Reply to: When the garage guy you phoned starts "Are you sitting down?"

[AtW]

By coincidence the seller is a girl. But I hope you won't be offended if I wait for a second opinion

Here is the second opinion worth reading, posted by our own DimPrawn

HTH

[OwlHoot]

SLK is a girlie car.

HTH

By coincidence the seller is a girl. But I hope you won't be offended if I wait for a second opinion (which doesn't include a reply from you saying "I've thought about it some more, and it's still a girlie car" )

[AtW]

SLK is a girlie car.

HTH

[OwlHoot]

Take it to another garage.

If that doesn't work, sell it and BUY A GERMAN CAR.

Costs just as much to fix, but makes you feel good about yourself.

Funny you should say that, because a friend phoned only today saying their car was for sale.

It's a 2004 Mercedes SLK 200, 1800cc with only 54K on the clock, and the "new" shape whatever that is, and they're asking £8000.

Sound like a good buy?

Apparently Jeremy Clarkson drives one, although his has a larger engine.

P.S. The only snag is that it's a two-seater, whereas I would prefer four. Also I'm not very keen on silver.

[DimPrawn]

oil and filter service 347 - National Tyres and Autocare - Oil - Vehicle select
front brakes & caliper 849 - way too much, a lot of that is probably labour but still, max £300 at a garage IMHO, I would go to a tyre and exhaust place who will do it for a fixed price (if it really needs doing)

rear exhaust boxes 371 - A quick online search tells me these are from £50 each, so 271 to fit them is daylight robbery for a 15 minute job. Try some tyre and exahust places or buy then and get a garage to fit them for circa £50, all in all this should be no more than £175

NSF mirror cover 160, from a breakers in the right colour probably a tenner

sub total 1727

I'd say £500 all in is the maximum for these jobs, I'd get it done for £300 or less if it were my car

Bagpuss is one the right track.

If your brakes are shot take it to a brake specialist, probably cheapest fix.

Exhaust, shop around local exhuast specialists and get cheapest quote.

Online breakers will post you any bits you need then get quotes to fit from cheap independent garages.


Once it is sorted, flog the bloody thing!


Don't buy tulipty British/Indian cars!

[Bagpuss]

oil and filter service 347 - National Tyres and Autocare - Oil - Vehicle select
front brakes & caliper 849 - way too much, a lot of that is probably labour but still, max £300 at a garage IMHO, I would go to a tyre and exhaust place who will do it for a fixed price (if it really needs doing)

rear exhaust boxes 371 - A quick online search tells me these are from £50 each, so 271 to fit them is daylight robbery for a 15 minute job. Try some tyre and exahust places or buy then and get a garage to fit them for circa £50, all in all this should be no more than £175

NSF mirror cover 160, from a breakers in the right colour probably a tenner

sub total 1727

I'd say £500 all in is the maximum for these jobs, I'd get it done for £300 or less if it were my car

[VectraMan]

I do everything myself these days, up to a point anyway. It's much more rewarding, kind of a hobby, means I don't have to arse about trying to get to garages in the week whilst working, and of course it's much cheaper. Having said that, I've just rebuilt my front calipers having had the same sort of issues OwlHoot was saying and screwed up bleeding the system so now it's full of air and I have no brakes.

Dealers are only worth it if you're obsessed with keeping the service history, and once a car gets to a certain age and mileage there's little point. Even on a new car you have to question whether the cost of the dealer service outweighs the amount you'd lose on resale through not having a service history.

[lilelvis2000]

As long as I've owned cars - I only have every taken it to the dealer to sort out problems on warrenty. Regular maintenence has always gone to the "guy and his dog". Aside from the one time when he wanted to replace the head..but its always worth getting a second opinion for big jobs.

Best mechanic I ever had was a 5ft tall Italian chap in Winnipeg. Have yet to find anyone as good as him.

[Sysman]

As the garage (Marshall Jaguar, Cambridge) seems to have an associated Jaguar dealership, I wondered if they aren't exaggerating the problems and expense to steer me towards buying a new one from them; but in fairness, they haven't broached that subject, and the guy seemed fairly honest and forthright.

Marshall are a big company though - They have a large industrial site there, and deal with several different kinds of cars and trucks. So I wonder if they are charging the equivalent of "large IT consultancy" fees as opposed to what I would be paying some one man and his dog outfit.

You have got it in one. Don't forget that their fancy showrooms cost a lot to run: try adding up the cost of all the cars both in the showroom and on the forecourt to get an idea of the capital they have tied up. Those diagnostic machines they plug into cars run into tens of thousands apiece as well.

You end up paying for quite an infrastructure that the one man and his dog outfit doesn't have.

[stek]

Real contractors get a crappy old bus for 125 quid with a 12 month ticket, use it and abuse it, and get another knowing it will fail the MOT.

Rover 825's, Old Pugs, OP's old jag for 250 after he's spent 3k on it...

Strike me down dead if I ever buy a Subaru tho - Chav-mobile. I've had seven Alfa's, only one was tulip, cheap, reliable (they are!) the 166 is solid, luxury, 3.0 Busso is the best mass-produced engine ever made, you get a near Ferrari, for Mundano prices.

[Sysman]

Actually I think you'll find that LPG is recognised as being less efficient than petrol / diesel. I think I was quoted a 20% difference.

It still does work out cheaper though.

I had a dual petrol/LPG Beemer many years ago and it depended how much I thrashed it.

15% less efficient was the rule of thumb I was given. In practice I'd use petrol when I was in a hurry so would floor it more. About equal consumption with that mix.

[AtW]

Marshalls are expensive, they used to service my RangeRovers.

How much is a service on a Range Rover, and how costly are repairs?

[Clippy]

About 10yrs ago I owned a Mitsubishi.

My local Mitsubishi dealer would charge me a fortune for servicing so I phoned around other dealers in the area.

Found one about 20 miles away who charged significantly less and, luckily, was within my fathers business' area.

I'd book the car in, the dealer would collect it, service it and return by the end of the day and I was quids in.

Not sure about nowadays with the cost of everything so high but perhaps worth calling another dealer in the area for a comparative quote.

Similarly, I've heard of a few examples where some VW/Audi owners get their car serviced from Skoda dealers - they're part of the VAG group so the service is to the same standard but cheaper.

[OwlHoot]

Why does the caliper need changing?

Are all those prices +VAT ?

Because intermittently, when I go round a bend and apply the brake it starts chirping like a demented grasshopper.

Also every now and then, on the motorway the car starts juddering and the steering wheel rhythmically shaking and pulling slightly to the left.

Last time that happened, with my previous Jag, it got worse and worse until it refused to steer straight, and doing 80 on the M3 it suddenly steered me across two lanes onto the hard shoulder. Luckily I had the presence of mind to brake at the same time, or or I'd have been going round in circles like the Bismarck after being torpedoed.

[Churchill]

That's what I reckon too (if you include XJ6s in XJSs).

Admittedly my first XJ6 could be fairly described as a "rot box". The suspension was knackered for a start, and it felt like driving around in a bouncy old armchair, not that I knew any better at the time as I thought that was just how a Jag normally was!

But there's no sign of rust on my current car, as far as I can see - Open the bonnet and it looks sleek and new(ish), no horrible crumbly dodgy looking nooks and crannies etc with bits falling off (apart from the exhaust it seems). So I reckon it has a good two or three years with care and attention, which is why this huge estimate was such a surprise.

As the garage (Marshall Jaguar, Cambridge) seems to have an associated Jaguar dealership, I wondered if they aren't exaggerating the problems and expense to steer me towards buying a new one from them; but in fairness, they haven't broached that subject, and the guy seemed fairly honest and forthright.

Marshall are a big company though - They have a large industrial site there, and deal with several different kinds of cars and trucks. So I wonder if they are charging the equivalent of "large IT consultancy" fees as opposed to what I would be paying some one man and his dog outfit.

Marshalls are expensive, they used to service my RangeRovers.