Oh and by the way, the last time I looked at residuals, the SEAT Alhambra had the highest residuals in its class - higher than the Sharan or Galaxy too!
Cheers,
Craig.
[Edited on 23/9/2005 by craig1410]
Hi,
Am I alone in thinking that £520 is quite a lot of money to be expected to pay to give a Seat Alhambra 1.9tdi PD SE a 40k mile service including a
cambelt and tensioner? This breaks down as £210 for the service and £310 for the cambelt change.
I may be over-reacting but this is the first time I have had to pay for a timing belt to be done as I have always done them myself. However, one look
inside the Alhambra engine bay and suddenly I don't fancy it... I'm also keen to stick with my local Seat dealer (Bickets) since they are
very well regarded. Do you think there may be some room for negotiation here or do dealers tend to stick to their guns?
Cheers,
Craig.
in 1998 mazda quoted the service for a 323 v6 inc cam belt as 520 quid.
my dad had a cam belt done on a s reg mondeo and that was 220 quid.
atb
steve
It still only takes around 2 mins too change a cam belt, unfortunately these days its the hours spent getting too it in the first place that rack up the cost, and main dealer labour rates aren't cheap, somewhere under the bonnet of my vw transporter van is an engine, cant see it though, if i had too service it regular i think id'e change jobs.
Try a VAG dealership for a comparason
i have a laguna that has a very capacious bonnet area. however, i too have never seen the engine. its buried under lots of bits of plastic trim!
atb
steve
I here what your saying Steve, but this is well hidden, i know its there cos i can here it running but apart from oil change and top up it looks grim, good job there reliable.
I phoned a Daihatsu dealer for a price for new brake pads £47 + vat new discs £77 + vat each. there tiny pads and discs I wonder where they get there
prices from.
I ended up getting pads for £7 and discs for £15 each from maccess. Bloody rip off
Craig,
I know someone who works in the office at Bickets, you want me to have a word to see if one of the lads will do it in their own time?
cheers
Colin
I had a fully service on my nissan navara done recently. Included all belts and tensioner, and the usual extras.
Just shy of £300, thats replacing everything they could ever possibly replace covered by the service.
Usually i'd service it myself, but i want the nissan service history.
quote:
Originally posted by Mark Allanson
Try a VAG dealership for a comparason
It cost me £675 for a service and cam belt change on my Golf GtTdiPD 150. this has to be done every 60K.
Audi and even more expensive! VAG cars use the same parts but you pay more because of your cars badge.
I read some where that Audi has varying scale of labour charges for the model of car say A3= £40/hour, A4= £50/hour etc,etc.
A rip off but we all keep paying.
Ditch
I'd try to barter the price down a bit,everyone does it with me.
It does normally work if your hard faced enough.
Cheers,
Bob
Thanks for the replies everyone, it looks like this sort of price isn't entirely out of the ordinary.
So, I've bitten the bullet and booked the car in for next week to get it done - I'm fed up fretting about it!
Colin, thanks for offering to speak to Bickets but I had already booked it in before I read your posting and I would hate to get anyone into trouble
at the dealership as they seem to be a nice bunch. I'm getting a courtesy car for the day as well which is essential for me to avoid having to
take time off work. Maybe I should have tried them for a discount or maybe even an attractive trade-in...
Anyway, thanks again everyone for the advice.
Craig.
Sounds OK
Even the cheapest back street cowboys will charge £125 for an Escort or Rover belt job.
Main dealers have a massive investment in training and diagnostic equipment trouble is most manufacturers use this as an excuse to keep close control
of the electronic diagnostic codes. However VAG cars are much better provided for by cheaper OBD diagnostic tools than any other manufacturer, if I
owned a recent VAG car I would invest in a copy of VAG-COM and a suitable interface. It wll do almost everything the dealer electronic diagnostic
machine will do.
see http://www.onboarddiagnostics.co.uk/
i've just had a bearing replaced on my 3 year old vectra and that was £300 at main dealers rant rant rant
quote:
Originally posted by serendipity123
i've just had a bearing replaced on my 3 year old vectra and that was £300 at main dealers rant rant rant
My most shocking quote £242 for a spark plug change on my Merc C240 Twinspark
[Edited on 22/9/05 by Lotusmark2]
A mate put off getting the cam belt done on his Puma, finally booked it in and guess what, it went on the way to the garage. Cost him best part of a
grand to get the engine rebuilt.
My worst service so far has been on my company Audi A4 TDi at 60,000 miles.
New brake discs and pads all round, 4 new tyres, cam belt change, fluid change, brakes bled, service and a few minor faults £1,200!!!!
Stick with the Seat mate.
Mike
Servicing is expensive especially when cambelts are involved. I used to take my fiesta to the dealers to keep my warranty and stamp up even though
im a mechanic. They stung me 250 quid for a 30k service which had no faults. It never went back... The time before that they wrang me and said it
needed a rear wiper and a tyre and they wanted 120 quid just for that. They didnt do it.
520 is quite reasonable for one of them. Im sure galaxies and sharans would be more at there respective dealers.
Ah makes me miss my old f150 with 300k miles on it. Engine never cracked open original everything other an a carb service . Only problem was
ripping driveshaft bearing out a couple of times. 300ci straight six absouloutly bullit proof. I hate newer cars but they are a nessessity.
Dale
i dont understand why cars dont use good old fashioned chain drive. might be a bit noisier, but gernrally they made more noise as they got older, and
seemed a lot less likely to snap without warning.
atb
steve
I payed around £600 for my last major service for my puma. This included all fluids and filters, rear bushes (poly), cambelt and aux belt change,
gearbox oil seal, brake fluid system vac and new fluid and bleed. So no I'd say £520 is not too bad, cambelt services are just expensive I'm
affraid!
Quite a few people at work have VAG cars (mostly Audis) and every time they take them in to a dealer they seem to want to changed the disks and pads.
I've checked them before and they've been fine. They charge £400 for the job too! Obviously trying to make a quick and easy buck.
Mackie,
On the subject of changing brake pads/discs, my car needed rear brake pads shortly after its last service. The guy who did the service did an advisory
that they would only last about 5000 miles after the service and sure enough the onboard computer started to warn me after 6000 miles that they needed
done. I fully expected their quote to be too high and expected to be doing the work myself but to my surprise they only charged something like £45
which seemed pretty fair.
Overall I am very impressed with Bickets and compared with my experience of Arnold Clark they are much much more friendly and helpful (and competent).
Very much "of the old school" when it comes to customer care. I also think that Seat cars in general seem to be much better value for money
than the competition without sacrificing quality.
Cheers,
Craig.
quote:
I also think that Seat cars in general seem to be much better value for money than the competition without sacrificing quality.
Seat and Skoda bodywork and interiors don't stand up to years of use the way VW and Audis do -- as a direct result they have much lower residuals than VW or Audi. Before buying a new car it is worth visiting a couple of car auctions to see how vehicles age and what dealers think of them. VW, Audi, Honda, Toyota, Mazda 323 , Volvo are liked by the dealers because they stand up to wear and tear, Fiat, Seat, Skoda Vauxhall, Renualt are at the bottom of the pile because dealers know they will generally cost money to prepare for resale. While Nissan Almerias are cheap at auctionbecause they have taken over the market niche that used to be held by the Montego -- not that bad but the image is dreadful dull boring.
I can't speak for Skoda's but the Seat's that I have seen have many of the same interior parts as the VW/Audi equivalents and the
bodywork is of equivalent quality. To be honest I would say that your comments may have been true 5 years ago but Seat (and probably Skoda too) have
come a long way in the last few years in terms of quality and in my opinion the only reason for the difference in price is branding and image which do
not interest me in the slightest. In fact I prefer the sportier image of the Seat compared to the VW or Audi. Having said that, I couldn't see
myself buying a Skoda because someone might mistake me for a Taxi...
Oh and by the way, the last time I looked at residuals, the SEAT Alhambra had the highest residuals in its class - higher than the Sharan or Galaxy
too!
Cheers,
Craig.
[Edited on 23/9/2005 by craig1410]
quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
snip
Oh and by the way, the last time I looked at residuals, the SEAT Alhambra had the highest residuals in its class - higher than the Sharan or Galaxy too!
Cheers,
Craig.
[Edited on 23/9/2005 by craig1410]
Yeah say that perhaps the longevity of seats of the last generation may be questionable but if you were plonked in a 2000+ seat leon then a golf
you'd be hard pressed tell the difference (as long as the marques badge was removed from the steering wheel 
) also after inspection of a few
high end audi's in the company car park the leather seats are one and the same.
Still im happy i paid less than for the equivilent golf
Is it just me or is a cambelt change at 40k a bit early. Is that normal for diesels, petrols are usually about 72k or 60k at the earliest. What's
the difference?
Some of these prices are astounding, if I was chopping in the tvr for a normal car I'd be tempted to keep it.
Hondas are only changed at at 96K
Hi,
Some of the belts on later ford zetec engines are changed at 100,000 miles.
As for the cost of replacing the belt on the alhambra you've answered your own question, because you can't even see where it is!!, it's
a B***ard of a job.
£520 for a service and cambelt at a main agent sounds like a good deal to me.
David
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Only because it starts out cheaper than the almost identical Sharan/Galaxy which are built on the same production line a drop of 62+% off the purchase price in 3 years is hardly good.