What was your biggest car bill rip off?

R

rob davey

Active member
 Cookham, Berkshire
I'm in a bad mood today so thought I’d start a topic off along the lines of "those feckers ripped me off, pulled my pants down and robbed me in broad daylight"

What’s the worst experience you've had on spending relatively vast amounts of money on a simple cheap job?

For my z4 this was mine

It’s mot time my rear tyres are a bit bald and the night before I rush to put my spare set of alloys on in the dark to make sure she's passes. Now the catch
"Mr Davey your car failed the mot as your front tyres are directional and on the wrong side left to right, we can quickly swap them over if you like while its on the ramp getting its service then it can be signed off" jolly good I thought

And the catch, a £40 bill for swapping the two wheels while it’s already in the air having a full service! I only pay the AA £32 a year to come and change a frigging tyre or fix the car anywhere in the country whenever I need it night or day!!!! Feckers

Now worse for my old Supra

I had a pinging noise coming from the rear offside under acceleration. So there began the trial and error of Toyota trying to fix it. Not being able to find the source they told me to brace myself for a hefty bill. A few days in the garage, a new drive shaft, new bearings and £900 later it was still there, they decided the wheel must have a hairline fracture causing the metallic ping. The wheel gets sent off to be examined.

And the catch “Mr Davey we took the tyre off the rim and it seems the value nut was loose causing the ping, so we tightened it and put the tyre back on” £900 for a £1 valve. FECKERS!!

So come on, whats yours? Give me a laugh at someone elses expense :fuelfire:
 
Hmm my mate owns a garage so I hear of loads of stories, i.e customer comes to him after being told 'XZY' problem, turns out to be something much less major.

My old Fiat coupe 20vt, previous owner paid Fiat £1433 for a cambelt change, my mates garage does the exact same job for £399. No need to remove the engine as fiat claim.
 
rob davey said:
And the catch “Mr Davey we took the tyre off the rim and it seems the value nut was loose causing the ping, so we tightened it and put the tyre back on” £900 for a £1 valve. FECKERS!!

So come on, whats yours? Give me a laugh at someone elses expense :fuelfire:
Click to expand...

and you paid them the £900 for the mistake THEY made??
 
Anyone who paid list price for an M.... /gets coat and runs :evil:

In all seriousness my biggest mistake was letting BMW change my rear disc brakes and pads... a £150 job becomes a £300+ job and they still needed 3 goes to get the handbrake working right!
 
Water pump failed on my Jeep Wrangler (Sharjah, UAE) - pulled into a local gargae to top up with water to get back to the main delaers. Mechanic comes out - Yes we can quickly fix that! Remainder of coolant drained and radiator refilled. Water pi..es out of the water pump housing - Sorry we can't fix that. And a bill for £400 (must have MUG written across my forehead). After a frank exchange of views and very colourful language handed over the UK equivalent of £10 for the coolant. Slow drive back to the main dealer - new pump and coolant £90. Wherever you are in the world there will be those in the garage trade that will rip you off. Taught me a lesson ASK HOW MUCH IT WILL COST BEFORE YOU LET THEM NEAR YOUR VEHICLE.....
 
Well, when i had my Audi TT 225 Coupe, i had the following on 3 different occasions at the main stealership:-

New dashpod - £750.00
New Turbo - £1500.00
New Engine (after the new turbo was fitted the old one seemed to have spat bits of broken metail into the engine) - £6500.00 !!!

Needless to say, i never paid any of the above, sourced parts from other means and got rid. ..."The biggest pile of German Shi** ever created"...

The last sentence were the actual words from my friend who was a mechanic when he was working on it. I say was, as he had a complete career change after he worked on that car. said it all really........ :D
 
mine was £500 for pre and post cat o2 sensors on a seat ibiza, and all it went in for was an mot as part of a servicing agreement. and to top it of they scuffed a wheel and marked a side skirt, at first they denied it then later offered to have it touched up. in the end i didnt let them go near the car again in the end.
 
My current TT - DSG gearbox went and got a quote off a specialist for a recon of £1900, seemed fair - however, after 14 weeks of waiting as they could not fix it and get it started - it had Audi specialists look at, who gave up on it - then had to get a new metatronics unit - another £1500, plus some extra charges ended up with a bill for just under £4000. Not bad for a firm quote of £1900 for the job! Had only owned the car for 3 months before the gearbox went, found out afterwards that it had been into Audi and the previous owner had been told it needed a new gearbox - Audi quote -£4500.

Have to admit the gearbox is a dream now, but there was a lot of heart ache and stress involved - bought the Z4M whilst the TT was off the road, so it was not all bad news, just need to sell the TT but need to get some of that £4k back.

I was more annoyed at Merc changing the battery in my key fob for £18 plus VAT, without telling me!!!! :x
 
"Diagnostic Fee" need I say more!?

But my biggest rip off... My fuel door was ripped off my old volvo. I still had the door, just the hinge was broke. Charged me $70 to put a new one on. The new part, (which was different from the oem) was only $8.

My... gulp... friend and neighbor, who is a tire manager at a local indy shop, quoted me "High 5's to low 6's" for 2 new rear tires installed. Bridgestones RE050s, the oem tire. So i'm assuming $650 MAX! I get there and he tries charging me $780. Friend or not, we had some words, and i still paid more than TireRack. Ended up being $710. To top it off... they damaged my rim :headbang: I'm still waiting to see what I get for that! :thumbsdown: I'm never going to them again!
 
Booked wifes 911 for a service at main dealer...quoted £550....got a phone call after 2 hrs saying it needed some work....£7.5k..........
I then reminded them it was still under warranty....oh apologies sir, our mistake......
 
Not the biggest in terms of money but in cheek- Diagnostic fee. Brought car in to replace the broken rear springs, they have it for a day and charge me for the privilege of telling me my rear springs are broken
 
I got a good one the other way. Stealer had my X5 in to diagnose a whistle. Tried a few things and could not find it, so we agreed to part at no cost when the diagnosis was to fit a new alternator, but they had just fitted one!!

Dealer then gave me a bill for £100 (can't recall exact figure) for a new V belt explaining that they had swapped it during diagnosis, but forgot to put my old one back and now lost it in the skip. After a short exchange that I welcomed having my old belt refitted, I left with the new belt fitted and free.

Stil they got me back a few months later at £600 for a couple of rear suspension bushes :thumbsdown:
 
I met a chap who paid £2.5k for a service on his Porsche, including £500 for an alternator, which failed on the way home. 'Drop it back, we'll have a look' they said. Got the RAC to fix it. He has a Merc now.

Have to say my local BMW stealer has been good. WhenI had an E46 they warned me antifreeze would be £150 (figure that one out) so I bought a hydrometer for £4.50. And a recent £250 bill was reduced to £75 after they volunteered to claim from BMW as my mileage is low.

The OBC on my TT recently came up saying service due, but it shouldn't as I'm on useage, not date servicing. Phoned where I bought it, no prob, just not set right, drop it in anytime, we'll reset it, or any dealer if they're nearer. Went to nearer one, sorry sir, only way we can check it really is if you (you've guessed it) book it in for a service. I didn't.

Given Inuit's DSG horror story, looks like it'll go before the wrranty expires.
 
Paying for an engine swap on an old ass Audi and having it blow on me on the freeway two months later. 2 grand
 
Just had one with my daughter's Nissan Almera ... failed MOT with broken drivers side headlight ... took to Nissan dealer to sort and was quoted £750 for TWO new headlights as the passenger side had also broken in the day since the MOT!.

Took to local friendly independant who replaced headlights for £80 each and £60 labour and delivered it back home!
 
£61 at an Audi maindealer for 2 new headlamp bulbs on company car was a p*ss take. Most new car manufacturers these days seem to make this sort of things more and more difficult so you have to pay the maindealers. :evil:

Also, £3500 for a head gasket on a Lotus Esprit S4! Thankfully managed to get it done under warranty. The car cost £6000 just to keep it on the road for a year.
The same car had a new clutch fitted at a cost of £900 by a local mechanic who managed to damage the flywheel in the process. This lead to another clutch and new flywheel needed 7 days later. Turned out to be very difficult to prove the blame so ended up footing £2000 the bill. Not been back to that place since!

Needless to say, the car was sold pretty soon afterwards.

L O T U S - Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious. I concur.

:thumbsdown:
 
Sticks said:
The OBC on my TT recently came up saying service due, but it shouldn't as I'm on useage, not date servicing. Phoned where I bought it, no prob, just not set right, drop it in anytime, we'll reset it, or any dealer if they're nearer. Went to nearer one, sorry sir, only way we can check it really is if you (you've guessed it) book it in for a service. I didn't.

Given Inuit's DSG horror story, looks like it'll go before the wrranty expires.
Click to expand...

The gearbox specialist, they do a hugh amount of Audi work, i used reckons the DSG box is good for about around 60- 70K - Went to buy a new TTS auto thing before the M and guess what the warrranty runs out at 60K. Mine has done just over 60,000 miles and was 4 years old. I walked away and would not buy another auto audi, unless it was new and short term.

Whislt we are on rip offs the other way - my SLK needed a new aircon unit/board - 6 months out of its 3 year warranty, after much negotiation got them to agree the reduced price of £400 (actual cost £1500 plus VAT) - got it booked in but they could not get the part in for 3 weeks - so duely booked in - They fixed it and then told me that i would have to pay full price as the offer only had a 14 day completion time. :x On my arrival at Mercs lovely new showroom, which they where having some open day, i stood there and pronouced loudly my dissapointment and became very upset, my display could have won me actress of the year- half an hour later i am driving out with no bill at all. They could not apologise enough whole new air con system and a freebie for my next MOT and service. I had no problem with the £400 it was their own fault for trying to get £1700 out of me.
 
How about this one: accident damage to the front of my car (not the Z4), mechanic looks at it and says £3k and I can have it back in 4 weeks (he is busy) for my driving holiday (12 weeks away). Cost well over £7k and did not get the car back for 7 MONTHS. Every week he would say it will be ready in a few more days... he never touched it for months. The little pikey even stole bits off the car. Needless to say I will never use Peter Gidden of Sbits again! Even when I got the car back it was not finished and things were charged for that were not even done. There are some very iffy traders out there.
 
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