Slick555

Just had my MY2000 turbo serviced and the 40.000 mile service with cam belt, belt tensioner and front pads replaced has come to over a thousand pounds. Being an engineering by trade I find this taking the pi**.

Whats worse is that the car has developed a noise at speed which I wanted them to investigate. I have been advised the noise may be coming from the gearbox or the middle diff. The reason for going to a main dealer is that I expected superior knowledge in fault finding and they have told me to wait until in becomes worse.... So much for a main dealer. And from what is probably the most expensive dealer in the country.

Really not happy. Suggestions Please for decent Garages in the south that specialise in scoobys

16vmarc

My god thats expensive!!!!

TDT

Which garage?

sKunk

Shouldn't that be around £500 with pads on top?

Did you get an itemised bill?

Slick555

Dealer is bell and *******

Have not picked car up yet. Given that its a national dealer, is there an agreed hourly rate for subura servicing and also spare parts will not differ in price depending on dealer. Even if they did 10 hours at £50 quid then its £500 plus fluids, front pads and cam belt tensioner(£100)

Feel like I'm being shafted

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Was the dealer called "Senior Cummins"?

Alcazar

Slick555

Being such regular I assume you know the dealer?

Either way do people think I'm getting stiffed especially over the fault diagnostics. Have had the car from new and its only done 20k

And recommendations on perhaps who to take it to?

bighead

iTrader: (1)

try cheam motors m8 they are abit cheaper think they are in surrey

or if you are prepare to travel Roger clark motorsport is one of the best

JohnD

iTrader: (5)

You're looking at more like £72/hr so if they took, say 6hrs that's £432! Add £300 for belt and tensioner, £30 for oil and filter, probably another ton for the pads, change brake fluid etc. etc. etc.......... starts to approach that magic grand
Other than maybe the cambelt change, the rest are quite easily done DIY - IF you're that way inclined. Dealers are a VERY expensive way of getting a stamp in the service book!
JohnD

BrynO

Dealers pretty well have a fixed menu price system, the main c/e service is about £450 inc vat, this covers all servicable parts, fluids etc. plus the cam belt around £220, so £670 is what you would expect for that. Pads cost a tad over £100 I think, plus labour at say £40 so £810. Not sure about the tensioner may be extra to the cam belt price?. There must be other things on the job sheet to crack £1k, can you get a full breakdown?.

TDT

I know my dealer charges £50ph labour.

Got to nip over there tomorrow morning to pick up a crate of Stella so I'll ask him for a price.

scoobyboy

full breakdown will be good have you tried cotswolds subaru main dealer but cheaper than bell.

Slick555

Fair do's to the dealer in that in that he phoned me both times.. pads and tensioner asking my approval. Which I granted. And the price quoted was £100 ish for the tensioner. However price for work seems expensive.

As for doing work myself not a problem, Have built and driven 1/4 mile machines for a lot of years... cars and engines/transmissions etc.. Just think I've been nervous of new technology. Does anybody know where to get a proper works manual?

BrynO

Re non Subaru dealer prices, by comparason Roger Clark charge about £310 for equiv to the £450 service at Subaru, cam belt is £160 vs £220. RCM service schedules are not identical to Subaru (like many specialists) so check carefully to be sure you are getting exactly what you need if you choose this route.

Slick555

I'm not to up on scooby engines, but a belt costs a max of £20...

£220 - 160 to change one?

Someone please suggest a decent shop in the southeast?

chris's scooby

I'd suggest Gatwick Subaru, who are a main dealer.

scoobyboy

think the belt is about £100 or there abouts

Slick555

Having dealt with timing gear drives, and timing chains on engines, but not on engines.. I can only go by what I buy identical belts for in the trade.. an £100 for the belt must ibclude the labour?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

If I recall correctly they charge £100+ for the belt. Idlers are £60 each (2 in total) and tensioner is another £100!

Labour time is fairly quikish for the belt, couple of hours absolute maximum (unless they get the timing wrong and have to do it again )

The cheapest high quality belt I can aquire is a OE spec Gates belt for £50. Pity I can't get hold of the Idlers and tensioners any cheaper

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

there is proven in haslemere, main dealer but spot on.
there is Len at www.Subaru4you.co.uk (?) he did my 90k service, big, big one and I wont disclose the price to upset you.
there is spar****ts of botley who will fry in hell before they touch my car again.
there is now a guy called Steve (Quicksprint on here) who does servicing, repairs and full diagnostics, his rates are astonishing and Im sure he would travel by prior arrangement. He has a mobile plug in thingmy-jig that plugs into the wassit down by the steering thing. (over my head )

Andy

ps, unfortunately the rates quoted above dont look like youve been stiffed

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

agreed, main dealer prices are a bit dear and as you say, you've picked about the dearest.

you're not having all the **** taken out of you, just most of it.

i think my dealer is building up for a biggie, i'm responding by supplying as many parts as i can and in the case of brakes, getting them done myself.

most dealers don't mind you supplying oil, plugs, air filters etc and it sure does bring the price down and you still get your stamp.

dear hobby these scoobs

JoeyDeacon

After I read your first post in this thread I wondered if it was Bell & *******

Nice to see that they are still ripping people off.

I bought a MY00 from them and they charged me £150 for the first service (4 years ago). I posted a similar post to yours and found out that it should have been nearer £100 from Cheam Motors. B&C then sent me a questionaire which I filled out, telling them they were a bunch of rip off merchants. I then got a cheque through the post and an apology telling me I had accidentally been over charged. The 6 month service is the most common service they do, they should know the price down to the nearest pence. I then went through the invoice I got for my first service (1000 mile) and it turned out they had overcharged me for that as well. I had damaged one of the exhaust trims on a tree stump and asked them to fit a new one. Little did I know they had charged me for 2 but fitted one.

After my post on here 4 years ago, several other people posted that they too had been overcharged by B&C, accidentally of course.....

I bet if you query it with a quote from somewhere like Cheam Motors they will apologise and tell you that it was an error.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I got a genuine Gates belt for mine from a local factor for £45.

Got it fitted locally for £150, guaranteed 1 year.
Subaru take the p*ss with their prices, not only do they put on silly service intervals compared with cars built in Europe, but their price per hour is theft too

Take rear wheel bearings, which I've recently had done:
Subaru: 2x bearings @ £75 each
6X seals @ £5 each
2x hubnuts @ £7 each
Total..................£194 +VAT
Grand total £227.95

Factored bearings: £54 per side all in VAT inclusive ( top make world renowned)
Total....£108

SAVING:£119.95...........JUST ON TWO BEARINGS.

Add to that I got 'em fitted for £60 the pair, and I'm laughing.

Like I said, Subaru UK are taking the p*ss, and anyone who pays their prices, more fool you!

Alcazar

JoeyDeacon

Just found my original post from 4 years ago :

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...t=bell+Colvill

And here is the follow on when I got the money back from B&C. Don't know why but half the first post has disapeared!

http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthrea...t=bell+Colvill

Ray_li

Having my car serviced next week. Its also a MY00 and its due for its 48 month/60,000 miles service even the car has done 43,500 miles.
full service plus cambelt I was quoted £500

Slick555

Can definately tell Joey has dealt with B&C before as he has got their attitude spot on.
Joey where was your quote from?

And believe it or not, my biggest gripe wasn't about the price of service. I took it there for what I believed would be superior expertise in fault finding. To be told yes we can hear a noise but not sure from where...keep driving it until it gets worse. is not satisfactory.

quicksprint

Cheers Andy ....the thingy ma jig thing you tried to describe is basically plug in diagnostics that reads most cars including scoobs and is OBDII compliant.Totally portable and is capable of giving live readings whilst the car is driven (ideal for those faults that only show up at certain speeds/revs/conditions).

steve

JoeyDeacon

Which quote was that??

Yes I originally bought my car from B&C and they did the 1000 and 7500 mile services. After that I used Cheam Motors until I got rid of the car just before the 2 year service.

When I was there waiting at B&C for them to do the 7500 mile service I watched as a guy in a suit brought in his Elise. As I said previously it was yes sir, no sir to him while I got the impression I was lucky that they were even prepared to look at my car. Plus the range on the alarm had been poor since I picked up the car and both times they hadn't bothered to fix it. When I took it to Cheam Motors they picked up on this straight away and offered to fix it without me even asking them about it.

Also when I test drove the car at B&C originally a farmer came in (in wellies!) asking about commercial vehicles and the salesman looked at him as if he was something on the bottom of his shoe and just replies "No sir" in a really condescending way. Should have realised then what they would be like as soon as they got my money.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

Steve,
be interesting to try a reading from it on my car now

quicksprint

We can try it one day if you like.