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I have spent some time today searching round for a price for a mid box, rear box and new cat for a Laguna. I called most of the big name fast fit places and as soon as I mentioned the Cat there was a sharp intake of breath and then the silly quotes started, nearly £300. I always thought fast fit places were generally good value for money, today has changed my views (notice I said good value not cheap). I then called up a motor factors and can get the parts for less the £160 inc vat, my local friendly garage will fit them for £35, not a bad saving of £100 just by using a local garage. Was also amazed at how many did not want to quote unless they could see the car, even though I knew exactly what it needed, do they really think we are all that foolish!!! Even their tyres arent that cheap at the moment!!!!
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I always use my local independant fast-fit place. Prices always seem fair, and the fuel I save not going elsewere (they are only 200 yards down the road) makes up the difference.
They always seem busy, so they can't be charging seriously over the top prices.
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Most of the big national fast-fit chains are not actually that cheap. A lot of people just 'assume' they are and don't bother shopping around.
Certainly the big tyre & exhaust chains can be undercut by local/regional outlets.
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I agree. I recently bought 4 new tyres for my Range Rover from a company on the internet and together with the fitting cost at my local, I still saved around £80.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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I was quoted a tadge over £200 per tyre for my XC90 by a local 'national' tyre depot.
It would pay to shop around, clearly. Does anyone know if tyres for 4X4s are cheaper to buy in France? Might be worth chunking a few in the back on the next booze cruise if they are.
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Good idea, two tyres in the boot and fill up the middle with bottles of wine - stops them knocking about!
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Dad bought 2 tyres for the Bentley in Poland once - cost £7 for the two, fitted to the wheels. Handy if you're going there anyway....
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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Forget the tyres from France idea - they are very expensive here compared with the UK.
'Free' fitting etc is almost unheard of as well, you normally get caught separately for fitting, balance, valve and anything else they can think of, the VAT (TVA) is also higher than in the UK.
Alignment checks and adjustments seem to be relatively expensive as well.
As in the UK, it seems that local independents are often cheaper than the national fast-fit chains.
I try to tie in my needs for tyres with my occasional UK visits. Dorset Discount Tyres at Winterbourne Abbas (on the A35 west of Dorchester) is the best - and cheapest - firm I have ever dealt with and still worth a 500-mile drive!
The tyre price thing is just one more example of the fact that only drink, fags (just) and houses (just) are still cheaper in France than in the UK. Most things are actually dearer over here - even new car prices seem to be pretty much nip and tuck with the UK these days, although depreciation is slower.
Luckily it's still a fantastic and friendly place to live...
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I've always had good service from these FastFit type of places, and I refer mainly to the 'main players' here. Their premises seem to be clean and tidy, with the Staff generally being there year after year. So I guess it can very much be a 'luck of the draw' thing when it comes down to it, since any outlet is only as good as it's Staff.
You must shop around (where possible) and I have been in instances where I've had to pop in to the nearest F/F place to get work done and know that they are taking advantage of my situation - but then most reputable 'big name companies' offer a 'price match guaruntee' (sp?) on any work they do - so you really are protected.
As long as the job appears to be done competantly and they do not shirk from 'showing me' what they are doing/have done/will do I am happy for them to do the work.
Talking about value for money, I recently bought a complete set of four (4) Michelin Pilot Sport II tyres (2 x 225/40 for the front and 2 x 255/35 for the rear) FULLY fitted for my wife's 330SE for £355.00 (three hundred and fifty five pounds sterling) as they had an offer going.
It's swings and roundabouts - tehy do have to make a profit somewhere, but the other thing I've found is that no two outlets will stock the same product so product compariason price matching can't be done - sneaky eh? ;)
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Im not plain stupid, just a special kind of stoopid.
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I totally agree with your findings.
In my previous job I used to organise teams of university students to mystery shop these high street competitors on a regular basis. We then benchmarked the results against main dealer labour rates and parts prices. Especially on more recent models it was frequently found that the national fast fit chains were more expensive than main dealers.
The independent fast fits were almost always cheaper. This is based on national research over the six years I was doing it.
Where you live it's quite easy to work out where to go. About ten years ago when on holiday in the peak district, my exhaust decided to nearly drop off my XR4i. Hadn't a clue where to go so had a brainwave to go to a local pub and ask the blokes in the bar. Bingo! Got directions and went to a place that was cheap, efficient and managed to source, within an hour, an obscure exhaust section. Superb.
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Agree too, local independent suppliers are always better; it's just finding them, and they get loads of referrals of course.
I recommended a friend to DD Tyres in Doncaster, friend phones and gets a quote..."that's not much" he says.... obvious response, "no problem pal, we can charge more if you like".
Always good prices, excellent service and free advice.
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For tyres try getting a quote first from www.mytyres.net
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Wasalso amazed at how many did not want to quote unless they could see the car, even though I knew exactly what it needed, do they really think we are all that foolish!!!
Actually, yes they do. Whether or not you want to question their honesty is up to you (subject to mods), but If you were to be given a quote sight unseen and you agreed to the work, then you would be the first to scream if it turned out that more was needed than quoted for (i.e. if a pipe that looked ok was in fact paper thin.) and it was already in bits with no possibility of putting it back 'as was'. I think most places were being only too reasonable in wanting to see it before quoting, no matter what you said. For this sort of thing theres no substitute for getting it up on a set of ramps and examining with a good lamp. You may have already done this, but you didnt say.
No 1 son is a fitter at an aftermarket fast fit outfit, and I've seen some of the crud he has to put up with through this sort of thing. eg:
-yes, puncture repairs are X pounds but this tyre is too badly damaged to repair, you need a new one to be legal. we will not fit your spare as that is bald, and we will not be liable for putting a bald tyre on your car.
-tyre fitting is free, but we dont fit them in situ just because you have lost the key to your alloys.
-you do indeed need an entire new exhaust system, but that won't help the cracked manifold.
and so on. I'm not going to name where my son works, let alone defend it just because he works there, but I do think places should be given a fair shake. You dont like the prices? well you were'nt forced to pay them (but you could have been...). Instead, you didwhat any normal person would do, and thats shopped around. so what if you got them substantially cheaper elsewhere. not everyone would have the time or inclination to do what you did. their choice. and yours.
WTM
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I understand where youare coming from, but the quote is for an entire system, without a quote I would have been unable to compare prices, They work on the principle that once they have it on the ramp then you will pay whatever to get the work done.
There is actually more to this story, as SWMBO took the car to a three letter fast fit place at the end of last year, they ran it up on the ramp and the little oik who was looking at it started swinging on the exhaust to show how the Cat was knackered, he actually broke a couple of mountings and then wanted over £300 to fit a new system, I told her to drive away and our local garage put the existing system back together and it has been ok since. At the time I called the place and complained, what they didn't know was that I was on first name terms with the area manager as I used them for the transport company I was manager at at the time, he made sure I was compensated for, but I will never use that company again. Alot of them seem to use destructive methods to check on the servicibility of items, then you are stuck with having to get the work done there and then.
As you have said it is my choice, and one I am exercising, what I object to is the obvious mark up in price for what I would consider a worse service then I can get from an independent.
I once had a dud battery fitted at one of these places and when I took the car back for it to be replced the lad who was told to do it did not know how to unbolt it and was trying to lever it out,whilst I was watching, maybe that has tainted my view of them.
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I once had a dud battery fitted at one of these places and when I took the car back for it to be replced the lad who was told to do it did not know how to unbolt it and was trying to lever it out,whilst I was watching, maybe that has tainted my view of them.
This is the reason I would never have any work done at one of these places - even if they were offering free oil & filter change I wouldn't use them. The only work I have done is tyres fitted. I fit my own exhausts (I've seen these characters 'crowbar' new exhausts into position, with all the hangers being stretched).
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Another quick update, Just had another phone round and have managed to get the complete exhaust (Inc Cat) plus 2 own brand tyres (the car only does 6k a year) for £280 fitted, Have never used this fast fit place before so will be interesting to see what the job is like. Have gone for this option as it is cheaper then getting the parts etc and driving to various differnt places, lets see if they can change my ideas on these places!!!!!!
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I cant say they have really changed my mind,But they did do a pretty good job. Just a bit miffed at having to wait an hour before they even touched the car (and it was booked in at a certain time).
One thing that was good to see was the use of a torque wrench to do up the wheel nuts,Most fast fit places dont even own let alone know how to use it!!!!! Just have to wait and see if it all falls off now!!!
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Just paid £12 @ local VX dealer to sort out a tyre that was continually losing pressure. Post investigation it was found punctured.Must admit i thought it would have cost more, didn't even bother with Fast fit.
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How's this for a good one, national fast-fit company deleted. Took my Rover in for an oil and filter change [getting to old and lazy to do it myself these days], well, after about half an hour the lad doing it came and said they could't get the old filter off, so I went over to the car with him and said which way you turning it? clockwise he replied, WRONG I replied, try the other way, and it came straight off. The little grease monkey didn't even know how to get the oil filter off, don't half give you confidence don't it, he could have been working on my brakes.
My only other experiance was with my local main dealer who has now gone bust. My Rover was in for a service and MOT, and while the mechanic had it on the ramp I stood at the door casually out of boredom watching. After a few minutes the service manager came out to me and asked me to go inside and wait as I was "making the mechanic nervous" so I did. I later wrote to the general manager asking if they were fair and open and had nothing to hide, what had the mechanic got to be nervous about me watching him for, as it was not as if I was standing looking over his shoulder questioning him, but yards away at the door. I never got a reply, so took my buisness elsewhere.
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Well just an update - It didn't exactly fall off, but, I did start to get a grounching noise when it went round a left hand bend at about 10mph, I wondered whether it was the wheel bearing going as the fast fit place told me this was on it's way out. So I booked it into my local garage that I use quite often (as does the rest of the family) and they had a look, they found the exhaust heatsheild was loose and seemed to be causing the noise, they checked the bearings and said they were all fine. I'm glad I didn't take the fast fit place up on the offer of the wheel bearings for £90 - Not that I was going to - I trust my local garage far more then the fast fit.
Just as a final note, my local garage did NOT charge for tighting the heat shield or for investigating the noise - how many dealers would have done that!!! Might as well name the garage - if anyone is near Romsey Hants, then try Braishfield Garage, excellent service.
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