shocks, VW Passat

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Thu 5 Jun 2003 17:44
shocks, VW Passat - martin
have been told by my garage to replace the shocks on my Passat, which does have some serious problems relating to steering wobble, tracking etc. Have been quoted £300 for all four, which considering the milage on my passat (160K) may be a reasonable amount to pay for a wearable part!

what do the BR lot think?

cheers
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Thu 5 Jun 2003 19:48
shocks, VW Passat - Cyd
This is very reasonable - in many respects:
1. If the price includes fitting, snap their arms off
2. How on earth did you get a set of shocks to last 160k??? They have probably been way past their best for a very long time - the standard "bounce" test is almost incapable of finding all but the worst items.
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Thu 5 Jun 2003 21:52
shocks, VW Passat - andymc {P}
I can back up point 2 - one of the things I had done under the approved used warranty a couple of weeks after getting my Passat was to have all four shocks replaced, at just 92k miles. The bushes had already been done by the dealer without me even asking. Ride is still too bouncy/floaty for my taste, but much improved. Very smooth on motorways but only average on B-roads.
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Fri 6 Jun 2003 09:01
shocks, VW Passat - martin
Really, thanks. I thought i may have been riding on borrowed time. I have always relied on the old bounce test, but it is clearly far too simple to reveal real problems.

Yes the £300 figure is at my local and trusted garage here in grenoble France, i think labour costs are lower here anyway, so perhaps the UK price would be considerably more. What would you expect to pay at a decent garage in the UK for 4 shocks with fitting? Not main dealer of course!

cheers again
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Sat 7 Jun 2003 09:17
shocks, VW Passat - martin
After phoning round a few other garages I found the following quote:

Euromaster will change all four shocks and do wheel alignment and balancing for 320euros, which is 200E cheaper than my last quote at Midas. Should I be suspicious of this? Seems odd that prices should fluctuate so wildly from one garage to another.

Euromaster does have a good rep in France however, so perhaps my suspicions are unfounded.

Anyone else experienced such massive price differences for the same job???
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