cassonova58

A few weeks ago i took my car to a 'reputable', mainstream, (not subaru) dealer for an air con fault. Being paranoid I made a note of the milage before I left, and when i picked it up it had magically clocked up an extra 11 miles. When I confronted the garage they said that they had to give it a run out to clear a suspected air lock. They said that the car went out with the technition and the workshop supervisor and drove the car responsibly. Am i just being paranoid or is 11 miles a lot for an airconitioning fault?? After weeks of refusing to pay a bill for just diagnosing the fault i finally settled up after getting a third knocked off.

What is the best thing to do?? do you take your car to a so called main dealer, where you expect to pay higher prices but expect a better service or do you just use the one man band back street garages who survive on their reputations??

Houghton

iTrader: (1)

Personally I go to the local one man band who's only interested in getting the job done asap and usually, while you wait. Of the few I've been to none have road tested the car.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

I think wherever you go thre's always a chance that this could happen. I've seen cars go out @ main dealers and be driven hard and fast. Bugs the hell out of me.

Once got some free discs and pads fitted to the car after being overtaken in my own car at three figure speeds by a teenage apprentice. They try and justify these "test drives" by explaining "we need to ensure there's no faults" but mine only went in for a new splitter fitting. Why on earth did it need to have a test drive?

I think you have every right to be annoyed but appear to have received an adequate discount on your bill. Guess you'll look elsewhere before using these guys again?

Houghton

iTrader: (1)

Had a Ford main dealer check the air con of a Granada I had. They came back with 'split evaporator'. Went to a local bloke who re-gassed the system and it was fine.

Most main dealers call in an independent air con guy as they don't have the know how in-house.

hedgehog

It is possible that they drove it down to the local air con expert and drove it back, that would account for the 11 miles.

Dead sti3

Youve been fed alot of bollocks!!!!! no reason why your car should have been driven 11 miles to clear a suspect blockage. I also have a J reg cheve camaro V8 imported from america, Ive snapped Air Con Belts / Snapped Air Con Pipes on a Speed hump & lost all my gas and just last month the unit packed in. I took it to no name garage who specialise in Just air conditioning and did not move the car once as it needs to be at idle to check volt drop when the air con is on and only have to rev the car to check belt tention. All these jobs took them no-longer than an 1hr to do.

pslewis

Hedgehog has hit the nail smartly on the head!!

They take it to an AirCon chappie they know who works 5.5miles away - he charges them £50 - they bring it back, having had a nice drive - and charge you £125 + VAT!!

Thats the way of the world ....... get someone else to do the work and get paid for it!!

Pete

matty01

tHE ONLY WAY TO AVOID THIS IS TO EITHER STAY WITH THE CAR AND GO ON THE TEST RUN OOps or take it to a garage where the engineers themselves are owners of scoobys or the like and are less likely to abuse it ,test drives are a common thing in the industry, vans and cars alike, the last thing the manegment want is you to drive off and find a fault ,but i share your concern.....

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

That's f'kin unbelievable mate. I would have gone ape!! I'm glad I take mine to a specialist!

NS04

sti-04!!

Take it to a main dealer

Problem solved

STI Craig

i worked for a aircon company last year while i was off uni......

we used to gass up loads of cars for plp vauxhall warrington
and teck-9 (a pourche tuning company) and u do not have to test drive the car you just check all the temps
and taking it for a run would not free up air lock!

ReggieMY99

i read somewhere recently about an incident in Norway, where an sti owner had taken he's sti into a dealer to get it checked after a run off at a trackday event

when he got the car back from the dealer he noted the brake discs had turned into a blueish color indicating the car had done some heavy breaking

he had a gps unit installed and via a tracker they had calculated that the 18 year old mechanic that had tested the car had done a staggering 112 miles an hour in a a 50 zone

needless to say the young man lost he's drivers license but kept he's job the story tells

makes you wonder..