Just been quoted £300 to fit springs!

[omeydz]

When I've done the work myself it is a fair bit of work so I understand why I got a bargain then and higher prices are justified.. maybe not £300 though 

[r5gtt]

300 is just being silly and dealer pricing. some price high as they don't want to do the job and it frightens the customer away  silly but that's what a few garage owners have told me in the past.

A full GEO costs £60 that's four wheel alignment

[AJP]

300 is just being silly and dealer pricing. some price high as they don't want to do the job and it frightens the customer away  silly but that's what a few garage owners have told me in the past.

A full GEO costs £60 that's four wheel alignment

Known in the trade as a F*** Off quote I believe.

[r5gtt]

300 is just being silly and dealer pricing. some price high as they don't want to do the job and it frightens the customer away  silly but that's what a few garage owners have told me in the past.

A full GEO costs £60 that's four wheel alignment

Known in the trade as a F*** Off quote I believe.

That's the one mate 

[shail]

300 is just being silly and dealer pricing. some price high as they don't want to do the job and it frightens the customer away  silly but that's what a few garage owners have told me in the past.

A full GEO costs £60 that's four wheel alignment

Known in the trade as a F*** Off quote I believe.

Yep - I got that feeling.  The owner was not there, but I spoke to one of the mechanics. 

Shame really as they are a local VW specialist staffed by ex-Audi techs, and I'm looking to stop getting my services from the main dealer from now on, and was hoping to use them.  Might think twice now!

[AJP]

300 is just being silly and dealer pricing. some price high as they don't want to do the job and it frightens the customer away  silly but that's what a few garage owners have told me in the past.

A full GEO costs £60 that's four wheel alignment

Known in the trade as a F*** Off quote I believe.

Yep - I got that feeling.  The owner was not there, but I spoke to one of the mechanics. 

Shame really as they are a local VW specialist staffed by ex-Audi techs, and I'm looking to stop getting my services from the main dealer from now on, and was hoping to use them.  Might think twice now!

There are plenty of places like that unfortunately. For example near me there's 'Audi ****' (I've left his name out to avoid being slanderous) who is an ex Audi tech, very good with older Audis etc, his prices are just ridiculous. I guess some people don't mind paying silly money though - he's been in business for a while.

Then there's one place in Nottingham that apparently specialises in older 16v VW stuff. The owner is highly regarded in the classic VW scene, big on some of the forums and all the rest of it, yet after dealing with them a couple of times it seems clear they're in it for the money. I might have just had a bad experience, but I won't be going again to test that theory.

Finding somewhere competent, honest and affordable is the majority of the battle won!

[r5gtt]

Sorry to hear that AJP we all struggle to find competent and affordable garages even I a mechanic can't seem to find one who can actually do the job correctly. My tt for example; rear trailing arm replacement and alignment done by my self four years back and then again by a garage in east London who are always busy yet didn't even put the alignment back to its former position or at least close enough and I had to explain that it's a four wheel drive and had independent suspension  so I had to do it with their assistance although I could well of done it myself as I'm competent enough to carry out such work on my own lol
It wasn't even the money £100 just the fact that they fu**** up my alignment 

[AJP]

Luckily now I'm in the mk5 it's no problem finding reliable places. I use Statller in Sheffield and they're as good as it gets, and affordable.

I think my problems came from having a bit of an oddball car that not many places were too familiar with. Even though they'd give you the impression that they were and create lots of work without actually fixing or even acknowledging the problem!

Anyway, that's history now. Lesson learnt.

[r5gtt]

Odd ball car? I've had many odd ball cars  renault gt turbo's fiat uno turbo audi tt   

[AJP]

Yeah it was a b4 Audi Coupe with the 2.0 16v (ACE engine code). It wasn't the engine itself that was the problem, more that the management was only used on the ACE and 9a (Corrado 16v), and the Audi 6a.

The ABF came along soon after, was better in every department, so the older 2.0 16v lumps only now really get used to bump a KR up to 2.0, keeping the better KR head and cams and older (but more familiar) k-jetronic rather than the oddball ke-motronic that was around for a couple of years before the digifant ABF.

[r5gtt]

Yeah it was a b4 Audi Coupe with the 2.0 16v (ACE engine code). It wasn't the engine itself that was the problem, more that the management was only used on the ACE and 9a (Corrado 16v), and the Audi 6a.

The ABF came along soon after, was better in every department, so the older 2.0 16v lumps only now really get used to bump a KR up to 2.0, keeping the better KR head and cams and older (but more familiar) k-jetronic rather than the oddball ke-motronic that was around for a couple of years before the digifant ABF.

Oh right loo proper odd ball  I've just found an old acquaintance who has just recently aquired his own garage si things should be okay for me now as this guy knows his stuff around ant car and the other guy knows his electrics