Non Lotus Main Dealers - Charlatans!

[C8RKH]

So, wife took her Skoda Karoq in for a service - 2.5 years old, 28k on the clock.

You need new front brake discs and pads said the dealer. That'll be £580.

Thanks, but I'll speak to my husband first says she.

I call up a local independent garage to get a quote. Small village. Middle of nowhere. But a great reputation.

Yeah, I can do that. £280 all in (under half the price).

OK. I'll book it in. Whilst there, it'll need its first MOT. OK?

 

So take car in yesterday. MOT done and call back from the garage. Nothing wrong with your brakes and pads. Plenty of life left in them. Some rust scoring on side of discs, but nothing to worry about it, so I didn't do anything with them.

 

What utter bollocks from the main dealer. I'm considering taking the car to an independent inspector to get the brakes checked, and then if OK, going to Trading Standards with a formal complaint, writing to the dealers CEO at Head Office with a formal complaint, and also writing to Skoda UK re "sharp practices" from their dealers as a cause of me never again buying one of their cars.

Overkill?

Usual for this to happen?

[jep]

Sharp practice and very common. Brakes is a prime target for main dealers to scare folk. 

Most car owners have no idea that discs last min 40,000 miles and more likely near 70,000+, depending on if car lives outside, road conditions (salt etc), car weight and other factors. 

My sports cars rarely need discs. Evora did 68,000 miles, McLaren still on originals at 43,000, which included many miles on autobahns.

I had discs on the Suzuki this year at 50,000 but only because a pad fell out and damaged one at the rear. Fronts still original. 

Justin 

[exeterjeep]

46 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

wife took her Skoda Karoq in for a service

think sometimes they try to scam a female into extra work, sort of causes a mild panic so they agree without really thinking about it. My wife's father was a service manager of a BL then Peugeot dealer, so she would not stand for this sort of treatment.

Did you get the car from them originally?

Thought that these days this had reduced as it is easy to leave reviews about this sort of thing for others to see.

[C8RKH]

25 minutes ago, exeterjeep said:

Did you get the car from them originally?

Yup. Bought it new from them and always had it serviced by them. Hence why I am thinking of writing a stinking letter and getting trading standards involved.

[Chillidoggy]

Do it.

 

[tomcattom]

This doesn't surprise me in the least. Vauxhall pulled this stunt every year with my wife's Corsa and she'd always check with me before authorising the garage to do any work.

First time they tried it on saying the brakes needed doing was at the first MOT following an advisory. I measured the pads after she came home and found just shy of 70% of the meat left on the pads.

We stopped using the main stealer once the 10 year 100k warranty ended. Yes I know we didn't have to use them but if it needed any warranty work (which it did) we wanted to leave them nowhere to hide if they were the only people to ever service it.

 

[2GOOD]

I work at a main dealer, where we try to be more like your independent although sometimes you can’t win, but our service receptionists are pretty good.

Reason for posting though if you’ve got a valid complaint leave a google review, give plenty of valid info. Two of the brands we’re involved with go nuts over them.

[Frickin_idiot]

Put in the letter to head office. Until these dealerships are brought into line they will continue along the same path.

[jep]

And in support of a main dealer, Bell and Colvill would never behave as this Skoda dealer has. 

There are some good ones out there (Birmingham McLaren too) but it's rare. 

My local Suzuki dealer seems ok but when I tried to book a service this year, they had an 8 week lead time. I went to my independent instead. Probably just as well, it needed quite a few jobs, so I saved a bob. Or two.

Justin 

[MPx]

I've used JLR main dealers in the past until I'd worked around the 3 nearest me in the south west.  I kept going until I caught them out in a lie.  Once the trust has gone there's no second chance. So Matford Exeter; then Yeovil; then Taunton.  Being JLR my cars also broke when away from home - a proper try on by Stratstones Solihull who tried to tell me I needed over £4k of work doing on something I'd just paid Matford to do 3 months earlier.  Obvs I got Matford involved and that work miraculously was no longer required and the problem solved by replacing a split pipe.   Similarly a much more trivial try on on parts from Syntner Coventry meant they are also forever blacked.  Fortunately I also found a good indie locally (now sadly ceased trading) an OK one that I used for three years but was never quite comfortable with, and now a wonderful indie about 90 miles away in Gloucestershire.   Its transformative when you get to speak to the person doing the work who clearly knows what they're doing and you get to see the bits they're talking about. 

When Fs Suzuki went end of life Exeter Suzuki who'd looked after it for a decade claimed it would cost over £4k to get it through an MOT so not financially viable - but they'd help us out and take it off our hands for £200 if I bought a new one off them.  So I trailered it to a local 4x4 specialist.  It did indeed need work for the MoT - cost me £400 and we ran it for another 6 months until the new i3 we ordered turned up.  Then sold it through Motorway for £2700.

Its a damning indictment on the industry that I not only have to deal with the garages for our cars, but also for most of the single women in the family circle (Mum, sister-in-law, family friend) because they have learnt that they can't trust anything they're told and are very likely to get ripped off.  So am I of course, so its not purely mysogynistic but that side just makes it worse.

Moral of the story...if you can find a proper engineer/mechanic who loves his cars then treat him well ...

 

[Escape]

I'm not surprised either. Stories like that are very common, unfortunately especially for women it seems. And brakes are definitely the thing. The wife of a good friend had a similar experience with her BMW, we did end up changing the pads but just for her piece of mind, they would easily have lasted another year. Another mate who now works for an independent VAG garage told me yesterday brakes are their most profitable work.

As above, name and shame them and contact their brand office, so they learn they can't keep getting away with it.

[Cdm2018]

My Evora was given advisory at last MOT that my rear discs and pads needs changing only been on the car for two years. I trust my lotus dealer is telling me it’s true and accurate 

I know my car lives outside and so it impacted by weather and maybe as I don’t drive it everyday maybe factor but my braking is very gentle so wear be minimum ? 
anyway I get them changed in the next couple of months before next MOT 

[Dan E]

Had this only last Friday, the week previous I had taken the Evora in for an MOT at the local Kwik Fit, used them for years for MOT's , know most of guys in there and never had a problem. 

On the way back I suddenly thought, we have had the wife's i3 for quite a while better check when its MOT is due. Got home checked and it had run out on the 29th Dec 🫣! Luckily we managed to get away with it!! Lucky really. 

Couldn't get it in the local Kwik Fit, so had to book it into the Lewisham branch, obvs it passed (emissions were a close run thing 😀) but they said she needed four new tyres (its only done 6k miles) due to the side walls cracking. Obviously this put Commander into a panic, so i said just drive home slowly and i will have a look.

She got home, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the tyres and I double checked this when it went in for its service, Monday just gone, with our local independent BMW specialist who we have used for 20 years, they confirmed absolutely nothing wrong with them.  They are about £130 a tyre!! 

[Chillidoggy]

As it happens, sidewall cracking/perishing is an advisory, not an MOT failure. It's been listed on an acquaintance's car for about 3 years now. 

[Dan E]

they put it down as an advisory but there is absolutely no cracking or perishing!! 

[jep]

https://www.gov.uk/mot-reminder

@Dan E this is useful for MOT reminders. 

 

[Dan E]

funnily enough I have now set that up for all the cars

[ChrisJ]

Main dealer told me my Peugeot tyres needed replacing offered to do it at £100 a corner. Looked up the price and they were £20 ish each from Blackcircles. I had a Premium brand on the car (Goodyear) at the time and asked him why were they not offering to change for another premium brand, or even Michelin which was what the car was specified with - he didn't really understand my point. They got a 4 on the customer survey and I was called by the Dealer Principal on that one.

Another time, same customer agent, I fell for the water in the brake fluid, so had it changed for around £40. Car had to go back in 3 months later for more work. Was advised I had water in the brake fluid. That was another 4 from me. Citroen/Peugeot called me this time.

I like Peugeot/Citroen cars, but would never deal with that main dealer again.

[exeterjeep]

I have an access database and each time I start my pc it displays the cars in next MOT order and when it comes up to be within 30 days  my program comes up with a message box etc. (A VB6 program what I wrote.)

12 minutes ago, Dan E said:

funnily enough I have now set that up for all the cars

 

[Bibs]

1 hour ago, Cdm2018 said:

My Evora was given advisory at last MOT that my rear discs and pads needs changing only been on the car for two years. I trust my lotus dealer is telling me it’s true and accurate 

It's an advisory. Ask someone who knows about these things to take a look and some measurements, then you'll know if they'll need changing. 

[C8RKH]

On 21/02/2024 at 12:37, Chillidoggy said:

Do it.

 

I'm assuming that if there was an issue and the discs/pads did need to be replaced then the MOT would have picked this up, at least as an advisory? Or not?

Sorry - I really am that clueless when it comes to mechanical things.

[exeterjeep]

1 minute ago, C8RKH said:

I'm assuming that if there was an issue and the discs/pads did need to be replaced then the MOT would have picked this up, at least as an advisory? Or not?

This has usually been my experience,  but just last month the M100 had its MOT, no advisory, but a comment on the worksheet/invoice saying the pads would need changing before the next service.

Have often seen comments such as pads at 50% or whatever on the service list - think this is just to give the impression that someone has actually looked?

[Chillidoggy]

15 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

I'm assuming that if there was an issue and the discs/pads did need to be replaced then the MOT would have picked this up, at least as an advisory? Or not?

Sorry - I really am that clueless when it comes to mechanical things.

It’s well worth taking a gander at the MOT tester’s manual (online on the DVLA website), it lists what testers should look for and, I think, what constitutes a fail. Of course, it can be subjective, but the guidelines try to remove the human element. Yes, if the tester considers the discs/pads are goosed, they would fail. 

[Painterdave]

Don't go to Kwik fit 

[C8RKH]

For what. MOT, brakes, or both?

Edited February 24 by Bravo73