gearbox does wonders

[lukemg]

Forget more complex, the bloody cars tell you what is wrong with them these days and the maintenance and servicing is a very routine job for the majority of cars.

Respect for the old school who can properly sort older motors but for new ones the cost is what the market will bear and the false expectation of better work at main dealers etc it has little relation to the skills needed to do it.

[Old Hack]

Where are you getting £22.50 from? Even if you add VAT onto that breakdown it doesn't come to that.

Gentile,

You have different collars and cuffs you know

[Old Hack]

Forget more complex, the bloody cars tell you what is wrong with them these days and the maintenance and servicing is a very routine job for the majority of cars.

Respect for the old school who can properly sort older motors but for new ones the cost is what the market will bear and the false expectation of better work at main dealers etc it has little relation to the skills needed to do it.

Whilst the diagnosis is done mostly by computers, the other parts of the works aren't. Have you stripped a gearbox? Fitted new Pistons, or a new head? I have, and its incredibly detailed and intense work.

The skils lost in working with todays engines will be in the diagnosis. However, I am yet to see a computer tell anyone that it's got a warped head, or the little ends are worn, or the bushes in the independent suspension are getting near the end of the shelf life.

Don't mock mechanics, they are, mostly, bright people, well trained doing a very technical job.

[gingerjedi]

Feck me what's all the fuss about? How much is a gents hair cut these days? A round of drinks? A couple of hours parking?

[escapeUK]

Zeity faints clean away at the very thought.

And what is this "annual service" of which you speak?

if its anything like mine, its an expensive oil change and mine is £300. No way id pay £1200, especially to drive in a grandads car.

[VectraMan]

Whilst the diagnosis is done mostly by computers, the other parts of the works aren't. Have you stripped a gearbox? Fitted new Pistons, or a new head? I have, and its incredibly detailed and intense work.

Yes, but how often do mechanics do that these days? 99% of the time the answer is to replace the failed part with a new one, and that's just spanner monkeying.

[Old Hack]

Yes, but how often do mechanics do that these days? 99% of the time the answer is to replace the failed part with a new one, and that's just spanner monkeying.

Agreed, to a degree. But what when a gear needs replacing? Or the head needs to come off? There's spanner monkeying, and theres engineering. Some mechanics are rightfully called engineers. It's not an easy thing to do, take an engine apart and then put it back together again. I still have to label every single screw, nut, bolt, cable when I do anything remotely interesting in an engine. These guys do it almost with their eyes closed.