Servicing / Repairing The Car

I took the Fiat for a service recently. I used to go to a local dealership in Hounslow, which this time seemed reluctant to answer the phone, so I drove by and found it deserted (the Internet was quite sure it was still open). I found out later that Fiat pulled the franchise. So off to an enormous place on an industrial estate off the Great West Road I went. When it was over, they muttered something about oil leaks and a rusty exhaust bracket. There was a list of work that needed doing, one of which was the timing belt, and some of the others were "stuff happens" fixes. Then there was £350 under "oil leak". That was for the investigation, not the repair. The repair would probably cost a lot, said the counter staff, not worth doing, assuming that I appreciated as well as they did the age (10 y/o) and near-zero trade-in value of the car.

I went looking for a second opinion at the local garage that does my MoT. The local mechanic found the leak within two minutes of putting the car on the lift, and his indicative price had way less overhead in it.(*)

For the kind of supermini / hatchback I drive, a low-ish mileage four year-old costs around £10,000, and should have ten years in it. I'm not one for driving massive mileages. My decision amount using the one-quarter rule (**) is £2,500 for the remaining life of my current car. That's for exceptional repairs, not stuff on the service schedule or consumables like brake pads and tyres.

I went through the list of things on the service sheet, picked the important ones, and asked the local garage to do them. The bill is going to be around £1,000, which is way cheaper than a replacement, and leaves some over for the next few years.

I got this car cheap (and it turned out to be cheap for a reason) and have put about £1,000 into it for exceptional repairs so far. The total is still way less than a "good" one would have been, so if these repairs simply carry on the programme of bringing it back up to standard(!), I'm fine.



(*) Main dealers charge more partly because they have way more overheads than your local garage. Those overheads include the nice people at Service Reception, and reassuring paperwork. Not everyone feels confident talking to mechanics first-hand while standing in a workshop. So they pay for the comfort of dealing with Service Reception staff.

(**) See next post