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sell it in 4 ltrs on purpose dont they...so you either buy two or a 1ltr top bottle for £8.99
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I agree with all of the above.
The supermarkets sell rubbish oil and it's not even cheap.
There must be a big gap in the market for a motorist shop that sells service and maintenance items very cheaply. I'd be in Halfords all the time if they undercut everyone else, like say Wilkinsons does for many things.
I have been to Halfords now and again, and notice that most people leave empty handed.
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i think halfords needs to decide what they want to specialise in, you go in there and they dont have good stocks of anything in particular , yet they have neon bass boxes ,roof boxes ,universal boy racer back boxes that wont fit nothing , motoring dvd's blah blah blah
so decide if theyre gona sell bikes or car parts or whatever and do it well...dont have a shop full of this and that
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And tents! What's that all about?
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I've had two bad experiences with Halfords brake pads which means I would never use them again, but I've used other Halfords stuff (filters, rad caps etc) with no problems.
I bought a set of Halfords pads for my old Sierra which did 2000 miles before there was a huge "clunk" from the front end when braking for a roundabout. The pedal sunk to the floor. After some frantic pedal pumping, the car stopped with a horrible grinding noise. The pad friction material had fallen off the backing plate, and the latter wrecked the disc.
The second was when I bought a set for a friend's Rover 416 (some years later, and putting the above down to an isolated case), and fitted them for her. The pads went in okay, but there was a barely perceptible amount of up and down freeplay between the pad backing and the brake pad carrier on the caliper. This gave an irritating "click" every time the brakes were applied in reverse, or for the first time afterwards going forwards. I took them back for a full refund, and paid £10 extra for the Ferodo equivalents they had at the time. These fitted perfectly.
Cheers
DP
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Not doing too well with their own brand wipers either. Bought a pair for my sister's Fiesta and found the offside one shedding a metal stiffening spline or something.
Stick to manufacturer's own brand and you cannot go wrong, in my opinion.
And I would never let any of the bozos who work there fit anything into my car. All their car parks seems to be strewn with nasty looking debris most of the time, guaranteed to penetrate one's tyres, given the chance.
Edited by oldgit on 23/04/2008 at 18:34
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I was in Halfords in location deleted last year when a guy bought a wiper blade and asked at the till for someone to fit it for him. The girl radioed the regulation schoolboy assistant who asked if he could fit the item. "Depends if it is front or rear" was the reply...............
Maybe he had only been trained to fit one and not the other.
Not everyone is that thick around here, but a damn good percentage of them are : o
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 23/04/2008 at 23:00
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in places like halfords or any DIY superstore the first question i always ask a salesperson i dont know is 'do you sell left handed screwdrivers' if they have to think about it or even (as has happened a couple of times) they actually go to look ask to speak to someone else
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Halfords hand tools are quite good quality, but some are expensive.
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Fitted a halfords waterpump to a rover 216gti once i went on to do another 30k after that, then sold the car, it was about 30 quid at the time which was reasonable 6 years ago. Cant really fault the quality or value in any way.
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I went to Halfords this evening to get some carburettor spray cleaner for the motorbike. I used to love Halfords 50 years ago when I was in my teens, I spent oodles on bits for my pushbike. Now the place reminds me of the film ?The Time Machine? where H G Wells descends into the underworld of the Morlocks. It?s full of shelf stacking drongoids who shamble about to the monotonous bass beat from Radio Neanderthal coming from the umpteen high tech radios on display. I doubt if any of them could spell carburettor and don?t have a clue as to who or what Sturmey-Archer is or was. (I asked once). I heard two of them talking in the local yoof gruntese and resolved to leave as soon as I located the carb spray. Which I did. Having said that didn?t Auto Express rate Halfords batteries as 2nd and 3rd best in their test? I have one which has lasted 4 years with no problems. I don?t think much of their wiper blades so all my cars have the 99p wiper blades from Wilkos.
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A neighbour of mine a few years back told me not to buy a Halfords battery ever, he brought one for his MkII VW Golf, it barely lasted 3 months!.
The staff there don't seem to know everything either, i tried buying a sidelight bulb for my ZR a couple of months back, the leaflet page was missing so i had to go to the desk & ask, the chap told me the exact no.... when i tried 2 fit the thing it was a totally different type of bulb altogether!!
After quering it again the same bloke insisted it was the correct one, so I walked out empty handed.
Ended up going to the main dealer to but one.
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The sad thing is Halfords seem to have such a monopoly. Charlie Browns was as big locally, 40 years ago, but now seems a husk of its former self, with allegedly, racks of obscure engine oil that most of us would think twice about even for the lawn mower.
Where is the (UK) competition with Halfords for Mobil 1 oil at £46? I rang a local well respected motor factors with branches over much of England. Quoted £50 for 5 litres. I said Halfords did it for £46, he then said they could do it for £40.. Plus VAT... LOL.
Its OK with me as we are always running over to France, but the lack of access (supermarkets) to such a good oil always puzzles me. Maybe its a sign of the times and almost no one does DIY oil changes anymore, leaving Halfords as an `adequate`supplier to a diminishing DIY customer base?
Regards
Edited by oilrag on 24/04/2008 at 08:42
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In terms of staff knowledge, we had excellent service from the child seat specialist in our local branch. Knowledgeable, helpful and very courteous. Fitted several examples into the car, and very clued up about the pros and cons of each. Didn't try to sell us the most expensive either.
I guess it's like anything else - it depends on the branch you deal with, and who's working there at the time. This young lady was brilliant.
For parts, the main problem Halfords have is that to get to my local one, I have to drive past one of the most comprehensively stocked and reasonably priced motor factors that I've ever dealt with.
Cheers
DP
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Bought a bike from them-bike was good-a Peugeot-but there were problems with gear change;I could have fixed it but it was under guarantee so I phoned-could I bring it in the following day when their "specialist" was in-I did and had to show the "specialist"(school leaver) what was wrong and how to fix it but to be fair the parts that were put on as part of the repair were significantly better quality than the originals.
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Halfords have their uses, but I never buy their own brand car parts. One car has a Halfords battery that is years old, but another one I bought (and lost the reciept) died before the three years were up. And that one is cosseted!
Some of their own brand tools are good, and if they still have the big set of feeler gauges, anyone who seriously maintains cars, especially older ones should buy a set. 1.5, 2 and then to at least 30thou in 1 thou steps. Labelled metric, but isn't, and I suspect is of American manufacture (I think the screw holding it together is 1BA or somesuch). Handy for setting endfloat clearances etc.
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Their "professional" socket sets are well made. I couldn't find anything similarly priced that seemed as good in the real world - and as for buying brand-free things of the 'net, well!
IIRC their brake pads were renowned for squeaking on W123 MBs.
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I'd ordered an item for £50 on their website (reserve online and collect in store) - went in to collect it Saturday - there were 4 staff milling around near the right counter - one was with the only other customer in the store, one was checking texts on his mobile and neither of the other two seemed even slightly interested in helping me.
After 3 mins of this I left and bought the item online from somewhere else for £45 incl delivery. Unlikely to go back any time soon!
[But I agree with Mapmaker re: the quality of the 'professional' tool range - good value for money esp if you buy in the sale]
Edited by Marlot on 24/04/2008 at 14:56
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I have a couple of the Professional ratchet handles and they're indestructable. I've even used one to undo wheelbolts (last resort) and it coped fine. The rebuild kits are readily available and inexpensive too. One I particularly like as the direction setting is an up/down slide "switch" on the handle making it near impossible to inadvertently change.
Have various others as well (sockets, spanners, pliers) and no complaints at all. Great quality kit.
Cheers
DP
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Broke one of their sockets once;changed immediately-no query.
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youve got me worried now
i think im gona go to gsf for the cambelt..as least it should be reasonbly fresh stock there
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Bought a bike from Halford's two or three years ago in a move to explore cycling to work. Bit of a cheapie, to be honest, but I wasn't exactly going to ascend Ben Lomond with it, or do some John O'Groats to Land's End time trial...
Next day I set off, having not cycled for years, on the 7-8 mile journey into town. It was a glorious day, and I wondered to myself why I hadn't tried this before now, as I reached Glasgow city centre with relative ease.
Stopped at traffic lights in George Square, right in the centre of town, at the front of a small line of cars. Lights changed to green and I set off, perhaps foolishly standing up for a little extra leverage. To my surprise, I went down and scattered myself and the bike across a box junction in front of rather a lot of people! I remember just thinking that I had to get out the way as quickly as possible, but the first thing I spotted when I looked up was a pedal lying in the middle of the road.
I'm guessing when it was assembled for me the day before, whoever put the pedal on hadn't quite used the necessary force to tighten it properly. Went back the next day and told the young man at the bike counter, asking him to check everything over, can't say he seemed overly concerned!
I suppose I was lucky to get away with skint knees and elbows, could have been much worse had it come off in a line of moving traffic. Would have been nice to get an apology though!
Unfortunately, as mentioned, petrol stations and supermarkets don't really cater for the spares market much these days, and small independent motor shops are no longer common, so I'm stuck with them for bits and pieces.
One thing, though, I wish I could go into their branches without some smarmy get in a suit chasing me to sign-up for a Halford's credit card! Every ruddy time!
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