...been a bad time recently with cars. the wife's Grandis was in for some insurance body work as well as some warranty work and one bit of non-warranty work - replacing a rear lamp unit.
The insurance work seems to have taken as long as they said, but when I pick it up there are scratches and chips over the new rear bumper, so I'll have to flog all the way in again to have it sorted.
The warranty work has now eventually been completed, after pointing out the problems about 4 months ago!!!
But what has got me incensed is the replacement lamp unit. I thought that my other car was expensive but I sort of took it as part of ownership of a BMW. However owning a Grandis makes BMW look cheap!!!!! Now my wife organised this and when i got the bill I asked her how much she had been verbally quoted and she said £1-200. But buy, a piece of plastic that needs to be replaced by Mitsubishi cost me £265 VAT and £42.50 VAT labout making a GRAND TOTAL of £361.32
How can they really justify charging so much for a small piece of plastic? Coupled with the fact that one is supposed to service the car every 9000 miles at a cost of £380 (except for the 54k service which is £740), I told the service guy how I hated owning this car and that I wished that the wife had wanted to buy an S-Max. I told him that all prices were hard to except and that Mitsubishi has lost my custom for good (except where I need to get this car serviced). As and when the wife wants to sell the car I will do so like a shot. Normally I tell her to keep as long as possible, so that I can save my pennies, but not this time.
Why do car manufacturers charge so much? Are they trying to keep their customers? Well it's sad but I am never ever going to buy another Mitsubishi.
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Angelman,
You do NOT need to get your vehicle serviced at the Mitsubishi (even to validate the warranty) if you go to an independent that uses genuine parts then they have to uphold the warranty. I therefore think you should never go back to them again and be subject to this ridiculous pricing.
Carse
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Mitsubishi lose a fortune on cars.. they gotta make some money somewhere.
Spares prices are on my checklist before I buy: so I don't buy Saab or Mitsubishi or.....
madf
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you're not wrong there. I also told the service manager that I wanted him to contact Colt Car Company to tell them that they had lost a customer. I also asked him whether he could take the light off as I didn't want it at that price!! he looked at me in a somewhat strange way!!!
As I was having warranty/insurance work done, I thought for convenience I would do the light at the same time. All I need now is to find a good indy in SW London.
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In my experience (granted others might be different), Mitsubishi UK dealers and HQ are a total waste of time. Next year when it comes to service time again I think I'll go along to the motor factor rather than buy Mitsubishi parts, I'll lose the warranty but thats no big loss.
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In my opinion Mitsubishi make good cars, but their UK spare parts and service pricing policy has always been insanely expensive. I recall buying an airfilter for a Galant around 10-12 years ago - dealer price was about £32 !!
As I have posted on here in the past, it can be cheaper to buy Mitsubishi parts from Australia or New Zealand. Even with air shipping there are big savings. Idle stepper motors are about £400 from Mitsubishi UK, but around £100 in Australia. The same savings can arise with Honda and Subaru parts ordered from overseas. A mate of mine once needed a full carpet for a Toyota Celica (water damage). It was a stupid price from Toyota UK, so he got his sister in Aus to buy one from a dealer there and have it shipped over - cost less than half as much. Much of the excess profit is taken by the UK importer rather than the vehicle manufacturer.
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Was looking into my latest copy of what car and there were some interesting figures for the servicing cost over 3 years. Can't recall exactly as not got the copy here but....
Mitsubishi Grandis 2.0d was about £1300
BMW 530d £900
VW Touran 2.0d £700
Now the Grandis has the same engine as the Touran so I presume that this means that service costs should be about the same!!
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"VW Touran 2.0d £700"
I don't know how they calculate these figures, but with variable servicing it could be a lot less than this over three years. With variable servicing it could be one service after 2 years which is about £200.
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With variable servicing it could be one service after 2 years which is about £200.
I think it's based on 3yrs/36K (although the lease figurs they use are based on 60K).
My Mercedes has done 30K in 3 yrs and only had one service which cost £150, plus the oil which I supplied for about £30. I really only use it for a couple of long motorway trips per month.
However depending on how its used the VW Touran might need a lube service every year, plus a more major service and brake fluid change at 2 yrs. There's your £700. It's also likely to have got through a set of pads ("oh, and the discs need changing these days too sir'') and that's before the teeth sucking about the cambelt change.
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> Much of the excess profit is taken by the UK importer rather than the vehicle manufacturer
I don't understand why the manufacturer would allow this situation. I don't really know what an importer does (beyond the obvious) - isn't there any competition in that market? If Daihatsu's importer (just to pick on a company that has stupidly priced parts) is putting a markup of 500% on everything, why doesn't Daihatsu find someone who will do the job for less? Are the importers indirectly owned by the manufacturers?
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Mitsubishi makes excellent cars! But the high cost of service and spare parts put off many potential buyers.
Fortunately they seldom go wrong. But when they do, it really pinches pockets!
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Cars are now computer printers.
Replacing a cartridge costs almost 50% of total printer cost!
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movilogo,
disagree that Mitsu make excellent cars - adequate is more the word. Nothing exceptional and my 7yo 5 series is so much better made, more comfortable and much nicer to drive.
As for cars being computer printers, does a rear tail lamp really have to be £360? If you go by your logic, lets take 2 rear and 2 front lamps, call them the same price and that is £1400 to start with and that doesn't include the bulbs. Extrapolating like that i would imagine that the car would cost about £100,000, so no cars are not computer printers (and the replacement cartridge in your analogy is to me fuel)
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Traditionally Mitsubishi have made some excellent cars - very reliable, tough and durable. They went a bit wrong with petrol direct injection, and of course many of their latest efforts use a lot of non-Mitsubishi parts.
The retail price of parts bears little comparison with the actual cost of manufacture. Its more a case of the distributor charging what he can 'get away with'. There is no competition for the supply of your tail lamp and the importer probably figures that most will be paid for by insurance companies, so they feel free to slap an extortionate price on the item.
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> 7yo 5 series is so much better made, more comfortable and much nicer to drive.
... and much more expensive to buy new, so that is hardly surprising.
Having said that, Mitsubishi's charging system has always amazed me as well. They wonder why they don't sell many cars in Europe -- they should look at their parts prices.
Reliability-wise (not perceived build, which is a highly subjective and spurious measure anyway) they are up there with the Hondas and Toyotas of this world, but they smack themselves in the mouth with the cost of parts.
Take the humble Lancer -- this should be a big seller. Yes it's the classic Japanese bland lump, but it's a Japanese bland lump that drives well, is impeccably built and with discount is very cheap -- local dealer had 1.6s for £7999 recently brand new.
I'd consider one at that price without hesitation -- but the parts costs would put me off.
Things like the Grandis are still worse, as few of them are sold so no pattern parts easily available either unless you buy them in from abroad.
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... and much more expensive to buy new so that is hardly surprising.
not sure that is necessarily true. I hired an S-Max and the interior is far superior to the Grandis and better than my car and cheaper than both.
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not sure that is necessarily true. I hired an S-Max and the interior is far superior to the Grandis and better than my car and cheaper than both.
That's different -- you said BMW in the first instance.
Mitsubishi are well known for building cars with cheap interiors but bombproof mechanicals. And to be honest that's the way I like it, rather than the great interiors and flaky engines that some companies offer.
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As for cars being computer printers does a rear tail lamp really have to be £360?
Could it be, that with EU regs on rear fog lamps but the UK being RHD so often the rear fog is on a different side, that this lamp is unique to the UK? Therefore the choice may be to have it a horrible price or not have a spare available at all.
Extrapolating like that i would imagine that ogic lets takethe car would cost about £100 000 so no cars are not computer printers
If you built a computer printer from spare parts I would be amazed if it was less expensive (pro rata) than building a car from spares.
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Sorry to disagree here but my experiance of Mitsubishi service is far different from yours.
We have a Shogun that is now over three years old and in that time we have found our Mitsubishi garage in Carnforth to be of the highest standard. The car recently went in for its 59,000 mile service which includes all belts to be changed and since it was three years old and nearly out of warrenty they gave it a end of warrenty check. They replaced two bushes in the front suspension under warrenty no quibbles just done under the warrenty and the service all done with no fuss at all. Also since I live nearly 60 miles from the dealer a courtesy car is always provided again no bother at all.This is my first Mitsubishi and quite frankly after various Fords, Vauxhalls, VW, and Citroens the service recieved from this garage is quite exempalary.
I have no connection with the garage other than a customer just a thought I think that you live in the south of England and I live in the north may-be rural garages treat their customers better over-all certinaly in my experiance owning cars over 30 odd years that seems to be true
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Just had the Jaguar S-Type diesel in for it's 60K service at main dealer. £500.34 including a £95 brake fluid change, which I didn't think too bad, this is the B service so more complex & expensive. Services are every 15K
Just done 4 new tyres though at £266 per Pair..... I can reshod the Porsche all round for not much more than that! So the car has cost me just over £ 1000 this month, no wonder I'm poor.
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"Just had the Jaguar S-Type diesel in for it's 60K service at main dealer. £500.34 including a £95 brake fluid change..."
Ouch! Where are you, Mayfair? When I had my (now sold) S-type 60k serviced in Cambridge earlier this year, even the Jag dealer "only" wanted £380, and in fact the local independent did it for £280, including brake fluid.
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Angelman, worth investing in these for the future? Or to then let you take the other one back to dealer?
tinyurl.com/3a8j9g
--
2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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I wonder what the worst case of importer`mark up` is ?
We have a small 2 stroke hover mower, bought almost new for £75.
A few years on the tiny rubber `bulb squeeze` which substitutes for a choke. started leaking.
Cost at the dealer £30. Its a simple little rubber bulb the size of the end of your thumb. The engines made by a North American company that specialises in chain saw engines.
So light and small it would have gone in letter post.
Just sheer robbery by the importer, they must cost pence to manufacture.
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Whereas I lost a piece of my Thule roof rack, and a replacement was provided totally free of charge. They asked that instead of payment I might like to make a donation to their charity this year - NSPCC. Brilliant idea.
Mind you, the roof racks aren't exactly cheap new ... Well made, though, and defintely a case of 'you get what you pay for'.
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£90 on eBAY and they charge me £265+VAT (£311 inc VAT)
Rather wish you hadn't shown me that as it just makes me madder!!
Edited by Webmaster on 25/10/2007 at 00:30
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actually I got that wrong. £90 plus £10 P+P for the pair ie £100 all in when the dealer was charing £311 for one so presume £622 for a pair.
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£90 on eBAY and they charge me £265+VAT (£311 inc VAT)
It's not realistic to compare the eBay with full retail price.
Maybe these are kosher, but why would somebody happen to have a pair of rear lamps? A lot of stuff on eBay is poor copies (which would make the light cluster illegal to use) and it might not fit well and leak. Or they could just be nicked.
Edited by Webmaster on 25/10/2007 at 00:30
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Ouch! Where are you Mayfair? When I had my (now sold) S-type 60k serviced in Cambridge earlier this year even the Jag dealer "only" wanted £380 and in fact the local independent did it for £280 including brake fluid.
Not Mayfair, Chatham, Kent!
was that a diesel or petrol? I think the extra filter cost on the diesel may make a difference also they use Mobil 1 0-30 which was a fair chunk.
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Good point - petrol. Wanted the driving characteristics over economy, but in the end three litres just wasn't enough.
You might save a bob or three coming up here then next time!
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You might save a bob or three coming up here then next time!
Could very well do as mum lives nnear Wisbech. Not sure Jaguars have got that far into the sticks but Peterborough or Lings Lynn maybe cheaper! Apparently there is a good independant in Ely as well.
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the hyundai and kia parts lists are incredibly high to.
luckily, there is a firm in china who ships parts including panels over to the UK.
The postage is not cheap, but if you buy a lot of stuff - you can save £1000's on the manufacturer price.
I think the 2 bonnets i ordered last time where £46 and £52 quid each plus the shiping.
Hyundai wanted £155 and £169 and that was with 10% trade discount on it.
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and that was with 10% trade discount on it.they give me a miserable 7%,no wonder i always think long and hard before i buy a undi,mind saying that i only get 10% at ford
got a flyer of eurocar parts ,discs and pads for a mk 4 fiesta solid discs,£14.99 + vat all in delivered
im thinking of opening a shop at crazy prices like these
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